20 Cute Drawing Ideas For Beginners (With Images!)

Sometimes, we want to draw, but nothing comes to mind. It happens, and it has happened to me in the past.

And that’s why I wanted to create this article with the best simple and cute drawing ideas. If you’re stuck and out of ideas, you come to the right place.

So, without further ado, here are the best simple and cute drawing ideas for beginner artists to improve their drawing skills!

01. Your Favorite Animal

Sometimes, the easiest way to choose what you should draw is to just think about subjects that you enjoy. 

And what’s better than drawing some cute things, like animals?!

Of course, I could just tell you a specific animal to draw, but there’s just no fun in that. What if my suggestion is exactly that animal you’re the most fearful of?

So, I leave it in your hands, pick your favorite animal.

Go onto the internet and research some reference images to work with. All you have to do now is to open your sketchbook or favorite drawing software and start drawing!

If you’re stuck on what’s your favorite animal, I’ll give you a couple of ideas:

• Monkey
• Bunny
• Lion
• Dolphin
• Shark
• Bear
• Goldfish
• Dog
• Cat

You have more than one favorite animal and just can’t choose one of them? Even better, you can draw all of them, one at a time. This way it will take even longer to run out of ideas again!

02. A Beautiful Rose

Roses are really fun to draw. And the best thing about it is that you can either draw them very realistically or play with their shapes, simplify the roses and draw them in different styles.

You can go online, find different colored roses or even research how other artists draw them.

Alternatively, you can go to a local garden and get inspired.

Or maybe you actually have some roses at home!

Remember that it’s not all about drawing the subject itself. Researching and finding different takes of the same thing are all part of the process and fun as well!

So don’t rush it. Take your time looking at beautiful pictures, create a mood board of roses that make you happy, and then continue the fun with simple drawings of them!

03. The Pale Moon

The Moon is out there every single night, so you’ll never be out of references!

Of course, you don’t need to wait for the night to draw a beautiful moon. With our beloved internet, we can get images of anything at any time of the day.

But hey, why not wait for nighttime, and take some pictures of the moon? That could make the whole activity much more fun if that’s something that interests you.

Take as many pictures as you want, take them at different times of the month, and that way you can catch all of the moon phases!

This way, you can have your own references.

As for drawing the moon, be creative with it! Draw the full moon in a dark background.

Draw each moon phase, next to each other. Draw patterns with them! Create a character and give them a dress full of moons!

You can always take an idea and make it as complex or as simple as you want.

If you just want to draw the moon on a black background and be done with it, that’s good! But, if you’re feeling like taking up a challenge, go for it.

04. The Glowing Sun

If you can draw the moon, you can draw the sun as well.

For this one, I wouldn’t recommend going outside and looking straight at the sun.

However, I’d say for you to look at beautiful pictures filled with sunshine. Landscapes in the country, landscapes in the city, or even sceneries filled with nature.

You can even look up images at different times of the day.

The great thing about drawing sunny artworks is that you can work a lot with colors. Not only that, but you’ll learn a lot about coloring as well.

Another fun thing about drawing the sun is that there are many ways to go about it. You can draw a landscape and represent the sun with a glow in the sky.

However, you can also go with a very cartoony approach: a circle and lines around it. You can even draw a face in the sun if you want to!

You can also be creative with the surrounding lines and try different styles.

Remember that there are always multiple approaches for a single subject. Experiment and use that to your advantage. You never know when you’re going to learn something new about your art style!

05. The Bright Stars

If drawing the moon is something that you enjoy, then stars will follow right behind!

Add some stars to your moon drawings. Create patterns, draw existing constellations and create new ones! Draw your stars in different styles!

Gather up different resources and references and take inspiration from those!

I’ll be leaving here a fun tutorial on how to draw a sky full of stars.

Here’s what you need:

• Black paper;
• White paint (acrylic or gouache);
• Plastic container (it can be some old lid you have at home, cup, or even dish)
• An old toothbrush
• Small piece of cardboard

Cut the black paper into any size you want. A4, A5, or even smaller. Personally, I enjoy small canvas.

Drop some paint into your plastic container. Now pick up the toothbrush and dip it lightly into the paint.

Turn it to the paper and using the small piece of cardboard slide it through the toothbrush’s bristles.

The paint will be splattered randomly through your paper and create a beautiful night sky!

This is the technique I use whenever I want to paint some stars.  It’s a very easy and fun exercise and I highly recommend it!

06. A Palm Tree

I used to draw a lot of palm trees back in the day. Mostly because they were the easiest ones to draw.

Trees have all those tiny little leaves all over the place and it can be a bit overwhelming to figure out how to draw them. Especially for beginner artists.

Palm trees however have very specific shapes. You can easily create shapes out of them.

A long, curved cone with triangles sticking out of it. That’s it. The basic shapes are right there.

On all my courses I motivate my students to approach every subject by finding basic shapes in them. This way drawing becomes a much easier task!

Now you can add more details to it. Some texture to the trunk and actual leaves for the triangles.

But a palm tree can’t be all alone, can it? So why not add an island to it, surrounded by the sea? While you’re at it, add more palm trees to give the first one some company!

Again I recommend you look up some palm trees or simple drawings of them.

There are many different ways to draw this tree and getting some inspiration is always a great help!

07. A Pair Of Cute Eyes

Don’t know about you, but I love drawing eyes. Whenever I start drawing random doodles on a piece of paper or my sketchbook, cute eyes are a must!

You don’t need to draw a whole face, nor the head or the hair. Just the eyes.

Draw them in different sizes and styles. With makeup and eyelashes or without.

Draw them in different colors, even!

This is a good opportunity to improve at drawing eyes and different styles!

08. Your Favorite Character

This one is a bit more complex, compared to all the others above. However, it’s probably my favorite!

You can never go wrong with making fanart of your favorite shows, books, or games. It doesn’t even need to be fanart.

Maybe your favorite character is one of your own. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s an animated character, from real life, or from a book. Draw your favorite character in your style and have fun with it!

You can even draw them in different situations or outfits. It’s your drawing, so you can do whatever you want.

Also, and this goes for every other prompt: you don’t need to make finished drawings with these. It can be just sketches and messy doodles in your sketchbook.

What matters is that you’re having fun and probably even learning something with these drawings!

09. A Spooky (and Cute) Ghost

A lot of times ghosts are portrayed as something creepy and scary. But why not try something different?

Draw a cute ghost instead. You can even think of a backstory for them. Who were they in their past life?

Creating small backstories for the characters you draw will always help you visualize them. This way, you can decide better what kind of accessories they wear, their clothes, colors, and even shapes!

What if this ghost used to be a rich lady? She could be wearing a nice fancy hat, along with ostensive jewelry.

This is just an example, but I highly recommend you to be as creative as you can. It’s much more fun this way!

10. A Potion Bottle

Health potion, mana potion, poison? Any potion goes! I don’t often draw random objects, but small potion flasks are something I turn to a lot when making random doodles.

I don’t know why, but I really like their shapes, and there are so many of them to choose from! I especially like to go with tiny little flasks and then paint them in different colors.

These can be the simplest drawings ever, don’t worry about details and just draw cute things!

Sometimes you can even add random ingredients to them!

You can also design different kinds of labels for your potion drawings and try your hand at typography.

If you have a small bottle at home, take some photos for reference. In different points of view even, so you have different effects.

It’s a great study. Again, you’re learning new things and having fun at the same time!

11. Ice Cream

I love artists that draw food. They always make it look so appetizing!

So why not, try our hand at it as well?

Chocolate, vanilla, cookie dough, any ice cream flavor goes! Draw your favorite and then draw one you don’t like, for example

Express how much you like it in the drawing!

• Add toppings to your drawing.
• Look up different cute bowls online, choose one that you’d like to own, and draw it.
• Draw several ice-cream flavors together.

And so on! Many different cute ideas to draw.

Make a list of your favorite flavors and draw a huge bowl filled with them!

It can be as as extravagant as you want, you’re the one in charge!

Just talking about it, makes me want to both eat some ice cream and draw it.

12. The Clouds Above

I love drawing clouds. I like to draw them really fluffy and round. Even though I don’t draw backgrounds a lot or even landscapes, if I do… there’s gonna be clouds in them!

Go outside and look up at the clouds. Take pictures of them!

Then, sit down and draw them.

You know that old game of looking up at the clouds and guessing what’s their shape?

Why not do that in your beautiful drawings as well? It could be a rabbit, a dragon, a castle, or a spaceship!

Make a game out of it. Find pictures online or take your own. Then sit down and look at each cloud shape. What do they remind you of?

Draw the cloud according to what you just imagined!

Sometimes we can draw things exactly as we see them, but it’s also fun to add some creativity to them. It makes the whole process much more fun and it boosts up our imagination!

13. Your Favorite Fruit!

Just like the first prompt in this article, think about your favorite fruit and draw it. Do you have more than one? Then draw all of them!

You can draw them all together or one beautiful drawing per fruit.

If you have them at home, you can put different pieces of fruit together in a bowl and draw a nice still-life drawing, filled with your favorite fruit! 

Draw those pieces of fruits in different positions and even with different light sources.

Cut the fruit in half and draw it like that. Draw just one slice of fruit or several close to each other.

Just one piece of fruit can look really different depending on how it’s presented. Draw it whole, draw it cut into smaller pieces, draw a fruit salad even!

Have as much fun with these drawings as you can. 🍓

I feel that these kinds of subjects can seem quite boring, but they don’t have to be. Add your own twist to it and draw them in different ways and styles. Use different mediums even!

You’ll see that once you decide to experiment and try new things, these studies aren’t boring anymore.

And if you’re looking for more easy drawing ideas, check out this big list of 20+ Easy Drawing Ideas!

14. A Jar Of Flowers

Flowers, all gathered up together look so beautiful. So why not draw them?

This is one of those great drawing ideas of everyday objects.

Go on Pinterest and look up bouquets of flowers. Save the ones you like the best and draw them!

Better yet, make up your own. Think about your favorite flowers, make a list of them. Now combine them together in your drawings.

Start by combining just two types of flowers, then add more as you go!

The great thing about these prompts is that you don’t need to stop at one drawing, you can make several different drawings out of just one prompt.

There are always so many possibilities, so make lots of different studies and sketches of the things you like the best. You can use your colored pencils on this for that extra soft look!

Again, these don’t need to look finalized. However, if in the end, one of those simple drawings picks your interest, you can clean them up and turn them into a finished illustration!

15. Your Favorite Meal

I must be hungry because here I am with the food again. But seriously, food can be so much fun to draw!

Think about your favorite meal or even just one ingredient from it. Now draw it.

There are just so many dishes out there, so you must have more than one favorite!

Look up images of these dishes and try to replicate them. Have fun drawing the plates and bowls as well. Maybe even the pan the food is cooked on.

If you don’t want to draw your favorite meal, look up dishes that look appealing to you.

Research dishes from other countries and cultures and draw the ones you’d like to try out!

Again, there are many possibilities. If you run out of favorite dishes, look for new ones.

You can even make a challenge out of it!

For me, for example, it’s easier to draw each individual ingredient and if I just want to relax for a bit, that’s what I’ll do.

But if I want to leave my comfort zone for a bit, I’ll try and draw the whole dish!

It’s all up to you, what matters is that you’re having fun.

16. A Round Planet

Circles. This is the kind of shape any beginner artist dreads! It’s really hard to draw a perfect circle, but I’m going to tell you a secret: it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Not only that, but your circles will become better as you draw them. So I think planets are a perfect exercise to improve at this kind of shape!

Planets are mostly round, with round rings around them, sometimes with round craters, and round… you get the idea!

Draw the planets from our solar system or make up your own.

Be as creative as you want. Use different colors for them, maybe even different textures!

17. A Triangular Mountain

Or several mountains even! When you look at pictures, mountains can seem really complex and hard to draw. But they don’t need to be!

Save one of those photos and open them in your software of choice. Now lower its opacity and draw on top of it. What’s the shape that you identify right away?

Yes, triangles! And these aren’t hard to draw, right?

So start with that, draw a triangle. Now maybe add some trees to it. Or snow.

You can even add a small house or clouds around it!

Now you have an adorable drawing of a mountain.

Afterward, you can draw a landscape full of mountains, filled with snow and the sun hiding behind them.

These are mostly just cute ideas that come to me as I write this article. But hopefully, they’ll get your creative juices going, so you feel even more motivated to start drawing!

18. A Campfire

I always liked drawing flames. Their shapes are so random and fun to draw and they also have beautiful colors. All those different hues of orange and yellows!

Maybe because of the cold, but I really like drawing this during the winter.

And you can very easily draw a campfire. Look up some references to help you out. But the flames are always random shapes made out of wavy lines. As for the wood, they’re cylinders!

Again, with very simple shapes, you can draw something really cute.

You can even try out different mediums for this!

If drawing digitally, try different brushes, with different textures and see the effects you can add to the flames.

You can also draw a Cozy fire as a Christmas drawing idea!

On paper, use colored markers, colored pencils, or paint!

For me, color is a must when drawing campfires, so I try to avoid black and white mediums like graphite or charcoal.

But, it’s all up to you! You can create very interesting values and contrasts when drawing fire in black and white and it’s probably a nice exercise for you.

19. Cup of Coffee

A nice cup of coffee goes well both in the summer and winter. And the same goes for drawing one!

This one is very simple. You just need to draw a mug and then add coffee to it!

But we can do so much more than that. First, there are so many different types of mugs and cups. There are also many different types of coffees, so why not play with that?

Look up different mugs on the internet or even draw your favorite mug that you have at home.

Draw different kinds of lattes.

Add cream to them and different toppings! A sweet caramel latte, with cream and caramel sauce.

Maybe a chocolate mocha, with a huge amount of cream and even some marshmallows!

There are so many possibilities, so have fun with it. Be as simple or as complex as you want with your drawings!

20. A Happy Tree

As Bob Ross would say, draw some happy trees! 

There are so many different types of trees to draw and you can even make up your own. You can draw them in a very cartoony style, with very simple shapes, or be more detailed with them.

Look up different artists and see how they draw trees.

Choose the ones you like the best and try to replicate them.

You’ll always learn a lot with your peers!

Draw a tree with a trunk, full of leaves or draw them during the winter, stripped of leaves and full of branches.

Add flowers and fruit to them. It’s your choice.

What’s important is that you enjoy the whole process!

Draw any of these cute things above and improve your drawing skills!

These are quite a lot, and I hope these cute drawing ideas for beginner artists have helped you out on your art journey! 

Have fun and, if you’re still looking for more, here are over 60 drawing ideas for artists of any age.

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