Easy things to draw
Sorted by minutes, quickest first. Every idea here is built from circles, ovals and triangles, and none of them is ruined if one part comes out a little wrong.
Curated by 
Willa Fern
What makes a drawing easy?
Not the number of lines. A drawing is easy when it is built from shapes you can already make and when getting one part slightly wrong does not ruin it. A cloud is forgiving, a bicycle is not, and that is the whole difference.
Easy things to draw
- A five pointed star, no lifting
- A raindrop about to fall
- A cloud made of five bumps
- A mug with steam coming off
- An apple with one bite gone
- A crescent moon with craters
- A donut with sprinkles
- An open umbrella
- A bee with striped body
- A cactus in a small pot
- A clock showing any time
- A cupcake in a paper case
- A mountain with a snow cap
- A mushroom with a spotted cap
- A rocket just after lift off
- An ice cream about to drip
- A hedgehog curled into a ball
- A hot air balloon
- A penguin standing still Download PDF
- A whale spouting water
- A cat washing its paw Download PDF
- A flower seen face on Download PDF
- A house with a triangle roof Download PDF
- A rabbit with long ears Download PDF
- A sailboat on flat water Download PDF
- A sun with a crown of triangles Download PDF
- A turtle with a patterned shell Download PDF
- An elephant with a curled trunk Download PDF
- An owl with round eyes
This list has 29 ideas, all ten minutes or less, sorted by time. The raindrop and the five pointed star come first at four minutes each, then the cloud made of five bumps. The longest, at ten minutes, include the cat, the rabbit, the house and the sailboat, which have step sheets to help.
Almost everything here starts from a circle, an oval or a triangle. The apple is a circle with a bite taken out. The sun is a circle and a ring of triangles. The ice cream is a cone with a scoop on top. If a child gets stuck on one, drop to an idea a few minutes shorter rather than pushing through.
Nine of the ideas link to a printable step sheet: the penguin, turtle, elephant, rabbit, cat, sun, flower, house and sailboat. The others need only a pencil and plain paper.
The time is a guide for a child of about seven drawing at a steady pace, with no colouring. Younger children often take longer, and that is fine.
For silly doodles instead, see things to draw when bored. When a child is ready for something with more parts, the step sheets break bigger drawings into stages.