You’ve got a blank page staring back at you. It’s intimidating. Honestly, the pressure to create a masterpiece is usually what kills the vibe before you even pick up a pencil. Most people think they need a muse or a complex setup to start, but the reality is much simpler. You just need a thing to draw easy enough that your brain doesn't short-circuit.
Drawing isn't always about high art. Sometimes it's just about moving the lead across the paper to see what happens. If you’re stuck, you’re likely overthinking it. You're trying to draw a hyper-realistic eye when you should probably just be doodling a coffee mug or a wonky-looking cactus.
The Mental Block Behind "Easy" Drawings
Why do we struggle to find a thing to draw easy when we're bored? It's usually a "perfectionism" problem disguised as a "lack of ideas" problem. We scroll through Instagram or Pinterest and see these incredible digital paintings that took forty hours to complete. Then we look at our cheap ballpoint pen and feel like a failure.
Stop that.
The secret to getting better—and actually enjoying the process—is to lower the stakes. I’ve spent years doodling in the margins of notebooks, and the best stuff always comes when I'm not trying to impress anyone. Scientific studies on "flow states" suggest that when the challenge matches our skill level, we actually enjoy the task more. If you pick something too hard, you get frustrated. If it’s too easy, you get bored. The "sweet spot" is a simple object with just enough detail to keep you focused.
Simple Shapes are Your Best Friend
Everything in the world is basically just a bunch of circles, squares, and triangles mashed together. If you can draw a circle, you can draw an orange. If you can draw a cylinder, you can draw a soda can.
Take a look at your desk right now. There’s probably a lamp, a pair of scissors, or a half-eaten sandwich. These are perfect. They aren't "artistic" in the traditional sense, but they are tangible. Drawing from life, even if it’s just a paperclip, builds your hand-eye coordination way faster than trying to imagine a dragon.
A Thing to Draw Easy: The "Kitchen Sink" Strategy
When my brain feels like mush, I go to the kitchen. It’s a goldmine.
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Start with a single piece of fruit. An apple is a classic for a reason. It’s mostly round, but it has those weird little bumps at the bottom and a stem that gives it character. Don't worry about shading yet. Just try to get the outline right. If the outline looks like a lumpy potato, great. That’s how apples actually look.
Then move to cutlery. A spoon is a fantastic exercise in perspective. The way light hits the curved surface of metal is a trip. You’ll notice that you aren't actually drawing a "spoon"—you’re drawing shapes of light and dark.
Nature is Forgiving
If you’re still looking for a thing to draw easy, go outside or look at a houseplant. Nature doesn't do straight lines. This is a huge relief for beginners. If you draw a person and the nose is two millimeters off, they look like a different person. If you draw a leaf and the edge is a little jagged or the shape is asymmetrical, it just looks like a more realistic leaf.
- Succulents: They are basically just thick triangles arranged in a spiral.
- Clouds: Literally just fluffy blobs. There is no such thing as a "wrong" cloud shape.
- Mountains: Jagged lines with some diagonal shading on one side to show where the sun is hitting.
Why Doodling Icons is the Ultimate Hack
Sometimes even an apple feels like too much work. That's when you pivot to icons. Think about the way emojis are designed. They are the most basic visual representation of an object.
Try drawing a lightbulb. It’s a circle on top of a small square with some squiggly lines inside.
How about a paper plane? It’s just three triangles folded into each other.
These are great because they take about thirty seconds. You can fill a whole page with twenty different "easy" things in ten minutes. This builds momentum.
Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, famously suggests that we often draw what we think an object looks like rather than what we actually see. By choosing simple icons, you bypass that mental struggle and just let your hand move. It's almost meditative.
The Power of the "Blind Contour"
If you’re really feeling bold but still want something easy, try a blind contour drawing. Pick an object—your own hand is the easiest—and draw it without looking at your paper. Not even once.
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Keep your eyes on your hand. Follow every wrinkle and fingernail edge with your eyes while your pen follows the same path on the paper.
The result will look like a mess. It will probably look like a pile of spaghetti. But that’s the point. It detaches the "result" from the "process." It’s a thing to draw easy because there is no way to fail. You aren't supposed to look!
Dealing with the "I Can't Draw" Myth
I hear this constantly. "I can't even draw a straight line."
Newsflash: most professional artists can't draw a perfectly straight line without a ruler. Nor do they want to. Character comes from the wobbles.
Think about the art of David Shrigley or the simplistic style of Adventure Time. These aren't complex, anatomical studies. They are simple shapes with a lot of personality. When you look for a thing to draw easy, you should be looking for something that allows you to express a bit of humor or mood.
Try These When You're Bored:
- A pair of old sneakers. The laces provide a cool messy texture that hides mistakes.
- A slice of pizza. It’s a triangle. Add circles for pepperoni. Easy.
- A cat from behind. It’s basically a pear shape with two triangles for ears and a long curved line for a tail.
- A stack of books. Just a few rectangles stacked at slightly different angles.
The Gear Doesn't Matter (But It Kinda Does)
You don't need a $2,000 iPad Pro. You don't even need a fancy Moleskine. In fact, sometimes a fancy sketchbook makes it harder because you feel like every page has to be "worth" the expensive paper.
Use a napkin. Use the back of a receipt. Use a cheap spiral notebook from the grocery store. When the paper is "garbage," your brain relaxes. You’re more likely to find a thing to draw easy when you aren't worried about wasting a five-dollar sheet of vellum.
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That said, a decent pen makes a difference. I personally love a felt-tip fineliner because it doesn't smudge, but a soft 2B pencil is great if you like the ability to erase your "oopsies."
Moving From Easy to "Easy-ish"
Once you’ve mastered the coffee mug and the pizza slice, you might want a tiny challenge. This is where you add texture.
Instead of just drawing a circle for an orange, add tiny dots all over it to represent the skin.
Instead of a plain mountain, add some cross-hatching (intersecting lines) on the side away from the light.
This doesn't make the drawing "hard," it just adds layers. It’s still a thing to draw easy, but now it has depth.
Focus on One Feature
If you want to draw people but find it too hard, don't draw the whole person. Just draw an eye. Or just draw a nose.
Actually, draw ten noses.
By the time you get to the tenth one, you’ll realize they are just a series of soft curves and shadows.
Actionable Next Steps for Your Sketchbook
Don't wait for inspiration. It’s a flakey friend that never shows up when you need it. Instead, set a timer for five minutes and try this:
- The 5-Object Challenge: Look around the room and pick the five most boring things you see. A remote control, a water bottle, a pillow, a candle, and a shoe.
- Draw them as fast as you can. Don't lift your pen from the paper if you can help it.
- Embrace the ugly. If the shoe looks like a loaf of bread, give it some crust and call it a day.
- Repeat tomorrow.
The goal isn't to create a gallery-ready piece. The goal is to prove to your brain that finding a thing to draw easy is as simple as looking at what's right in front of you. Pick up your pen. Draw the thing. Stop worrying about the rest. Drawing is a muscle; the more you use it on the "easy" stuff, the stronger it gets for the big projects later on.
Start with a simple coffee cup. Draw the steam as three wavy lines. There. You’ve started. Now keep going.