13 Art Prompts for Kids to Foster Creativity

These 13 art prompts for kids will inspire their art-making and creativity differently than a blank piece of paper. This list includes drawing prompts, art games, printables, and more.

We use drawing prompts and other art prompts a lot and I want to encourage you to give them a try, too, if you don’t already.

Why?

Art prompts inspire creativity in a completely different way than a blank piece of paper by presenting a starting point, question, or challenge. And yet, they are remarkably open ended (unlike coloring books, which I generally avoid with kids).

This past weekend, I posted on Instagram about using drawing prompts with kids and where to find them.

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Let’s talk drawing prompts. 🖍 This is one of the drawing prompts I just added to the Kids Art Club (that Daphne had fun with) and obviously this one doubles as a writing prompt. 🖍 Do you use drawing prompts with your kids? 🖍 If not, I encourage you to! They inspire creativity in a completely different way than a blank piece of paper by presenting a starting point, question, or challenge. And yet, they are remarkably open ended (unlike coloring books, which I generally avoid with kids). 🖍 Set out a drawing prompt for your child today with some markers or other drawing tools. 🖍 I’d love to see their creativity at work! Post a photo and tag me and use hashtag #artfulparent . 🖍 WHERE TO FIND DRAWING PROMPTS : 👉Make your own on paper or chalkboard (draw a blank face, empty house outline, or a pair of eyes and add a brief question. Who is this? Who lives here? for example). 👉 Find a drawing prompt online (you can search “printable art activities” on The Artful Parent for some). 👉 Get a doodle book (Taro Gomi has some good ones for kids) and take out one sheet at a time. 👉 The Kids Art Club has a large library of drawing prompts for kids, with new ones added every week. 🖍 #kidsart #kidsartspot #kidsdrawing #parenting #childhoodunplugged #creativity #drawingprompts #drawingforkids #kidsactivities #rockinartmoms #creativekids #artforkids

A post shared by The Artful Parent 🎨 Kids Art (@artfulparent) on Nov 3, 2018 at 12:25pm PDT

And then realized that I wanted to expand on the subject and turn it into a blog post about finding and using art prompts for kids. First, here’s an expansion on what I said about finding drawing prompts (with links added):

Where to Find Drawing Prompts

• Make your own art prompt on paper or chalkboard (draw a blank face, empty house outline, or a pair of eyes and add a brief question. Who is this? Who lives here? for example). Here’s a post with 11 art activity pages you can make yourself.
• Print out a kids art prompt that you find online. Here are 16 printable art activities for kids that are open-ended and foster creativity.
• Get a doodle book and tear out one sheet at a time. I like how open-ended and kid-friendly Taro Gomi’s doodle books and Story Doodle Place Mats are.
• The Kids Art Club has a large library of drawing prompts for kids, with new ones added every week so if that interests you, get on the waiting list for when we open up enrollment again.

And beyond what I was able to put in the brief Instagram post, here are 13 more art prompt ideas for kids.

13 Art Prompts for Kids

Note: Some of these are drawing prompts, some are prompts for painting, collage art, or other kinds of art-making. Most are flexible, though. For example, what sounds like a drawing prompt, can be turned into a painting prompt with the addition of paint and a paint brush rather than drawing tools or turned into a collage prompt with the addition of a glue bottle and papers or little collage materials.

1. Magazine pictures as drawing prompts for kids
2. Geometric art for kids (with a connect the dots art prompt)
3. Hole challenge art
4. Dot to dot art challenge for kids
5. Music as an art prompt
6. Drawing prompts for kids with eye stickers
7. Scribble challenge art
8. DIY picture frame wallpaper for children’s art
9. A drawing activity for kids based on the Beautiful Oops book
10. Draw with Art Dice (on Tinkerlab)
11. Paper shape challenge art
12. DIY art journals for kids with drawing prompts
13. Use nature items as chalk drawing prompts (on The Craft Train)

And if you want a printable list of these ideas, click the image below to download a PDF.

Do you use art prompts with your kids?

If not, I encourage you to!

Set up a simple art prompt for your kids today and see how it inspires their creativity!

I’d love to see their artwork! If you’re on Instagram, I invite you to post a photo and tag me @artfulparent and use hashtag #artfulparent

Also, if you have more ideas for kids art prompts, please share in a comment below! And include a link, if appropriate. Thank you!

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