How To Come Up With Creative Drawing Ideas (Patreon)

Hello my creative friends, today I want to share with you some drawing ideas that will keep you going when you’re just a little stuck for inspiration, and how to make generic illustration ideas immediately more creative.

I spent a year drawing 5 days a week and in that time developed some pretty reliable resources for drawing ideas because it’s so daunting to be trying to build an illustration habit only to sit down at a blank page and realise you don’t know where to start! Especially when you want to create fun, engaging illustrations but have no idea how to get there.

Everyone has their own sources of inspiration, and I really recommend that you figure out what inspires you to maintain your art practice. This can simply be being aware of when you have a drawing idea and what made you come up with it, and slowly building a pool of different inspirations that you can go to (because different things can be inspiring in different moods).

Personally, I find the most creative drawing ideas are ones that have character and story to them, and a couple of ways I like to do this is to add an element of personality and an element of interaction.

Think about how you can take a normal character and give them personality by showing their interests. Maybe they have a bug net with them because they’re a bug-catcher, maybe they love strawberries so their clothes and accessories are strawberry themed, or maybe they’re really sporty so they’re in an active pose.

Also think about how you can tell a story with your scene or character by having more than one element interacting with another. It can be as simple as two snails kissing, or maybe a girl is looking closely at a ladybug, or maybe the baker has dropped his bread on the floor because he got spooked by a spider.

Take your basic concept or character and give them an element of personality or interaction (ie. story) and your illustration will immediately become deeper and more creative simply because it tells us so much.

I do this all the time and I think it makes such a difference compared to illustrations where I don’t show personality or story.

^ without a wizard outfit, this would just be an ordinary duck and way less creative and entertaining (though probably still pretty cute!)

So, with that said, here are a few general inspiration sources that will help get you started:

Prompt words

This is definitely my number one source of drawing ideas that rarely fails me. Having a few simple words set aside that I can randomly pull on (whether literally written down somewhere or just floating in my head) takes all the guess-work out of what to draw while still maintaining creative flexibility.

Most days I just think of an animal/character (usually ones I’m fairly familiar with unless I want a challenge), then an accessory to give them, and either an environment or extra character for them to engage with. I don’t have to use all of the words if I don’t want to, the aim is just to get some ideas spinning of what the character could be doing.

You can easily make your own prompt list by writing down lots of characters you might like to draw, then writing down lots of accessories that would give them extra personality or that they could be interacting with, and then some environments or anything else that could spark some ideas for scenes.

I find that lots of my most creative drawing ideas come from prompt words that I’ve then done a few sketches of (to loosen up and get creative juices flowing) before landing on something with character and story.

I’m sure by now you already have a copy of my printable prompt list but I’ll attach it below again just in case.

Pinterest

I mostly use Pinterest to look for photos of things that are cute or beautiful and use those as inspiration for compositions or my own scenes. I have boards of nature inspiration, cute cottages, and fun animals, so sometimes just browsing through those can inspire me to illustrate something. You can also use Pinterest to find other artists you like and see what they’re creating as a starting point for your own ideas.

Feel free to use my boards for inspiration any time: https://www.pinterest.com.au/mimimoo_illustration/

Other artists

I think it’s fair to say that all of us creatives are inspired by other artists and will already have a few in mind that we like, and it can be really powerful to look up to other creatives. Obviously you don’t ever want to copy directly what another artist is doing, but you can certainly take inspiration from aspects of their style, or from their colour palettes, or the way they draw certain things.

It’s also ok though if sometimes seeing other art has the opposite effect and is demotivating - sometimes seeing the kind of art you want to make can be overwhelming if you feel like you’ve got a long way to go (I’ve certainly been there!). Just pay attention to how you feel and if you’re feeling overwhelmed by seeing other art then go back to one of your other inspiration sources and focus on your own progress.

Looking at the world around you

I love going for nature walks and looking closely at all of the little scenes playing out around me. Little ladybugs crossing footpaths, birds meeting in a tree, two daisies reaching out toward each other. There are lots of stories happening outside in nature all the time, and for me I get lots of drawing ideas by going for a walk and looking closely.

So those are the ways that I come up with my illustration ideas. I’d say that most often I use prompt words, and then I think about how I can make my character or scene more creative by giving it personality and story.❤