Drawing activities really are the full package — they’re fun, they can be challenging, and they also help develop fine motor skills like pen holding and precision. And even when your little one’s not so little anymore, drawing is still a great means of self-expression.
These 15 simple, but effective, drawing ideas are great for kids of all ages. Blank sheets of paper at the ready!
15 simple but creative drawing ideas for kids
Preschool age
Coloring
Before your kids can start drawing masterpieces, they need to get comfortable wielding a crayon or marker. Coloring pages are the best way to do this, as they also teach kids about shapes and pictures.
We’ve got a big database of printable coloring pages for young kids, featuring dragons, butterflies, beaches, and more!
Drawing with blocks
Introduce your kids to drawing by first giving them solid blocks that they can trace around. This helps them practice holding a marker and gets them used to the concept of drawing shapes.
Box drawing
If you’ve got a giant box lying around (say, from a new dishwasher or TV), plop your child in there with a bunch of colorful markers and let them go to town on a three-dimensional canvas! It doesn’t get much better than being surrounded by four blank walls just waiting to be decorated.
Drawing with yarn
Art is all about thinking outside the box, and this activity proves that drawing doesn’t have to be done with crayons and paper. Saturate a piece of colored yarn in liquid glue, and let your child form it into shapes on a piece of wax paper. You could direct them to make a boat or a person, or whatever abstract shape they discover. When the glue dries, the yarn will be hard and you’ll be able to easily remove it from the paper.
Sure, this drawing activity has scope to get a little messy — but that’s all part of the fun!
Elementary age
Draw while listening to a book
Next time you’re reading to your kids, sit them at the table with paper and colored markers. Let the story inspire their drawing, and encourage them to draw whatever comes to mind. This is a fantastic creative exercise, while also being a helpful focusing technique for fidgeters.
Pro tip: you could also play them an audiobook and buy yourself an hour of quiet time!
Household object drawing
Use a random item to prompt your child’s drawing — just place it on the page and get them to draw whatever they want around it. A paperclip can become the body of a butterfly and coins can serve as flower heads or ice cream scoops.
Sunflowers
If your kids show an interest in art, introduce them to some famous artists for inspiration. Vincent van Gogh is a classic starting point — invite them to create their own sunflower drawings using oil pastels.
Self-portrait
Set your kids in front of a mirror and ask them to draw themselves — or they could do it from memory! Show them the work of famous self-portrait artists, like Van Gogh or Frida Kahlo. Nailing facial features is tough work, so make sure they know it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Here’s a great set of guidelines to help kids draw faces.
Mirror drawing game
This simple game will teach your kids all about symmetry. Draw half a face (or any symmetrical object) on a blank page. Then place a mirror alongside the drawing and it’ll “magically” appear on the blank side of the paper. They can then trace the reflection to help them gain confidence in drawing.
Cool and warm colors
Black and white line drawings have their place, but kids get such a kick from seeing their creation come to life in technicolor! So, rather than just picking whatever hues they like, teach your children about warm and cool colors, and pairings that work well together.
A quick way to do this is by getting them to trace their hand onto a piece of paper. They can decorate and color everything inside the hand with warm colors, but everything outside must be cool colors. Give them a copy of the color wheel for reference if needed.
Middle School Age
Still life drawing
Still life has inspired some of the world’s most famous artists, but it’s really easy to set up. Simply put together a scene — like a bowl of fruit — and ask your kid to draw it. This will force them to really study the subject, its texture, the way the light falls on it, and its relationship to other objects.
It’s incredibly hard to recreate an image on paper, so this one is definitely an exercise in perseverance.
Shoe decoration
This is a fun activity if you’ve got an old pair of white shoes lying around — or just grab some cheap second-hand sneakers from a Goodwill store.
Pick up some fabric markers, and let your kids decorate the shoes however they like. It’s an awesome creative outlet, and a cool way to let their personality shine through. Encourage them to leave no white peeking through at all!
Character tracing
If your child needs to build up their free-drawing skills, why not get them to start by tracing? This will help them understand things like composition, proportion, and shape, and improve their hand stability. Print out pictures of their favorite cartoon characters and put a blank page on top. Get double the exercise by starting with a pencil and then going over it with a dark marker.
Through the keyhole
This drawing task will really stoke your child’s imagination! Ask them to draw a scene that one might see through a keyhole, but don’t give them any more direction. They might draw their bedroom or they might draw a peephole into a whole imaginary world.
Calligraphy
Learning how to do ornate hand-lettering is a fun way to shake things up. Calligraphy is a cool skill to have and will come in handy for making birthday cards or decorating handwritten letters.
Start by learning looping letters, then move on to fancy fonts.
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