Drawing ideas for kids: 40 things to draw when they say "I don't know what to draw"

When a kid says "I don't know what to draw," the fix is almost never a better idea. It is a smaller question: draw one thing, and answer one question about it. Below are 40 drawing ideas for kids ages 6 to 13 in five groups, each with a starter question you can ask instead of "what do you want to draw?" In Kubrio's How to draw a character course, a kid ends up with a character sheet they drew themselves.

Why does "draw anything you want" freeze so many kids?

A blank page with no limits is a hard problem. Choosing from everything is harder than choosing from something, so kids who love drawing can still stall when the instruction is "anything."

There is research on how kids use imagination in drawing. In a 2022 study, Veraksa, Gavrilova, and Veraksa gave 206 children aged 6 to 7 a "Complete the Drawing" task: ten cards, each with an unfinished figure, which the children finished in pencil with no erasing. The children who produced the most original and flexible drawings also scored higher on visual-spatial working memory and cognitive flexibility. The study is one sample of one age group and shows a link, not a cause. What it does show is that an unfinished shape is a real way into imagination, which is why every idea below starts with a nudge, not a blank page.

So the rule for this list is simple: give a kid a starting point and one question. They do the rest.

What are 40 drawing ideas for kids?

Each group has eight ideas and one starter question. Your kid can change anything.

Characters (starter question: "What is this one worst at?")

1. A knight who is afraid of the dark.
2. A robot chef with too many arms.
3. A dragon the size of a hamster.
4. A superhero whose power is very small.
5. A pirate who gets seasick.
6. A monster who only eats vegetables.
7. A cat detective.
8. A wizard who keeps losing the wand.

Places (starter question: "Who lives here, and what is their problem?")

9. A treehouse with a secret room.
10. A city built inside a giant shoe.
11. An island shaped like your kid's initial.
12. A bakery on the moon.
13. An underwater school.
14. A castle with a slide instead of stairs.
15. A haunted house where the ghosts are friendly.
16. A map of your own street, with one invented place on it.

Machines (starter question: "What does the big red button do?")

17. A vehicle that can go on land, water, and air.
18. A machine that makes homework disappear (and what goes wrong).
19. A robot that walks the dog.
20. A bike with ten wheels.
21. A backpack with a secret engine.
22. A rocket made from kitchen things.
23. A bridge for a very tall animal.
24. The inside of a clock, with the gears labeled by your kid.

Animals (starter question: "What would it say if it could talk?")

25. A mixed-up animal: the head of one, the body of another.
26. A bird with a very long tail, from the side.
27. A sleepy bear in a very small bed.
28. A fish that lives in the sky.
29. Your pet, drawn as a superhero.
30. A giraffe doing something a giraffe shouldn't.
31. An animal that doesn't exist yet, with a name.
32. A zoo run by the animals.

"What if" drawings (starter question: "And then what happened?")

33. What if shoes could fly?
34. What if the moon were made of cheese, and someone noticed?
35. What if you shrank to the size of an ant for a day?
36. What if your bedroom were upside down?
37. What if animals went to school and kids stayed home?
38. What if it rained something other than water?
39. What if your toys woke up at night?
40. What if you could draw a door anywhere, and it opened?

What do I ask a kid who still won't start?

Ask a question the kid can answer with a shape. "What's the biggest thing in the picture?" gets a circle on the page. "What's behind it?" gets a second. Within a minute there is something to react to, and reacting is easier than inventing.

Other things that work: set a timer for five minutes and call it a warm-up; draw on the back of an envelope instead of nice paper; or take turns, where you draw a line and your kid draws the next. If your kid is the kind to worry that it won't look right, it helps to say what you are looking for: "I want to see what you were thinking," not "that's a good horse."

Resist the urge to hand over a picture to copy. Copying has its place, but a copied drawing answers "what should I draw?" with someone else's idea.

Is it okay if my kid wants to draw the same thing over and over?

Yes. A kid who draws dragons for six months is practicing: shapes, proportions, how a wing attaches. Repeating a subject is how many kids get good at something. The only nudge worth giving is a change of one thing at a time: the same dragon, now in a city, now asleep, now afraid of a mouse.

What can my kid do with a drawing once it's done?

A drawing can stop being a drawing and start being the first page of something. A character your kid likes can star in a four-panel comic strip, or in a longer story in the How to make a comic book course. A place can become the setting for a game. A machine can be the start of an invention.

This matters because kids keep drawing when it leads somewhere. The drawing that goes on the fridge for a week is nice. The drawing that becomes the hero of a story is the one a kid asks to draw again.

If your kid likes the idea of making a character come alive, Animation Studio is where drawings start to move. Kubrio is not the only way to get there: a pencil, paper, and a parent who is curious do most of the work. What Kubrio adds is a crew that asks your kid questions about what they made, without ever drawing it for them.

For more on why drawing is worth the time, see the benefits of drawing for kids, and for the how-to side, browse the free drawing guides.

What to do at home this week

1. Pick one group from the list above and put it on the fridge: a character, a place, a machine, an animal, or a "what if."
2. Choose one idea with your kid, or let them roll a die to pick from the eight.
3. Ask the group's starter question out loud, and wait. Don't fill the silence.
4. Let your kid draw for ten minutes, with whatever is nearby. No erasing speeches.
5. Ask one question about the finished drawing, such as "What is it about to do?" Write the answer on the back.
6. Pick one drawing from the week and turn it into something: a comic strip, a bedtime story, a card for a relative.

FAQ

What are good things to draw for kids who are bored? Short, silly prompts work best: a mixed-up animal, a vehicle with ten wheels, or "what if shoes could fly." Pair the prompt with one question, and set a five-minute timer so it feels like a game, not an assignment.

What are easy drawing ideas for a 6-year-old? Characters and animals made of simple shapes: a dragon the size of a hamster, a cat detective, a sleepy bear. Younger kids do well with "draw it, then tell me about it," because the story they tell is often more interesting than the picture.

How do I help my child draw if they say they are bad at it? Praise the idea, not the likeness, and take away the pressure to match something real. Drawing things that don't exist helps, because there is no right answer to compare against. Skill comes from repetition, and repetition comes from enjoying it.

Should I give my kid drawing prompts, or let them choose? A little of both. Open choice is hard when a kid is stuck, and a prompt with a question gives them a place to begin. Once they have started, let them change the prompt however they like.

Is it okay to use AI to make the drawing for my kid? It's better when the kid draws it. The thinking happens in the choosing, the mistakes, and the fixing. At Kubrio, the AI crew asks questions and helps, but your kid makes the drawing.