Faced with a blank page, the urge to draw often fades for lack of a subject. A specific brief gets you started far faster than “draw whatever you like”: it gives you a starting point and a constraint, and lets imagination fill in the rest.
Every idea on the wheel says what to draw and how to approach it. The Kids variant is all imagination and simple shapes; the Teens and adults variant offers observation, perspective and shading exercises; the Five-minute challenge variant sets a short constraint, ideal for warming up or taking a breather between tasks.
How to use it
- Get a sheet of paper, a pencil, an eraser and, if you like, felt-tip pens or coloured pencils.
- Choose a variant, spin the wheel and read the brief to the end.
- Set a timer: 5 minutes for the challenges, 20 to 30 minutes for the other ideas.
- Date your drawings and keep them in one sketchbook: repeating an idea a few months later shows how far you have come.
All the options
- One continuous line
- Draw a cat in five minutes without ever lifting the pencil from the paper. It will look odd, and that is the whole point.
- Wrong hand
- Draw a mug with the hand you do not write with. The shakier line often gives a livelier drawing than usual.
- 30 circles
- Draw 30 circles on the page and turn as many as you can into objects: a ball, a clock, a planet, a button. Count your conversions at the end.
- Scribble makeover
- Scribble with your eyes closed for five seconds, then turn the result into a creature, an object or a landscape. Rotate the paper every way until you see something.
- Gesture sketches
- Draw a person, real or from a photo, in 30 seconds, then start again with a new pose, ten times in a row. Only the movement matters, not the details.
- Solid silhouette
- Draw an animal entirely in solid black, with no inner lines, like a shadow puppet. A good silhouette is recognisable without any detail at all.
- Ceiling view
- Draw your desk or table as it would look from the ceiling. Every object becomes a simple shape: rectangle, circle, oval.
- Three shapes only
- Using only triangles, squares and circles, in any size you like, draw a vehicle. No other shape is allowed.
- Object with feelings
- Pick something in the room (a stapler, a lamp, a shoe) and give it eyes, a mouth and a clear emotion: joy, anger or surprise.
- Pen only, no eraser
- Draw your shoe in ballpoint pen, with no pencil and no eraser. Every wrong line stays: build on top of it rather than starting over.
Frequently asked questions
What should I draw when I have no ideas?
Start from an object in front of you, or from a constraint: one line, three shapes, five minutes. A constraint narrows the choice and makes starting far easier.
How can a beginner get better at drawing?
Draw a little every day rather than for hours once a week, and alternate observation (objects, hands, plants) with imagination. Gesture sketches and blind contours train your eye, which everything else builds on.
What materials do I need to start drawing?
An HB pencil for outlines, a softer pencil (2B or 4B) for shading, an eraser and a sketchbook with fairly thick paper. Nothing else is needed for the ideas on this wheel.
What can a 5-year-old draw?
Imaginary subjects and simple shapes: a friendly monster, a mixed-up animal, a shape city, a hand turned into an animal. Then ask them to tell you about the drawing; that is often where the story comes alive.