Want to kill some time with a few simple doodles? We’ve got you covered.
We’ve curated a list of 50+ cool things to draw, from easy line drawing templates to nostalgic cartoon characters to draw. All simple, all satisfying.
Whether you need ideas for drawing on paper or things to draw on your hand (fake pen tattoos are still in, right?), scroll through our beginner-friendly list of sketches and choose your aesthetic.
If it’s cute doodle inspo you’re looking for in particular—we’re talking pandas, corgis, and pumpkins— head to our guide 75 Cute Things to Draw for a full list.
Beginner Drawing Basics
Easy Stick Figures to Start Drawing People
About the artist
About the artist
Anna is an Artist at Displate. She is a professional illustrator specializing in comic-style and painterly artwork, with a focus on expressive, emotion-driven visual storytelling. She has contributed to video game and board game productions, including Hard West 2, Gord, Rebirth, and Trial of the Forest, alongside ongoing projects in development. View her portfolio here.
If you’re just getting started, the easiest way to draw people is by practicing stick figures. These simple sketches use basic shapes and simple lines to represent the human body without worrying about details.
Start with a circle for the head and lines for the body, arms, and legs. Stick figures help you understand movement and proportion, making them the perfect foundation for drawing people more realistically later.
A common beginner mistake is drawing the arms and legs too short, which can make the figure look stiff or unnatural. Keeping limbs slightly longer and more balanced instantly makes your stick figures look more natural and “proportional,” even at a simple level.
Once you’re comfortable, try adjusting poses—running, jumping, or waving—to bring your stick figures to life. This step builds confidence before moving on to more detailed characters.
From Stick Figures to Drawing Characters
After mastering stick figures, you can begin to draw characters by adding volume and personality. Start by turning those simple lines into basic shapes like cylinders for arms and rectangles for the torso.
This approach helps transform flat stick figures into more recognizable human forms. As you refine your sketch, you’ll notice how much easier it becomes to draw people with depth and structure.
You can experiment with facial expressions, clothing, and hairstyles to make your characters unique and engaging.
How to Draw Anime Characters the Easy Way
About the artist
About the artist
Zuza is an Artist at Displate. She specializes in stained-glass-inspired illustrations and Art Nouveau designs. Her work focuses on rich details, decorative compositions, and vibrant colors. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys exploring anime-inspired art and developing her personal artistic style. View her portfolio here.
If you enjoy stylized art, learning to draw anime characters is a fun next step. Anime designs still rely on basic shapes, but they emphasize larger eyes, expressive faces, and dynamic poses.
Begin with a simple head shape, then add guidelines for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Even complex-looking anime characters start from simple lines, making them approachable for beginners.
Practicing this style can also improve your ability to draw characters in general, since it teaches exaggeration and expression.
Easy Ways to Draw Animals
Learning to draw animals can be just as simple as drawing people when you break them down into basic shapes. Start with circles and ovals to map out the body of an animal, then connect them with simple lines.
For example, a cat can begin as two circles—one for the head and one for the body—before adding ears, legs, and a tail. This method works for almost any animal, from dogs to birds.
As you practice, you’ll get better at observing real-life forms and translating them into easy sketches.
Drawing Flowers with Simple Lines
About the artist
About the artist
Janusz is a Senior Artist at Displate. He is a comics artist and illustrator with experience spanning comic books, commercial ilustration, storyboarding, and 3D animation. His work includes Hellraiser for Boom! Studios and The Phantom for Egmont Sweden, alongside a range of commercial illustration and 3D animation projects. View his portfolio here.
If you want something relaxing, try drawing flowers using simple lines and repeating shapes. Flowers are great for beginners because they don’t require perfect proportions.
Roses are especially beginner-friendly because they’re built from layered petals rather than exact shapes. Start with a small spiral or curved shape in the center, then gradually add loose petal layers around it. The best part is that roses don’t need to look perfectly symmetrical—slightly uneven lines and imperfect petals actually make them feel more natural and realistic.
Combining flowers with your other sketches—like adding them to scenes with people or animals—can make your drawings feel more complete.
Easy Line Drawings
Grab a blank sheet of paper, a trusty pen, and a touch of focus. These easy line drawings are perfect for when you’re procrastinating and want to doodle something pretty.
1. Satisfying Spiral Waves Drawing
It’s amazing how a few curved lines can create a beautiful image. Create your own rendition of this pattern with whatever colors you choose. But be warned, these easy line drawings are addictive. Seriously: blink and an hour’s gone!
2. Geometric Elephant
via Pinterest
If you’re looking for easy things to draw (that still look cool), this geometric elephant is deceptively simple and highly effective. Just remember your ruler to get those lines straight.
3. Minimalist Pokémon Silhouettes
All of your favorites with none of the effort? That sounds like a win to us. This easy line drawing makes light work of the most famous Pokémon, ensuring everyone can draw them, no matter their artistic skill.
4. Mountain Range Line Drawing
Small Things to Draw
If you’re a fan of the classic Post-It doodle or you prefer to do your art in miniature, this collection of small things to draw should give your micro-sketches some inspiration.
5. Easy Plane Window Doodle
If you’re fuelled by wanderlust and love travelling the globe, this teeny weeny plane window is the perfect idea for your next drawing. Catch flights, not feelings, folks.
6. Video Game Health Hearts
One for the classic video gamers, these simple health hearts couldn’t be simpler to draw (especially if you can get your hands on some grid paper).
7. Among Us Ghost Drawing
Who killed who? Who’s the traitor among us? The popular game “Among Us” has some cool characters. Here’s a ghost character to draw from the game.
8. Social Icons
Social media icons are etched in all of our minds. You can easily doodle them when you’re bored. Another great idea could be to draw simple social icon concepts of your own.
9. Simple Paper Plane Art
One of the quickest small things to draw, this paper plane is not only cute but takes a matter of seconds to sketch.
10. Alien Head Easy Drawing
Anyone remember this little guy from their 2015 e-girl or e-boy days? A random cute thing to draw with just a touch of nostalgia for those of use who had a Tumblr era back in the day…
11. Tiny Globe Doodle
Don’t just stop at one with this quick drawing idea; add an entire solar system to your page, filling it with stars, planets, and other extraterrestrial lifeforms.
12. Simple Hand Signs to Sketch
Hands are notoriously difficult to draw, but practice makes perfect, right? Start with copying a few hand gestures like these and you’ll have mastered the fingers and thumbs in no time.
13. Vacation-Themed Tiny Doodles
Looking for fun stuff to doodle when you feel bored on vacation? Take inspiration from these simple vacation pictures to draw what you see. Carry your journal and a pencil with you to capture every moment.
14. Sun & Waves Simple Drawing
This easy line drawing can be done over and over, across the page, in a bit of a mindfulness exercise. We also think it would make an excellent ankle tattoo.
Your art deserves to be seen—turn your favorite sketches into custom metal prints with Displate!
Beginner Cool Things to Draw
Want to impress your friends with simple but high-quality sketches? These cool things to draw take just minutes but are super clean and effective.
15. Stormtrooper Helmet Sketch
The iconic Stormtrooper helmet makes a timeless but cool idea for Star Wars enthusiasts to draw. And who knows, this could be the start of your very own Star Wars-inspired Displate store.
Feeling adventurous? Sketch one of our designs!
16. Cool Drowning Hand Doodle
This trippy hand drawing feels like a cheat code since most of it is just blank page. If you’re all about simple things to draw that have maximum impact, you’ve got to try this one.
17. Hand Painting Easy Drawing
It’s edgy, it’s clean, and it would make a great notebook or journal cover. Choose your own colors and bring new life to this quirky design.
18. Cool Alien in Space Drawing
When it comes to simple, cute drawings, outer space is always a good theme choice. And you can’t get much simpler than a lone alien with a couple of stars.
19. Easy Planet Drawing
It’s a great idea to learn to draw planets if you’re bored. They’re incredibly easy to sketch: the wobblier, the better!
20. Step-by-step Crystals & Gems Drawings
If you’re a geology nerd (or you just really like sparkly things), these rock crystal drawings are ace. If you’ve got some metallic gel pens lying around, now’s the time to use them.
21. Cool Mosaic Bird
Taking inspiration from nature is a great thing to do when you’re bored. Using simple shapes and bold colors, you can certainly redraw this simple bird in a style of your own.
22. Smiley Face on a Skateboard Doodle
Surely, every sketchbook needs a smiley face on a skateboard, right? Alternatively, a sad moon on a skateboard could look awesome as well.
23. Easy Retro Game Controller Drawing
For the retro gamers among us, why not spend 5 minutes drawing a shape that will transport you back to your childhood?
24. Cool Pathway into Stars Drawing
To prove that cool things can be drawn by total beginners, take a look at this image. All you need is a pen, a ruler, some paper, and a steady hand.
25. Skull Drawing
A skull is the ultimate classic cool doodle—there’s a reason it’s been covering school notebooks for decades. With just a few simple shapes and dark eye sockets, you can create a sketch that instantly looks edgy, bold, and surprisingly detailed.
Simple Cute Drawings
26. Camp Site Drawing
Snowy mountain peaks, a campfire, and nice tree lines—all in a few strokes of a pencil. It’s amazing how easy drawings can have so many details in just a handful of lines.
27. Flower Inside Simple Shapes
Flowers make for easy cute drawings, especially since there are no “wrong answers” when it comes to petals, leaves, and stem shapes.
28. Simple Hello Kitty Cute Drawing
Learn how to draw Hello Kitty with this simple outline. Then, color her in and add some friends too.
29. Cute Baby Groot Pot Plant Drawing
Who wouldn’t want to draw a cute little baby Groot? Look at those eyes… While you’re at it, look at our collection of Marvel posters for more inspiration, too.
Try Sketching a Hyperrealistic Groot
30. Cute Ghost Doodle
Scare away the boredom with this easy ghost drawing. If it’s coming up to Halloween, use this design to kick off a spooky drawing session. Think demons, witches, and werewolves too.
31. Easy Abstract Bird Drawing
If you love adding color to your drawings, this bird could be a great option to sketch. With just a few lines, you can create a modern, abstract take on any bird.
32. Cute Baby Yoda Drawing
If we’re talking about cute drawings, we can’t skip cute Baby Yoda. His big ears were just made for sketching. Cut out some of the lines with this “peeking over the top” design and save yourself some effort.
Find More Baby Yoda Drawing Inspiration
Easy to Draw Cartoon Characters
It’s super rewarding to be able to sketch your favorite characters, but it can be tricky to get them right. Here, we’ve gathered a handful of easy to draw cartoon characters to help you practice.
33. Easy Rick Drawing
From his star-shaped head to his comical facial features, Rick Sanchez could be a satisfying, fun doodle when you’re bored. Just don’t forget to add something space-themed and dangerous in the background of your sketch.
Take Inspiration From Our Otherworldly Posters
34. Draw No Face From Spirited Away
Any fans of Spirited Away would recognize this iconic character straight away. While he is loveable and slightly unnerving, No Face is also painfully easy to draw, with just a few circles and ovals for features.
35. Simple Adventure Time Characters Drawing
Finn, Jake, and BMO make for super easy to draw cartoon characters because they’re just lines and dots! (Don’t tell them we said that). Make sure you have your coloring pencils at the ready, though, because these guys just don’t feel the same in black and white.
Use Our Posters For More Inspo
36. Cute Baby Tom Drawing
Here’s a simple idea of a baby Tom cat from the classic Cartoon Network show Tom and Jerry. To us, this calls for a thought bubble above his head. What’s making Tom mad today?
37. Easy Bart Simpson Art
If you like The Simpsons (though, at this point, who doesn’t), it doesn’t get easier than this Bart Simpson drawing. And the best part is, you don’t even have to struggle with drawing the hands!
Silly Drawings
When abstract paintings and sketches of buildings seem like too much brain power, what you need are silly drawings. Leave your judgement and seriousness at the door, and let loose with these weird and wonderful creative doodles.
38. Funny Eating a Skateboard Drawing
He’s yellow. He’s pear-shaped. And he has a skateboard for a tongue. What’s not to love? In our first silly drawing, embrace the chaos like this guy.
39. Funny Cat Doodle
A cute cat plus six lines equals a masterpiece in dramatic technique and emotion. This has to be the simplest, but most effective, silly drawing on the list.
39. Abstract Funny Faces Line Drawing
There is no “outside the lines” with freeform silly drawings. Make the rules up as you go along, but keep your mind open.
41. Easy Cute Frog Drawing
For equal parts simplicity and whimsy, this cute little frog toting a traffic cone is the perfect sketch to bring a smile to your face.
Sketch Things to Draw
If you know your way around a pack of oil pastels or you’ve dabbled in more complex sketching, here are some fun things to draw that are bound to impress.
42. Lion Arrows Sketch
If you’ve got time, this powerful image offers a great opportunity to practice using geometric shapes and shading grey tones.
43. Hand Gesture
Why not draw some easy hand gestures? This could be a nice way to improve your drawing skills. Who knows, you might even want to fill in the rest of the body with something whacky.
44. Easy Geometric Owl Drawing
For a more seasoned artist, if you’re bored, why not practice drawing this awesome bird. You can get creative with the colors and choose your own. Or, get even more experimental, and customize the mandala on its wing!
45. Koi Fish Sketch
If you want to have a go at hyperrealism, these Koi fish are the perfect beginner, easy drawing. We’d add some bubbles to bring the piece to life too!
46. Melting Eyeball Candle
Are you into all things mystical, magical, and gruesome? If so, this witchcraft-inspired candle sketch has got its eye on you. Literally.
47. Easy Geometric Deer Sketch
Drawing complex images is much easier when all you need to do is use straight lines. A step up from the easy line drawings at the start of this piece, you could use a drawing tablet to help achieve the sharpness of this image.
Need More Drawing I-Dears?
Things to Draw on Your Hand
We’ve all absent-mindedly doodled on the back of our hand in class, right? Here are a handful (pun intended) of cute, small, easy designs that would make excellent temporary tattoos.
48. Easy Tree & Tent Sketch
Here’s a cool little tent and tree drawn with easy lines. You could easily draw an entire campsite with this style by breaking down the elements into basic shapes. If you think this drawing is too easy, perhaps you can add a moon to it.
Sketching and doodling can be a freeform practice. This means you have the freedom to draw whatever comes to mind, this makes the process more fun.
49. Simple Stairway to Heaven Art
This neat little picture of a staircase superimposed into a heart is both abstract and easy to achieve. This is a really cool idea to draw, and you could even add a quote underneath it to finish it off.
50. Cute Ladder Into the Clouds Doodle
Like something out of The Truman Show, this trippy sketch is one that anyone can draw (on anything!).
51. Easy EKG Heartbeat Drawing
This may not be how a heartbeat looks in an electrocardiogram, but it sure is an easy drawing to recreate when you’re bored.
Want More Cool Things to Draw?
Some people draw birds, others draw faces—and some of us draw Stormtroopers and Baby Yoda. The fun thing about drawing is that there are no limits, so the possibilities for cool things to draw are pretty much infinite.
If you’ve fallen in love with one of your creations, why not immortalize it with custom metal prints from Displate? In the meantime, for more drawing inspo, keep up to date with our blog and latest collections.
