How to think of something to draw

Steps

1. 1
   

   Not impressive yet.
   Doodle. Even if you just make squiggles, it will get you into the mindset of putting pencil to paper. Possibly a shape or texture will suggest something to draw, or perhaps the doodling will just serve as a warm-up.
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2. 2
   Warm up with a two or three minute "gesture sketch" of an object or person in sight. This could be a self portrait if you turn on your web cam and look at the screen or set up a mirror. Use an egg timer and try to draw what you see within three minutes. This is a great warm-up because you don't expect it to come out well or finished, but may surprise yourself at how much you can get down in such a short time. It's also easier to get friends to pose for two minute gestures than for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time.
3. 3
   

   What do these colors suggest to you?
   Play with colors. If you draw with colors, try mixing various ones together and see what happens. What do they remind you of? Try palette generating tools online, too^[1][2]. What colors attract or intrigue you? Open a box of colored pencils, pastels, crayons or oil pastels so that you can see all the colors in spectrum order. That can be inspiring all by itself.
4. 4
   Try something easy that you've drawn many times before. Sometimes going back to basics can help you get past a freeze if you're losing confidence in your drawing ability. If you practiced drawing eyes for weeks, draw some eyes and vary them. If you have trouble doing eyes but liked drawing flowers, then draw a flower to begin. Build on that to create confidence to go farther.
5. 5
   Set yourself a challenge. Is there something you always wanted to draw well, but never thought you could? Now might be the time to tackle it and see if your latest attempt is better than the last. Find photo references, look in the mirror for a self portrait or set out the interesting object you always wanted to draw well like a clear glass under a lamp and study it. Sketch it loosely first to establish the basic shape and proportions, also to place it on the page. Then start shading and detailing.
6. 6
   

   Ordinary surroundings?
   Look around. What is in your surroundings right now? Is it special or ordinary? If you want to start with something easy, set up a still life arrangement with objects that are basically cubes, cylinders or spheres - an opaque cup, a box, a book, a tennis ball. Sketch it rapidly and shade it to look three dimensional.
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   Introspect. What is important to you? What do you feel right now? How might that translate into an image?
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   Copy a master drawing or painting. Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" or Leonardo da Vinci's self portrait, one of Turner's landscapes, any painting or drawing by a classical master can be inspiring and lead you to strengthen your skills. Surf online searching on the master's name to see examples of his work or read art history sites to choose a master to draw from. This is a good break if you've been struggling with something like composition or depth and want to understand how great artists of the past achieved their results.
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   Draw from a photograph. If there's nothing around to draw and you have enough still lifes of the junk in your room, go looking for photographs that might be interesting to draw.
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    Draw things you like. Are you especially fond of gardens? Dogs? You may be looking at your subject in detail, so choose something you want to explore.
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    Laundry could either inspire a drawing or clear your mind and get your clothes clean.
    Do something else. If you sit there staring at a page and nothing is coming to mind, find something else to do for a while. Often a change of focus will help with creativity. Paradoxically, washing dishes or house cleaning and chores are good for stimulating creativity. They stretch your left brain organizing things and tidying up, freeing your right brain to daydream and develop an itch to draw. This works for writing too.
12. 12
    Clean and organize your art supplies. Sometimes it's hard to get started if you can't find the materials you need. Handling your art supplies while putting them away in their places will also start giving you ideas of things you can do with them. If you have accumulated a lot of different supplies for different mediums, this may be the block in itself - too much interesting clutter, too many attractive distractions.
    • Supplies may not be inviting or easy to use if they're dirty. Pastels jumbled up in a box all look gray. Watercolor pans may look brown and muddy from other colors mixed into them from the last painting session. Dozens of colored pencils out of order may look like a confusing mess and make it hard for you to choose the exact reddish brown you want.
    • Choose one medium and one surface or sketchbook based on what's most interesting to you while putting the rest away. Organize everything else back where it belongs and settle down to get started.
13. 13
    

    Is there an image in there?
    Read, listen to music, dance, or do another, different creative activity. What shape, color, and texture do these activities have? What picture (concrete or abstract) do they form?
14. 14
    

    Shapes and patterns for free.
    Watch clouds, a fire, or look at the texture on a wall, holes in the ceiling, or stars in the sky. You could draw the clouds themselves or anything suggested by them. What patterns do you think you see?
15. 15
    

    Faces can be real or exaggerated, or a bit of both.
    Try people. Faces come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, of course, but hands, feet, and body shapes can be interesting, too. Try actions, postures, and scenes if you don't feel like doing a portrait.
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    All creatures, great and small.
    Try animals. They can be familiar ones, such as the family cat, bird or dog, or they can be animals in nature.
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    A historical botanical print.
    Try plants. Botanical illustration has a long history. Careful botanical illustration was used for identification and classification before photography became widespread.
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    Consult a book. You can read a book about drawing for ideas and practice subjects, or you can read any unrelated book, fiction or nonfiction, to get your mind moving in a new direction.
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    Sleep on it. Sometimes creative bursts can come in dreams or in the chaotic thoughts and half dreams just as you fall asleep. Keep a notebook by the bed for these ideas. If inspiration does not strike, at least you will be well rested.
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    Draw abstracts, patterns, and shapes. Play with colors and shapes. Remember that Celtic knotwork is also an abstract pattern. If you want something to relax you with carefully rendered intricate details working out elegant border designs and patterns can be fun.
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    Look back through old sketchbooks for ideas. Something you drew a long time ago may not have come out the way you wanted. If you can see what went wrong with it, you're halfway to doing it better. That can be inspiration in itself, reminding you of how much you've grown. You might also find gems you didn't realize had come out so well. Those can be inspiring too.
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    Build habits around your drawing and painting process. Do you always listen to music while painting, or always listen to certain music? Do you like to light a stick of incense before starting? Maybe it would help if you always clear your drafting table and clean your pens before you start. Build up a short, simple ritual of activities you do in the same order every time you start that set conditions a little different from everything else in life. It doesn't matter what you choose to make your environment more art-friendly, it's most important that these things become reminders and you build a habit of drawing whenever those reminders are around.
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    Try daily drawing or daily painting and blog it. Even a two minute gesture sketch every day is a good way to build a habit and keep up a rhythm of creativity. In the busiest life, it's possible to make time for a two or five minute activity. When you post your results online, that becomes a social reward system. Friends will comment on it and usually compliment it. The longer you do this, the better your daily art becomes so the swell of social support will get bigger and bigger.