Random Drawing Generator

Two ways to answer 'what should I draw?'

The generator runs in two modes. Quick ideas hands you a plain list of things to draw, one to twenty at a time, which is what most people want when the sketchbook is open and the pencil is hovering. Full art prompt builds a complete brief out of four parts instead: a subject, something it is doing, a place, and a challenge that changes how you draw it. The same fox can turn into a fox flying a kite on a frozen lake, drawn using only three colours.

Both modes draw from the same pool of subjects, so the categories and difficulty you set apply to either one. Press the button again and again until something makes you want to pick up a pencil. Nothing is stored, nothing repeats on purpose, and no two sessions look the same.

Categories and difficulty, so the idea actually fits

Nine categories cover animals, people and faces, fantasy and magic, nature and outdoors, food and treats, everyday objects, vehicles and places, space and sci-fi, and holidays and seasons. Switch off the ones you are not in the mood for and the random drawing generator only pulls from what is left. A child who only ever wants to draw animals can have an animals-only tool in one click.

Difficulty works the same way. Easy subjects are single objects with simple outlines, the sort of thing a five-year-old can finish happily: a snail, a cupcake, a rocket. Medium subjects have more structure and detail, like a red fox, a windmill or a bowl of noodles. Hard subjects are scenes and poses that ask something of you, such as a harbour full of boats, a hummingbird in flight or a crowd at a bus stop. Leave all three on for a proper mixed bag.

The line under the category chips tells you how many subjects are currently in the pool and how many actions, settings and challenges they can combine with. Even with one category selected, the full prompt mode has tens of thousands of distinct combinations, which is why it rarely repeats itself.

Locking the parts you like

In full prompt mode each of the four parts has a small padlock next to it. Click it and that part stays fixed while everything else rerolls. It is the fastest way to explore one idea properly: lock the subject you love, then spin through settings until one clicks, then lock that too and let the challenge keep changing.

Locks are also useful for a class. A teacher can lock the subject so everyone draws the same thing, and let the setting and the challenge stay random so no two pictures on the wall look alike. Lock the challenge instead and you have a technique lesson, with thirty different subjects all drawn in silhouette or all shaded with crosshatching.

The sketch timer and challenge mode

Underneath the controls is a two, five, ten or twenty minute timer. Pick a length, press Start, and draw until it says pencils down. Short timers are the point rather than a punishment: two minutes forces you to get the shape down and stop fussing over the eyelashes, and a five minute drawing you finished beats a perfect one you abandoned.

The timer keeps counting correctly even if you switch tabs, because it tracks the actual clock rather than counting frames. Pause it if someone needs a pencil sharpened, and Reset puts it back to the full length for the next round. A good warm-up routine is five two-minute sketches in a row, generating a fresh idea between each one.

Copying, sharing and keeping a list

Copy puts whatever is on screen onto your clipboard: a numbered list in quick ideas mode, or the full sentence in prompt mode. Paste it into a lesson plan, a worksheet, a class chat, a shared document or a note on your phone. Teachers often generate twenty ideas, copy them and paste them straight into a handout so a table of children can each pick one.

Recent ideas keeps the last twelve results in view, which stops you losing a prompt you liked when you press the button once too often. It lives in the page only, so copy anything you want to keep before you close the tab. Nothing about what you generate leaves your browser, and there is no account, no sign-up and no limit on how many times you press the button.

Ways to use a drawing idea generator

Artists use it to beat the blank page. Art block is usually not a lack of skill but a lack of a starting point, and having the decision made for you removes the part that stalls. Because the picks are random you end up drawing things you would never have chosen, which is exactly how you find out what you are bad at and get better at it.

Teachers use it as a lesson starter, a settling activity for the first five minutes, a finish-early task, or a daily sketchbook routine where a new prompt goes on the board each morning. It also works well for supply cover, since it needs nothing but a screen and paper. Parents use it on rainy afternoons and long car journeys, and the easy category is safe for young children with no reading required beyond a few words.

It works for drawing games too. Generate one prompt, set the timer to two minutes and have everyone draw it at once, then compare. Or use quick ideas mode to make a deck of prompts for a guess-the-drawing game, one card per idea. For daily art challenges such as sketchbook months, generating a month of prompts at the start and copying them into a list gives you a plan you can actually stick to.