Are your kids wondering what to draw? Get this list of drawing challenges and fun things for kids to draw in the fall!

“Mommy, I’m bored. What should I do?”

“Well, you like drawing. Why don’t you draw something?”

“Okay… But what should I draw?”

Chances are, over the course of some long rainy weekend, you’ve had a similar conversation with your kids. Even the most creative of kids, why, even the most creative of adults, sometime experience difficulty when they have a moment for making art but cannot quickly decide what it is they want to make. I do. And if I cannot do it quickly, the moment passes, and that particular piece of art never comes to life,

That’s why, if you look around, you can find drawing challenges and drawing-a-day journals. They’re great for many purposes. First, they make it so that when you have a moment for making art, you can quickly pick a theme. Second, they inspire you to create art frequently, which is important for honing your artistic skills. Third, they push artists to try new topics and push their boundaries a little bit.

Most of the challenges I’ve seen are for adult artists, though, and I wanted to create something that my children would find inspiring. First, I made a list of year-round challenges of things for kids to draw, and here I added a list of things to draw specifically in the fall.

I plan to continue this tradition in subsequent seasons. In the meantime, what have we got here?

31 Things for Kids to Draw in the Fall

Autumn is the time for bright colours, cozy things and nature exploration. It’s also the time for Harvest Festivals, Thanksgiving and Halloween. I didn’t want to make the list too seasonal since different families celebrate different holidays, but I’ve included some allusions to different festivities.

“Draw a spooky house” and “draw a friendly monster” is for Halloween.

“Draw a turkey” and “draw a recipe for your favourite pie” is for Thanksgiving.

“Draw a harvest moon” is for those who celebrate Moon Festival.

I’ve also included one pretty modern celebration – Inktober. For the month of October, artists are encouraged to create one drawing in ink per day. The tradition only started in October 2009, but I’ve seen a growing trend among artists to join it with at least one ink drawing. I like learning about these little artistic movements, and so I thought that it may be exciting for kids as well.

All told, there are 31 autumn-related drawing topics to explore! You can try doing one drawing a day – or you can pick your favourite topics whenever you feel like drawing. I would love it if you shared your drawings with us, and I will add some of our drawings later as well.

By the way, if you’re looking for all kinds of art projects – painting, sculpting and other crafts

Where to Look for Inspiration?

Going outside with sketchbooks is one of my favourite things to do in the fall. We also like picking leaves, acorns, and chestnuts on our walks and bringing them home, thus there is a “draw something you found in nature” entry.

One year, we cut the leaves we found in half and then tried to draw the other half. That was a fascinating exercise, both in drawing and in nature study.

Looking at beautifully illustrated books is also inspiring. My favourite book that comes to mind when I think about autumn is Flower Fairies of the Autumn. First published in 1920s, this series of books features poems and watercolour illustrations of plants with their guardian fairies. The combination is unusual, but the details in those drawings are amazing! Worth looking at, before or after you decide to “draw a leaf fairy”.

Another book that we all love is Nature Anatomy. It’s a fun book, full of little bits of information about nature and illustrations, made in the format of a nature journal. That book always makes me wish I kept a better nature journal myself!

But most of the drawing prompts are supposed to appeal to the endless supply of a child’s imagination and sense of humour, so they won’t have to go looking far if they decide to “draw a costume for an animal” or to “draw an umbrella they would like”.

If you would like the list of fun things to draw in the fall in full resolution, get it below!