Aesthetic Things to Draw – Artistic Inspirations for Your Sketchpad
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Drawing is often viewed as one of the fundamental skills for creating art, however, it can also be used by itself to create striking artworks. Anything can be drawn aesthetically, from objects you see every day to fantastical creatures from fairy tales. Below, we have listed a few aesthetic drawing ideas that you can use to inspire your next piece!
Table of Contents
- 1 How to Draw Aesthetic Drawings
- 2 Easy Aesthetic Things to Draw
- 3 More Challenging Aesthetic Things to Draw
- 4 Frequently Asked Questions
How to Draw Aesthetic Drawings
Before we dive into our list of aesthetic drawing ideas, it helps to understand the characteristics that make a drawing visually pleasing. While every piece is unique, there are some stylistic choices that make your drawing aesthetic. Beyond creating a piece that is visually pleasing, aesthetic drawings also try to convey specific moods and feelings to the viewer. These can include emotions, feelings of religious faith, interest, memories, curiosity, or even identification. Aside from creatively conveying meaning and emotion to the viewer, aesthetics in art serves to bring overall harmony to the piece using color, composition, and even texture.
The subjects within aesthetic drawings do not have to be an accurate representation, rather they can convey a sense of the subject.
Color
Color is one of the most important aspects of your drawing as it sets the tone and balance of your piece. Color not only affects the feeling and mood of your piece but can also be used to create shadows and light, depth, and point of view. The color palette of your drawing can make it light and bright or dark and moody, however, combining the wrong colors together can also make it feel overwhelming, disjointed, or muddy. Many artists use color theory and a color model or wheel to guide them on which colors complement each other and are good to use together.
The temperature and values of your chosen colors are also important for the overall aesthetic of your drawing. Using cooler and less saturated colors you can create a cold, crisp, gloomy, or even surreal environment, while using warmer and more saturated colors can produce a vibrant, heavy, bright, or elaborate one. Warm and cool colors also help in creating depth and weight within your drawing, as objects drawn using cooler colors will appear to be receding into the background of your drawing and those drawn in warmer colors will appear to move towards the viewer.
Composition
Aside from color, composition is the most impactful aspect of your drawing. In art, composition involves arranging the artistic elements of your drawing in a way that is unifying and balancing. The composition of your drawing not only gives it structure and proportion, but also affects how the subject of your drawing is perceived by the viewer. Composition is used to guide the eye of the viewer to the focus point of the drawing and comprises multiple elements including balance, movement, unity, contrast, focus, rhythm, and proportion.
All these elements work together in your drawing to produce something that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also conveys additional goals such as your meaning and message.
Texture
Lastly, texture is also an element that you can employ to make your drawings more aesthetic. Like composition and color, texture is often used in art to guide the viewer through the piece. By incorporating different textures, you can either call attention to a certain area or deemphasize them. Texture also plays a key role in adding three-dimensionality to your piece. Many artists feel like adding texture to their pieces is only relevant for paintings and sculptures, however, there are many benefits to including texture in your drawing and many drawing mediums can be texturized effectively. Mediums such as pastel and charcoal can be layered to produce areas of rough or smooth grains, and different inks can be used within your drawing to create various textures.
There are two main ways to create texture within your drawing: implied texture and actual texture. Implied texture, or visual mimicry, is when the textures in your drawing are made by manipulating the medium to create the illusion of texture in the drawing that mimics the real-life subject. While your drawing of a gravel road may appear to look rough, this is an illusion created using shading and the drawing surface itself has not been physically altered. Although it is not as common, you can also use actual texture or real texture in your drawings by playing with the actual surface texture of the drawing itself. This can be done through layering different mediums or using additional elements like sand in your drawing.
Easy Aesthetic Things to Draw
Now that you have an idea of what makes drawings aesthetic, you can explore our list of aesthetic things to draw that are beginner-friendly but can also have a big impact. You can challenge yourself by drawing realistic pieces or have fun with simple line drawings that help you understand the shape better. You can also make your drawings highly stylized and experiment with different colors, shapes, and adding other mediums such as watercolors or inks.
Abstract Drawings
Abstract drawings are filled with geometric shapes and patterns and are some of the easiest aesthetic drawings to create. Abstract drawings can give you more creative freedom as you are not attempting to accurately portray your subject. Simply start with a vague shape or idea and let your imagination do the rest. Filling an entire page with a mesmerizing pattern is one of the easiest abstract drawings you can create and usually only requires simple lines that are repeated in a sequence.
If you really want to let your creativity take over, you can use your pencil and your drawing surface with random lines that cross each other, and then fill in each shape this creates with a different color.
Shape Drawings
You can also focus on drawing the shapes themselves in different aesthetically pleasing ways. While you might think that drawings of shapes are too simple, they can be really interesting to look at. Drawing simple shapes allows you to focus on the lines and shading that make them aesthetically pleasing. You can draw individual shapes like triangles, hearts, squares, stars, and diamonds, or use your shapes to create patterns. You can also use shapes as part of a larger drawing by creating little pictures inside of them. Try drawing a circle and create a snippet of a scene inside of it or draw an oval to recreate the view out an airplane window.
Mandalas
Mandalas are another form of abstract drawing that creates a very aesthetic drawing. Although the creative process for creating a mandala is pretty simple, it does require some practice and know-how. The word “mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle” and consists of creating a pattern of symbols and shapes in a circular formation.
There are many guides online that can get you started with drawing your own mandalas and creating mandalas can not only make aesthetic drawings but can also be a great tool for meditation.
Fancy Lettering
Drawing fancy letters is also a fun and easy way to create something aesthetic. You can practice a particular way of lettering, such as calligraphy, or you can just draw your letter and add flowers, vines, or any other adornment you can think of. It is better to choose one side of your letter to decorate as the rest of the letter can get lost in your designs and you might not be able to read it afterward. You can really get creative using different themes for your letters from basic plants and animals to more abstract design concepts like sadness and love.
The Sky and Space
If you are looking for aesthetic drawing ideas, try looking up. The sky and space above us hold lots of things that can inspire your next drawing. You can have a look out your window and draw what you see every day or easily get some cool and colorful reference pictures of the vastness of space.
Sky Drawings
The sky holds many things that make for cool and aesthetic subjects that are easy to draw. Clouds may seem simple to draw but actually come in a wide variety of shapes and densities, which makes them interesting objects to draw. You can also experiment with drawing clouds using many different art styles, from fluffy mounds to abstract swirls. You can try drawing the sky at different times of the day. From sunrise to midnight, every part of the day can make for an aesthetic drawing.
Galaxy and Space Drawings
You can easily create a simple galaxy using only a few colors such as black, blue, purple, and white. Drawing galaxies and space is great for practicing your blending skills as you transition between the colors to create a gradient. You can add different stars, moons, comets, and planets, or even try creating your own colorful planets. If you do not want to draw your own galaxy, you can try drawing individual planets and stars on black paper to really give your drawing extra dimension and create the illusion of it being surrounded by the dark expanse of space.
Don’t forget to add your own rockets or satellites or even something silly like a cat astronaut and an alien ship.
Plants
Nature is all around you and plants can provide the perfect inspiration for your next aesthetic drawing. The wide variety of trees, fruit, flowers, and vegetables found in nature and in your backyard make great subjects.
Tree Drawings
From tropical palm trees to haunting willows, there is a tree for every aesthetic. Try to sketch a tree you see every day by starting with outlining its basic shape and then filling in the finer details. If you are having difficulty drawing your tree, draw the trunk first, followed by the basic outline of its canopy, and then fill in the larger branches. Think of the leaves as large clumps, especially when recreating the tree from a distance, and do not outline every leaf.
Instead, add the majority of the details at the border where leaves meet the sky, as this is where their shape is most defined.
Try drawing a few mangrove trees on the beach, add a boat, a few beach towels, and an umbrella and you have a quick and easy beach scene. Or you could try your hand at a forest scene. It can be a misty cabin in the woods or a cozy campfire with a couple of tents. When drawing your scene, try varying the thickness of the tree trunks by having wider trunks towards the front and thinner tree trunks towards the back. This will create the illusion of a dense forest with depth.
Fruit and Vegetable Drawings
Whether you are drawing traditional bowls of fruit or getting inspired by your garden patch at home, produce can make for interesting drawings. Peaches, bananas, carrots, or even drawing a simple apple can all be aesthetically pleasing. You can draw a cute pumpkin patch or a basket of blueberries on a picnic blanket. Mushrooms are also great to draw and come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Flower Drawings
It is easy to see how flowers can make beautiful and aesthetic drawings. You can draw anything from a single rose to a field of daisies, a simple line art of a pot on your patio, or fill up the whole page with blooms. Flowers are a fun and versatile drawing subject because they’re so varied in shape, size, and color. Pick your favorite flower to sketch, or you could go outside and draw the first flower you see for an extra challenge.
Sunflowers, dandelions, clovers, and lilies are easy and striking flowers to try your hand at drawing.
Succulents and Other Plants
There are almost endless plants that you can use to inspire your next aesthetic drawing. Each plant has its own unique leaves and flowers, which makes it really fun to draw them. Ferns and succulent plants like cacti are great beginner-friendly plants to draw as they are made of very basic shapes and simple colors.
Animals
Just like plants, there are an endless variety of animals that you can make into an aesthetic drawing. Birds in the sky, fish in the sea, wild animals, and even your very own pet can all be great things to draw.
Bird Drawings
Birds make great aesthetic drawings and can be fun for beginner artists as they all share a basic shape. Some popular birds to draw include eagles, owls, robins, swallows, and seagulls. If you want more of a challenge, you can also draw more colorful birds like macaws and peacocks, or ones with subtle shading and texture found in birds like hawks and hummingbirds.
You can either draw the whole bird or just try drawing some feathers.
Animal Drawings in Nature
You can also look to the different animals found in nature for inspiration for your drawings. Some popular wild animals to draw include big cats like lions and tigers, canines such as wolves and coyotes, forest animals like bears or squirrels, cute animals like llamas or pandas, reptiles like snakes and lizards, and even more unconventional animals such as skunks and bats.
Farm Animal Drawings
It is not just wild animals that make great drawings, but domestic animals too. There is a large variety of farm animals to choose from like sheep, horses, ducks, chickens, and pigs. You can draw just the animal or a dynamic depiction of their lives on the farm.
Drawings of Pets
It is often said that art imitates life, so why not take some familiar inspiration from around you and immortalize your own pets in a portrait. Dogs can make for very strong aesthetic drawings, and you can draw puppies getting into all kinds of trouble. Cats are always pictured in cute and fun positions, but they can also be very majestic animals, which makes them the perfect subjects for aesthetic drawings. You can also draw kittens playing with some yarn or stalking a butterfly through the grass.
Other pets like hamsters, rats, and bunnies also make great drawings.
Insect Drawings
The beautiful variety of shapes and colors of insects can make them aesthetic if slightly unconventional drawings. Popular insects to draw include butterflies, bees, dragonflies, moths, and caterpillars. While not technically insects, arachnids like scorpions and spiders with their spider webs are also interesting subjects for your drawings.
Marine Life Drawings
You can also include some adorable sea animals in your drawings. Marine creatures you can draw include a shark, sea turtle, octopus, whale, eel, lobster, dolphin, or even a whale. Jellyfish are also really interesting to draw as they come in a variety of subtle colors, and it can be fun to create the illusion of transparency. Aside from the marine life themselves, different types of shells and even seaweed can make very aesthetic drawings.
Do not forget about semi-aquatic animals like penguins, seals, otters, and cute capybaras.
Mountain Drawings
Mountains are a key part of any landscape and are used to give them depth and scale. From snow-capped mountains, fiery volcanoes, and desert canyons, to peaks disappearing into the night-time sky, mountains make for very aesthetic drawings.
Everyday Objects
Even everyday objects can be drawn aesthetically. Get inspired by music with instruments, cassette tapes, records, CDs, or dancing shoes. More mundane things such as books, lightbulbs, perfume bottles, balloons, hats, or coffee cups can all be drawn in aesthetic ways and settings.
Sweet treats like donuts, cake, candy canes, ice cream cones or even different forms of transportation like railway tracks, cars new and vintage, trains, planes, bicycles, ships, or trucks are all interesting things to draw.
Science-Fiction
Fantastical creatures are also great to draw as many are similar to drawing regular animals, just with a little more imagination. Mermaids, monsters, sirens, trolls, fairies, dragons, unicorns, or sea monsters can all be aesthetic drawings, or if you prefer more people-like creatures then vampires, witches, elves, gnomes, and ghosts are all good options. You can also draw characters from your favorite books, series, or cartoons. Try putting your own spin on a character or even draw your own original characters.
More Challenging Aesthetic Things to Draw
If you are looking for more of a challenge, there are many more complicated subjects that you can turn into an aesthetic drawing. Eyes, human figures, landscapes, and different perspective drawings are all challenging things that you can draw.
Drawings of Eyes
Drawings of eyes can be beautiful but also very challenging, as you need to get the colors and shine just right. These can be human or animal eyes, and each has different shapes and characteristics. You can try drawing them more realistically, in your personal style.
You can even try drawing them in existing styles like anime eyes.
Figure Studies
Aside from the eyes, you can also draw aesthetic figure studies. Although the human form can be a little challenging to draw, a little practice can turn them into amazing pieces. Sketching interesting individuals is a great way to hone your drawing skills and you can try your hand at portrait drawings as well with more detail and realism. Drawings focusing on individual body parts such as hands and hand gestures can also be very aesthetically pleasing drawings.
Landscape Drawings
Landscape drawings are one of the most striking types of drawing but can also be one of the most challenging as they involve bringing together different elements. You can find a photo on your phone or simply look out the window for inspiration. Start your drawing by blocking out the largest shapes in your landscape and then slowly build on this and refine it with smaller elements and details.
Fields or grass, scenic lakes, city skylines, or even vast ocean landscapes will all create a visually interesting piece of art.
Perspective Drawings
One of the coolest things to do with drawing is to create a piece of art that is from a unique perspective or an optical illusion. Drawing a perspective drawing requires you to understand your subject very well, which can make them challenging to draw, but they can also hone your technical skills. You can also try to draw only the shadows of your subject cast on a background instead of the subject itself.
We hope that we have given you some aesthetic drawing ideas to inspire your next creation. These drawing ideas are great whether you are looking for inspiration for a quick doodle or a detailed landscape. Your drawings can be both realistic and challenging or fun and simple, but we hope that these suggestions will help you experiment with your art and let your creativity shine.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Draw Aesthetic Art?
Even though art is subjective, color and composition are the most important aspects of creating aesthetic art. Color is useful for creating mood, shading, and depth, while composition is used for unity, balance, focus, movement, proportion, and contrast. Making use of texture in your piece can also add to the aesthetic value of your drawing.
What Are Easy Aesthetic Things to Draw?
Drawings such as mandalas and abstract drawings are the easiest aesthetic drawings to create. Because you are not trying to accurately recreate your subject, these kinds of drawings give you more creative freedom and space to make mistakes, which leaves you with a beautiful and aesthetic piece at the end.
Megan is a writer and researcher who graduated from the University of Cape Town with a degree in Social Sciences, specializing in Psychology and Environmental Science. Her passion for knowledge and leaving a positive impact has fueled her current work in conscious and sustainable growth in Southern Africa. Megan’s love of nature has also led her to train as an animal behaviorist. She works part-time training and rehabilitating dogs. Megan is interested in the physical and psychological effects of colors in our environment on our mood and well-being. In addition, she is concerned with how art and creativity have been an integral part of human society. Megan van Schoor has been writing blog posts on the topics of painting, drawing, and color theory for acrylgiessen since 2021.
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