Sometimes, students express themselves best through their art.
And while each artistic student has their own unique style, branching out and trying new styles is a great way to fight artistic block and to challenge the student to try new things.
Below, you’ll find a list of character prompts for those students who are either stuck or need a little nudge in a different direction.
Using This Drawing Guide
These prompts don’t have to be followed exactly as they are written.
Take them and make them your own, and encourage students to try new things.
Here are a few fun ways to use this list in the classroom:
- Challenge students to draw using one prompt every day for an entire week of school.
- Have your student pick a number between 1 and 44, and use that number for their prompt.
- Challenge your students to pick prompts that are outside of their comfort zone.
- Encourage your students to use a medium outside of their norm.
Create Your Characters
- Draw your favorite superhero in the pixelated style of Minecraft.
- Draw a character based on your biggest fear.
- Draw your OTP in a decade they don’t belong to.
- Draw a masked vigilante.
- Draw somebody chopping firewood.
- Draw an original character to add to the world of your favorite book series.
- Draw the same character with three different facial expressions.
- Personify the object to your immediate right.
- Draw a self-portrait in a drawing style that is not your own.
- Draw your favorite content creator.
- Draw a cat doing an Olympic sport.
- Draw a goth teenager in an unlikely place.
- Draw an expressive circus ringleader mid-announcement.
- Draw a person doing your least favorite chore.
- Draw your OTP building a blanket fort together.
- Draw a singer/songwriter working on their next chart-topping song.
- Draw a teacher at the end of a very long school day.
- Draw a bored teenager sitting in a stuffy classroom.
- Draw your favorite athlete doing something other than playing their sport.
- Draw a person relaxing on the beach.
- Draw someone falling into a pool at a party.
- Draw someone trying to complete an escape room.
- Draw two characters—one is giving the other a piggyback ride.
- Draw your best friend in the style of stained glass.
- Create your own superhero, and give them an unusual superpower.
- Draw a ballerina mid-leap.
- Draw an elderly person looking fondly at a younger person.
- Draw an original character as a Pokemon.
- Draw your three favorite Pokemon characters as human characters.
- Draw your OTP picking apples in an orchard together.
- Draw a young teenager enamored by old books in a dusty bookstore.
- Draw a person who is too nervous to knock on the door in front of them.
- Draw a person based on your favorite hobby.
- Create an original character for a fandom that you don’t belong to.
- Draw a person or character based on your favorite animal.
- Draw a person who is the exact opposite of you.
- Draw your OTP wearing a medieval version of their usual outfits.
- Draw a character wearing clothes made out of your favorite food.
- Draw a person being surprised at their surprise birthday party.
- Draw a person or character with disproportionate limbs.
- Draw a mermaid based on your favorite holiday.
- Draw a character who is made entirely of different forms of water.
- Draw a character who is guilty about something they’ve done wrong.
- Draw your OTP getting matching tattoos together.
The Importance of Encouraging Young Artists
Young people thrive when they know that there is someone who believes in them. Support their interest in the classroom when you can, and encourage them to keep trying when they feel like they’re stuck.
Reach out to the student’s parents and encourage them to keep motivating their child at home. Give them tips on how to foster this creativity if needed, and resources for affordable art supplies, classes, and local galleries.
Just knowing that they have someone in their corner could mean a world of difference for a young artist.
Let them know you are there for them, or point them to an art teacher who can help fuel that love of their craft.
Looking For More Inspiration?
We have an abundance of writing and creative prompts on our site, for use in the classroom or at home.
If you’re looking for something specific, reach out and let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
