Easy Drawing Ideas for Kids: 18 Drawings, Step by Step

Give a child a blank sheet and a box of colours and one of two things happens. Either they start immediately and do not stop for an hour, or they stare at the page and say they do not know what to draw.

The second one has almost nothing to do with talent. A blank page is genuinely difficult, even for adults. What children need is not more encouragement. It is a starting shape.

Every drawing below is built from circles, ovals, squares and triangles, in an order. A cat is two circles. A horse is two circles and a rectangle. Once a child sees that, the page stops being frightening.

Eighteen drawings follow, each broken into the shapes it is made from, plus the part most lists leave out entirely: how to actually use the colours in the box.

1. The Foundation: Four Shapes and a Light Hand

Before any of the drawings below, spend one session on shapes alone. It sounds too basic to matter and it makes more difference than anything else on this page.

Ask the child to fill a whole sheet with these, drawn lightly.

•      Circles, several different sizes, drawn in one continuous movement rather than in short strokes

•      Ovals, both standing upright and lying on their side

•      Squares and rectangles, using the edge of the page as a guide for straightness

•      Triangles pointing in four different directions

•      Long curved lines and long straight lines, drawn from the shoulder rather than the fingers

The one habit that changes everything

Draw every construction shape so lightly that you can barely see it. The pencil should feel like it is skimming the paper.

This matters because the first shapes are almost always slightly wrong, and light lines can be nudged, redrawn or erased without leaving a ghost. Pressed hard, they stay on the page forever and the child gives up. Only once the whole drawing is in place should anything be darkened.

Which pencil

An HB for the light construction work, and a 2B for the final darker outlines and any shading. Two pencils are enough. A sharp HB pressed lightly is almost invisible, which is exactly what you want.

2. Drawings for Ages 4 to 7

At this age four to six steps is the limit. Any longer and the child loses the thread before the drawing takes shape. Each of these should take under ten minutes.

Drawing 1: The Fish

The first drawing to teach anyone, because it works on the first attempt.

How to do it

1. Draw a large oval lying on its side, slightly pointed at the left end.

2. At the right end, draw a triangle with its point touching the oval. This is the tail.

3. Draw a curved line down through the oval, about a third of the way from the left, separating the head from the body.

4. Add a dot with a small circle around it for the eye, in the head section.

5. Draw a small curved triangle on the top of the body and another underneath, for fins.

6. Draw rows of small curved lines across the body for scales, following the curve of the back.

Tip: Draw the scales as rows of shallow smiles, all curving the same way. Scales pointing in different directions is the one thing that makes a fish look wrong.

Drawing 2: The Cat Face

Two circles and four straight lines.

How to do it

1. Draw a large circle for the head.

2. Add two triangles sitting on top of the circle, one on each side, for the ears. Their bases should sit on the circle line, not above it.

3. Draw a smaller triangle inside each ear.

4. Draw two ovals for eyes in the upper half of the circle, one eye-width apart.

5. Draw a small triangle pointing downward in the centre for the nose, and a curved W shape below it for the mouth.

6. Add three straight whiskers on each side, spreading outward rather than running parallel.

Tip: Keep the eyes in the upper half of the head, not the middle. Eyes placed centrally make a cat look like an adult human, which is oddly unsettling.

Drawing 3: The Butterfly

Teaches symmetry, which is a useful idea to meet early.

How to do it

1. Draw a long thin oval down the centre of the page. This is the body.

2. Add a small circle at the top for the head, and two curved lines rising from it for antennae, each with a tiny dot at the tip.

3. On the left of the body, draw a large rounded wing shape from the top of the body outward and back.

4. Draw a smaller rounded wing below it, touching the first.

5. Now repeat both wings on the right side, trying to match the size and angle of the left.

6. Decorate both wings with matching circles, dots and curved bands, doing each shape on the left and immediately copying it on the right.

Tip: Work one shape at a time on alternating sides, rather than finishing the whole left wing first. Symmetry is much easier to hold onto that way.

Drawing 4: The Elephant

Looks ambitious to a six-year-old and is three ovals.

How to do it

1. Draw a large oval lying on its side for the body.

2. Draw a smaller circle overlapping the left end of it, sitting slightly higher, for the head.

3. From the bottom left of the head, draw two long curved lines close together, running down and then curling up at the end. This is the trunk.

4. Draw a large rounded shape like a fan on the side of the head for the ear, with a wavy inner line.

5. Add four rectangles below the body for legs, with a small curved line at the bottom of each for the foot.

6. Add a small eye above the trunk, a thin tail with a tuft, and two short curved tusks either side of the trunk.

7. Rub out the line where the head circle overlaps the body oval.

Tip: Rubbing out the overlap lines at the end is what turns a group of shapes into a single animal. It applies to every drawing on this page.

Drawing 5: The Bird on a Branch

Introduces the idea of a drawing having a setting rather than floating in space.

How to do it

1. Draw a straight line across the lower third of the page for the branch, slightly angled.

2. Draw an oval sitting on the branch, tilted so the higher end is at the left.

3. Add a circle overlapping the upper left of the oval for the head.

4. Add a small triangle pointing left for the beak, and a dot for the eye just behind it.

5. Draw a curved wing shape on the side of the body, like a long comma.

6. Draw two or three long pointed shapes at the right end for the tail.

7. Add two small curved feet gripping the branch, and a few short lines off the branch for twigs and leaves.

Tip: Draw the feet wrapping around the branch, not standing flat on top of it. That single detail makes the bird look like it belongs there.

Drawing 6: The House and Garden

The first drawing where several separate objects have to share one page.

How to do it

1. Draw a horizontal line across the lower third of the page. This is the ground.

2. Draw a square sitting on that line, slightly left of centre.

3. Put a triangle on top of the square for the roof, making it slightly wider than the square so it overhangs.

4. Add a rectangle for the door, touching the ground line, and two squares for windows with a cross in each.

5. Draw a small rectangle on the roof for a chimney, angled so it sits at right angles to the roof slope rather than upright.

6. To the right, draw a tree: a tall rectangle for the trunk and a large cloud shape on top.

7. Add a path leading from the door to the bottom of the page, drawn as two lines that get further apart as they come towards you.

8. Fill the rest with grass, a sun in one corner, and two or three birds drawn as small flattened M shapes.

Tip: Make the path widen as it comes towards the viewer. It is the first piece of perspective most children learn and it instantly makes a drawing look more real.

3. Drawings for Ages 8 to 11

Older children can hold a drawing together across ten or twelve steps and start caring about whether things look right. These add structure and proportion without becoming technical.

Drawing 7: The Peacock

The most requested drawing in Indian schools, and entirely built from repeated shapes.

How to do it

1. Draw a teardrop shape in the lower left of the page, with the narrow end pointing up and left. This is the body.

2. Add a small circle at the narrow end for the head, joined by a short curved neck.

3. Add a tiny triangle for the beak, a dot for the eye, and three short lines with dots on top for the crest.

4. From behind the body, draw a large half circle sweeping up and to the right. This is the outer edge of the tail.

5. Draw nine straight lines radiating from the body out to that arc, evenly spaced like the spokes of a fan.

6. At the tip of each line, draw an oval, then a smaller oval inside it, then a dot at the centre. These are the feather eyes.

7. Draw a few short curved lines either side of each shaft to suggest the feather barbs.

8. Fill the space between the shafts with soft colour, and colour the body deep blue.

9. Rub out the construction lines where the tail meets the body.

Tip: Use an odd number of tail feathers, seven or nine. An even number makes the fan look strangely flat and nobody can quite say why.

Drawing 8: The Horse

The classic hard animal, made straightforward by building it from two circles.

How to do it

1. Draw two circles side by side, about one circle's width apart. The left one is the chest, the right one the hindquarters.

2. Join them top and bottom with two curved lines to make the barrel of the body.

3. From the top of the left circle, draw a tapering shape angling up and left for the neck.

4. At the end of the neck, draw a long rectangle angled downward, with the lower end rounded. This is the head and muzzle.

5. Add two small pointed triangles for ears at the top of the head, and a dot for the eye where the head meets the neck.

6. Draw the legs as straight lines first, two from each circle, with a small dot marking the knee or hock joint halfway down.

7. Thicken each leg line into a shape: wide at the top, narrowing sharply below the joint, then a small block for the hoof.

8. Add the mane as a series of flowing lines along the top of the neck and the tail as a sweep from the hindquarters.

9. Rub out the two circles and the straight leg lines.

Tip: Build the legs as lines with joints marked before giving them any thickness. Drawing horse legs as shapes straight away is why most attempts end up looking like a cow.

Drawing 9: The Face in Proportion

The measurements every portrait rests on. Once a child knows these, faces stop looking strange.

How to do it

1. Draw a large oval, slightly narrower at the bottom than the top.

2. Draw a light horizontal line across the exact middle of the oval. This is the eye line. Eyes sit halfway down the head, not near the top.

3. Draw a second horizontal line halfway between the eye line and the bottom of the chin. This is the base of the nose.

4. Draw a third line halfway between the nose line and the chin. This is the mouth.

5. On the eye line, draw five equal spaces across the width of the face. The eyes occupy the second and fourth spaces, leaving exactly one eye-width between them.

6. Draw the ears between the eye line and the nose line, one on each side.

7. Draw the eyebrows a little above the eye line, and the hairline about halfway between the eye line and the top of the head.

8. Add the neck as two lines dropping from just inside the ears, and shoulders spreading outward.

9. Rub out all the guide lines once the features are in place.

Tip: The two rules that fix almost every wrong-looking face: eyes halfway down the head, and exactly one eye-width between them.

Drawing 10: The Bicycle

Circles and straight lines, and a good test of careful observation.

How to do it

1. Draw two circles of exactly the same size, side by side, sitting on an imaginary ground line. Use a compass or trace a bottle cap twice.

2. Draw a smaller circle inside each for the hub, and spokes radiating between the two.

3. From the top of the front wheel hub, draw a line angling back and up. From the rear hub, draw a line angling forward and up. They should nearly meet.

4. Join them to form a triangle, then add a second smaller triangle behind it running back to the rear hub. This is the frame.

5. Draw the seat as a small pointed shape at the top of the rear triangle.

6. Draw the handlebar as a vertical line rising from the front, with a curved bar across the top.

7. Add the pedal crank as a small circle at the bottom of the frame with two short arms.

8. Draw the chain as two lines running from the crank to the rear hub.

Tip: Both wheels must be the same size and must sit on the same ground line. Uneven wheels are the one mistake that cannot be rescued by good colouring.

Drawing 11: The Tree With Real Branches

Replaces the green cloud on a brown stick that most children draw until someone shows them this.

How to do it

1. Draw two lines rising from the ground, closer together at the top, for the trunk. Let the base flare outward where it meets the earth.

2. About a third of the way up, split the trunk into two branches, each thinner than the trunk was.

3. Split each of those branches into two again, thinner still.

4. Repeat once or twice more, so the branches get finer each time and reach outward and upward.

5. Draw irregular cloud-like clumps of leaves around groups of the outer twigs, leaving gaps of sky showing through.

6. Add short vertical lines and curved marks on the trunk for bark texture, following the shape of the trunk.

7. Colour the leaf clumps in two or three greens rather than one, with the darker green underneath each clump.

Tip: Every branch must be thinner than the one it grew from, and the foliage must have gaps in it. Solid foliage is what makes a drawn tree look like a lollipop.

4. Scenery, and the One Rule That Governs It

Scenery is the most requested drawing topic in Indian schools and the one children get most wrong, almost always for the same reason.

Background first, foreground last

Draw the sky, then the distant hills, then the middle ground, then whatever is nearest the viewer. If you draw the hut before the mountains, the mountain line runs straight into it and there is no way to fix it.

Put the horizon a third of the way up

Not halfway. A horizon across the middle splits the page into two equal halves and looks static. A third of the way up gives you a large sky; a third of the way down gives you a large foreground. Either is better than the middle.

Drawing 12: Sunset Over Hills

The best possible use of oil pastels, and forgiving of mistakes.

How to do it

1. Rule a light horizon line one third of the way up the page.

2. Draw a circle for the sun sitting half above and half below the horizon line.

3. Colour the sky first, working in horizontal bands: yellow immediately around the sun, then orange above it, then red, then purple towards the top of the page.

4. Blend each band into the next with a fingertip while the pastel is still fresh, so there are no hard edges.

5. Draw a range of hills along the horizon as a series of overlapping curved humps, and fill them with a single dark colour.

6. Draw a second, nearer range in front, slightly darker and lower.

7. In the foreground, add a few trees as dark silhouettes with no internal detail.

8. Add three or four birds as small flattened M shapes in the sky, smaller towards the horizon.

Tip: Everything in the distance should be lighter and less detailed; everything near should be darker and simpler in silhouette. That contrast alone creates depth.

Drawing 13: The Village Scene

The standard Indian school scenery drawing, done in the right order.

How to do it

1. Rule the horizon a third of the way up.

2. Draw distant mountains along the horizon, pale and simple.

3. Draw a winding path starting narrow at the horizon and widening as it comes towards the bottom of the page.

4. Place a hut to the left of the path in the middle ground: a rectangle with a triangular thatched roof, with the roof overhanging on all sides.

5. Add a second, smaller hut further back and to the right. Smaller and higher on the page means further away.

6. Draw two or three trees, the nearest one largest and lowest on the page.

7. Add fields either side of the path as bands of horizontal lines that get closer together towards the horizon.

8. Add small figures on the path, drawn simply, and a river or well if there is space.

9. Colour the distance in pale blues and greys, and the foreground in stronger greens and browns.

Tip: Objects further away are drawn smaller, higher on the page, paler, and with less detail. Apply all four at once and the scene has depth without any perspective drawing.

Drawing 14: The Boat on the River

Introduces reflections, which look difficult and take two minutes.

How to do it

1. Rule the horizon a third of the way up, and draw a second line below it where the riverbank meets the water.

2. Draw distant trees or buildings along the far bank.

3. Draw a boat on the water: a long shallow curve for the hull, flat along the top.

4. Add a mast as a vertical line and a triangular sail, or a figure with an oar.

5. Directly below the boat, draw the same shape again but upside down and slightly wavy. This is the reflection.

6. Colour the reflection in the same colours as the boat but paler and less defined.

7. Draw a few horizontal broken lines across the water for ripples, longer and further apart near the viewer.

8. Add the sun and its reflection as a broken vertical band of light running from the horizon towards the bottom of the page.

Tip: A reflection sits directly underneath the object, never beside it, and is always paler and wobblier. Those three rules cover every reflection you will ever need to draw.

5. Competition Drawings

School competitions usually set a theme rather than a subject. The entries that do well are the ones a judge can read from three metres away while walking past forty other pages.

Four things decide that, and none of them is fine detail.

•      One dominant image, occupying at least half the page

•      Strong contrast between the main subject and the background

•      Clear empty space around the subject, so it is not fighting for room

•      A colour scheme of three or four colours, not twelve

Drawing 15: Save Water

The most commonly set theme, and usually drawn as a crowded scene when it should be a single image.

How to do it

1. Divide the page vertically down the middle with a light pencil line.

2. On the left half, draw a large tap at the top, with a single drop falling from it.

3. Below the drop on the left, draw green fields, a tree and a full well.

4. On the right half, draw the same landscape but cracked and dry: broken earth drawn as jagged lines, a bare tree, an empty well.

5. Make the drop itself very large, so it becomes the centre of the page rather than a detail.

6. Colour the left side in greens and blues, and the right in browns and ochres.

7. Leave the dividing line invisible in the final drawing, letting the colour change do the work.

8. Add a short slogan in block letters along the bottom, no more than four words.

Tip: A split page showing before and after is the clearest way to make an argument in one image, and it works for almost every environmental theme.

Drawing 16: Clean India

Same principle, different structure.

How to do it

1. Draw a large pair of hands cupped in the centre of the page, taking up half the height.

2. Inside the cupped hands, draw a small clean village or city scene: neat houses, trees, a clear road.

3. Outside the hands, in the corners, draw scattered waste in muted grey.

4. Draw a broom lying diagonally across the lower part of the page, breaking the frame.

5. Colour the scene inside the hands brightly and everything outside them in flat grey.

6. Add the slogan in the top corner in plain block capitals.

7. Outline the hands firmly in a dark pencil so they separate cleanly from the background.

Tip: Colouring only the part of the drawing that carries the message, and leaving the rest grey, directs the eye instantly. It is the single most effective trick in poster drawing.

6. The Same Drawing in Four Different Mediums

Most children are handed a box of colours and never told what each one is actually good at. A peacock drawn in oil pastel and the same peacock in sketch pen look like two different drawings, and one of them will have taken three times as long for a worse result.

Medium	Best for	Avoid using it for	Watch out for
Oil pastels	Skies, sunsets, large backgrounds, blending	Anything smaller than a thumbnail	Smudging; always work top of page downward
Colour pencils	Fine detail, shading, small drawings, faces	Filling a whole A4 background	Takes a long time; keep them sharp
Sketch pens	Bold flat colour, outlines, poster work	Blending or soft shading	Streaks if you go over the same area twice
Poster colour	Full-page backgrounds, competition entries	Small detailed areas	Needs drying time between layers

How to actually use oil pastels

•      Press firmly. Oil pastels used lightly look scratchy and pale, which is how most children use them

•      Lay the lighter colour down first and the darker one over it, never the other way round

•      Blend with a fingertip, a cotton bud or a twist of paper, using small circles

•      Work from the top of the page downward so your hand never rests on finished work

•      Outline last, with a dark pencil or a fine pen, once the pastel is settled

How to actually use colour pencils

•      Build colour in several light layers rather than one heavy one

•      Colour in small overlapping circles, not back-and-forth strokes, which leaves visible lines

•      Keep the pencil sharp. A blunt colour pencil cannot reach the dip in the paper's texture and looks patchy

•      Layer two colours for depth: yellow under orange, blue under green

•      Finish by going over the whole area firmly with a white or light pencil to smooth it, which is called burnishing

How to actually use sketch pens

•      Colour in one direction only, with strokes side by side, not overlapping

•      Do not go back over an area that is still wet, which is what causes dark streaks

•      Do the outline last, once the fill is dry, or the outline bleeds

•      Test on a spare sheet first. Many sketch pens bleed through to the next page

7. Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

These come up again and again, and each has a straightforward remedy.

•      Pressing too hard in pencil, so mistakes cannot be erased. Draw the construction shapes so lightly they are barely visible

•      Drawing too small in one corner of a large sheet. Start by making the main shape at least half the page height

•      Starting with the details rather than the overall shape. Eyes and whiskers come last, never first

•      Leaving the background blank, which makes any drawing look unfinished. Even a single wash of sky colour fixes it

•      Outlining in black before the colouring is done, so the outline gets buried or smudged

•      Using six colours where three would look better

•      Forgetting to rub out the construction shapes, so the animal still has two circles inside it

8. Ten Minutes a Day Beats Two Hours a Week

Drawing improves with frequency rather than duration, and ten minutes is short enough that nobody argues about it. Keep a small sketchbook and rotate through these.

•      Monday: fill a page with circles and ovals, drawn in one movement each

•      Tuesday: draw one object from the room in front of you, looking at it more than at the page

•      Wednesday: copy a drawing you like, then compare the two and find three differences

•      Thursday: draw the same object three times, taking half as long each time

•      Friday: draw something from memory with the object out of sight, then look at it and correct

Date every page. Looking back after three months is the strongest motivation a child is going to get, and far more convincing than anything an adult tells them.

9. A Basic Drawing Kit

You do not need an expensive set. You need a few things that work properly, because blunt pencils and dried-out pens put children off faster than anything else.

•      An HB pencil for construction lines and a 2B for final outlines and shading

•      A soft eraser, and a sharpener that does not snap the lead

•      Oil pastels for skies, backgrounds and anything large

•      Colour pencils for detail, faces and small drawings

•      Sketch pens for bold flat colour and poster work

•      A drawing book with reasonably thick paper, at least 120 gsm

Thin paper is the most common reason a drawing looks poor despite being done well. It buckles under colour, shows through from the reverse, and cannot take blending at all.

Final Thoughts

Nearly every child who says they cannot draw has simply never been shown that a drawing is built from shapes, in an order, starting light.

Start with the four shapes. Draw the construction lines so faintly they barely show. Work background to foreground, light colours to dark, top of the page downward. Rub out the scaffolding at the end. And match the medium to the size of the area rather than using whatever is nearest.

Keep the sessions short enough that they end while the child still wants to carry on. The drawings improve on their own after that.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are some easy drawing ideas for beginners?

Start with subjects built from one or two shapes: a fish, a cat face, a butterfly or an elephant. Each is four to six steps and works on the first attempt, which matters more than the subject itself.

2. How can a child improve at drawing?

Short, frequent practice beats long occasional sessions. Ten minutes a day on shapes and observation will do more than two hours once a week, and dating every page makes the progress visible.

3. Which is better for kids, oil pastels or colour pencils?

Oil pastels for large areas, skies and blending. Colour pencils for fine detail, faces and small drawings. Most children need both, and the common mistake is using pencils to fill a whole background, which takes an hour and still looks patchy.

4. How do I draw scenery step by step?

Rule the horizon a third of the way up the page, then work from the back forward: sky, distant hills, middle ground, foreground last. Anything further away should be smaller, higher, paler and less detailed.

5. What should I draw for a school drawing competition?

One dominant image filling at least half the page, with strong contrast and three or four colours. A split page showing before and after works well for environmental themes. Judges see forty entries quickly, so clarity beats detail.

6. Why do my drawings look flat?

Usually because everything is drawn with the same weight of line and the same level of detail. Make near objects darker, larger and more detailed, and distant objects paler and simpler. That contrast alone creates depth.