Don’t know what to draw? Try one of our free printable drawing prompts for kids, a fun exercise in creativity!

Drawing prompts are unfinished pictures that invite young artists to complete them. They are great in a wide variety of scenarios! We often use them with our children, and they love them.

Benefits of Art Prompts for Kids

1 – Drawing prompts are good boredom busters when children don’t know what to do, either at home or at a restaurant, waiting room, etc. They offer creative prompts for children, who know what they want to do—draw!—but have trouble coming up with an idea. They encourage children to try something new.

For instance, have you ever considered making matryoshka dolls? The prompts will let you make your own designs!

2 – Drawing and doodling in early childhood is an important step to developing the necessary fine motor skills for handwriting. Art prompts provide aid for those children who may feel reluctant to start drawing on their own. 

3 – Drawing prompts for kids are also good for developing critical thinking. They pose questions and problems, and it’s up to children to provide answers. Of course, there is never just one right answer! So children can work with the same drawing prompts again and again.

To emphasize this idea, each of our drawing prompts offers several inspiration ideas. For instance, the one below asks artists to draw what might be on the shelves of a 1) grandma, 2) wizard, 3) mad scientist. You can see our ideas for the grandma’s and the wizard’s cupboards.

4 – Maybe most surprisingly, printable drawing prompts are especially good for encouraging a sense of community and friendship. Making art is usually a solitary activity, but when everyone is working on the same prompt, they can compare ideas and talk them over.

5 – And because the drawing prompts that we created are printable, you can make as many copies for your children as you want! It’s even fun to try the same drawing prompt with the same child every year or so, to see how his or her artistic and analytic skills are progressing.

Everyone in our family tried completing the cupboard prompt. From left to right, top to bottom: my son (7), my husband (39), and my daughter (3).

If all of this sounds like something you would like to try with your children, you can get our pack of free printable prompts at the end of the post!

If you’d like to try something with an educational spin, try Animal Drawing Prompts! Children will discover fun animal facts and create fifteen science-themed pictures, following the printable drawing prompts.

10 Free Drawing Prompts for Kids

In the pack, you will find ten drawing prompts, each with three ideas of how to develop the prompt.

For instance, in the picture below, the prompt with a boy and a girl says, “Imagine hats: 1) for a fashion show 2) that your grandparents wore 3) for a masquerade”. That should give children three different ideas of what to draw – something very fashionable, something from history, and something that would transform these kids to different characters.

Which isn’t to say that one can’t just finish these prompts however they want! Here are a few drawings that my son made – lots of vehicles and even a tornado.

You can use drawing prompts with anything, too. Pencils, crayons, and markers are the most obvious solutions. Paints are entirely possible as well. If possible, print the pictures on heavier paper for that. Play-dough works well for many drawing prompts as well. And you can add coloured paper, fabric, and buttons to create collages as well!

And if you want them to last a very long time, you can laminate them and use dry-erase markers, too.

More Drawing Prompts for Kids

Draw the missing half prompts are popular with my kids – we’ve done insects, flowers, landmarks, and vehicles. They’re also good for explaining the concept of symmetry.

For more activities that combine math and art, try Robot Math. Roll a die and see what kind of robot you will draw. This free printable game challenges children to draw while working on simple geometry – shape drawing and recognition. Monster Math does the same with numbers and monsters!

Keeping a nature journal is a fun side hobby for those who like sketching, drawing, and making art. With this free printable journal, children will start a nature journal, following ten creative challenges. It is a perfect nature STEM activity for kids as it encourages them to go outside, explore nature scientifically, then record their nature finds artistically!

Do your children like puzzles? They can make their own with these simple puzzle drawing prompts!

Even More Drawing Prompts

Here are some free drawing prompts from other blogs!

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. Start a 21-day journal by Childhood 101 and develop a regular journal writing and doodling habit!

Fun and free printable drawing prompts by Picklebums – road-themed, robot-themed, and monster-themed.

Totschooling also has a cute pack of free printable drawing prompts!

Here is a selection of birthday-themed drawing prompts from Artful Parent that will let children decorate printable cakes and cupcakes.

Tinkerlab encourages children to design their characters with a set of free drawing prompts.

Artsy Craftsy Mom has a set of six free printable drawing prompts that feature landscapes.

The Craft Train shows how to use nature items as drawing prompts!