Ways to use this list
- Phone-call doodles: keep a sticky-note pad by the phone and draw a card for each call. By Friday the wall beside your desk is covered in tiny drawings.
- Early finishers in class: draw a card, doodle it on scrap paper, then swap with a neighbour who adds one silly detail.
- Sketchbook warm-up: three cards, one minute each, before a bigger drawing. Loose, fast lines first make the careful work easier.
- Doodle relay for a group: one person starts the prompt, passes the page on after 30 seconds, and the last person gives it a title.
- Doodle calendar: draw one card a day into a small square on a monthly grid and watch the month fill up with ideas.
Press Draw a card, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a wheel, duck race, hat and more.
The full list (42 entries)
- A snail whose shell is a camper van
- A cloud wearing rain boots
- A cactus in a woolly hat
- A teapot that is secretly a dragon
- A sandwich with a tiny front door
- Your pencil case as a busy city
- A fish riding a scooter
- Five mushrooms, each in a different mood
- A sleepy desk lamp
- A sock monster looking for its pair
- A tiny shop inside a boot
- An octopus doing eight jobs at once
- A pear in sunglasses on a beach towel
- A pencil turning into a rocket
- Fill a square with tiny triangles
- A border of zigzags and dots
- Waves inside a circle
- A page of ten different leaves
- Stripes that turn into a snake
- Overlapping circles with the overlaps coloured in
- A tile pattern using only lines and dots
- A spiral that grows into a seashell
- Scales, like a fish or a dragon
- A chain of linked stars
- Scribble with your eyes shut, then find a creature in it
- Draw one continuous line without lifting the pen
- Doodle with the hand you don't write with
- Turn the letter S into an animal
- Turn your initials into a robot
- Draw ten different noses
- Turn one circle into five different things
- Draw a house using only squares and triangles
- Trace around a coin and turn it into a face
- Draw a cat in three lines or fewer
- A happy dumpling family
- A strawberry wearing a scarf
- A cat curled up like a cinnamon bun
- A mug of cocoa with marshmallow friends
- A sleepy moon in pyjamas
- A penguin holding an umbrella
- A cloud raining sprinkles
- A shy little ghost with a balloon
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a doodle and a drawing?
A doodle is quick, small and unplanned: you let the pen wander and stop when it feels done. A drawing usually has a plan, a subject to look at and more time. Doodling is a great warm-up for both.
What is a scribble challenge?
You make a random loopy scribble first, often with your eyes shut, then turn it into something by adding eyes, legs or a tail. It trains you to see shapes in lines, like spotting animals in clouds.
What pens are best for doodling?
Any pen works. A fine black pen for lines plus one or two coloured markers is plenty. Pencil is fine too, but ink stops you rubbing out, which keeps doodles loose and quick.
How can I make doodle prompts harder for older kids?
Add a rule to every card: one minute only, no rubbing out, three colours at most, or it must fit inside a 5 cm square. Or set Winners to 2 and squeeze both prompts into one doodle.