Adult Craft

Drawing Ideas for Adults: A Pencil, Ink & Colored Pencil Sketchbook

The idea

Drawing is a quiet craft that only needs paper, a pencil or a pen, and a little time. This is a collection of drawings from my sketchbook, sorted by what they're drawn with, so you can pick a style and try one for yourself.

What you need

• Sketchbook or drawing paper
• Pencils, for shading and soft line drawings
• Black fineliner pens, for crisp outlines, doodles and patterns
• Colored pencils, for adding a little color
• An eraser, and a ruler for the straight lines

Pencil drawings

These are soft graphite drawings. Several of them frame a scene inside a simple shape, which makes a drawing feel finished even when the picture inside is small.

• Hexagon roses: peonies and roses drawn inside overlapping hexagons, with the leaves spilling outside the shapes.
• Lightbulb worlds: three hanging bulbs, each holding a tiny world: a goldfish tank, hot air balloons, and a galaxy of planets.

• Waterfall triangle: mountains and a sun in one triangle, pine trees below, and a waterfall flowing from one into the other.
• Mushroom house: a fairy-style cottage with a round wooden door, tiny windows, and stippled caps.

Isometric building: a stack of rooms drawn in isometric view, with stairs, arched doors and little windows, and cracks running out across the page.

Black ink drawings

Black fineliner drawings are all about patterns. Lines, dots and repeated shapes build up into something much more detailed than it looks while you're drawing it.

• Jellyfish: a patterned bell with diamonds and dots, and long, wavy tentacles in thick and thin lines.
• Monogram: the letters M and S, filled in with flowers, leaves, and mandala-style doodles.

Zentangle elephant: a baby elephant with its trunk raised, filled with patterns from head to toe: scallops, leaves, stripes, and a crosshatched foot.

Colored pencil drawings

For these, I outlined in pen and added just a little color with colored pencils. Coloring only part of the drawing keeps it light and quick to finish.

• Let's explore: hand lettering above a globe, a paper plane and a vintage camera, with the letters shaded in green and blue.
• Sunflower polaroid: a bunch of sunflowers outlined in pen, with color only inside the polaroid photo.

The Tea card: a tarot-style card with a steaming green teacup, stars and dots, and a lettered title at the bottom.

Ideas to try

• Draw a scene inside a simple shape, like a hexagon, triangle or light bulb.
• Color in only one part of a drawing, like the picture inside a polaroid.
• Fill an outline with repeating patterns for a zentangle-style drawing.
• Turn your initials into a drawing by filling the letters with doodles.

Result

A small sketchbook of eleven drawings in three styles, all made with simple supplies. Pick a favorite and draw your own version.