31 Art Prompt ideas to exercise your creativity and boost your artistic mind

There is a well-known quote by Pablo Picasso that goes: “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working”. Art prompts or prompts for artists are designed to work around this concept giving you a direction and a focus to start creating. 

Art prompts are cues that trigger creation around a particular concept or topic. Having a list of helpful art prompts is an excellent way to exercise creativity, break an artistic block, or just spark your creativity on a daily basis.

Creative art prompts are good guidelines to follow to answer questions like “What should I draw?”, “What should I paint?”, “What should I photograph?”, “How can I experiment with another medium?”. The goal of an art prompt is to motivate you to create. The results are open: anything can happen if you are open to experimenting.

Keep reading to get the free ArtPlacer Guide to 31 days of Art Prompt ideas.

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Art Prompts are meant to keep you going back to face the blank canvas.

What are Art Prompt Ideas

By definition, a prompt is a fact, an idea, or even an event, that causes or encourages a certain activity. In the art world, these are used in theater, writing, performance, and even visual arts to cue an action. Art Prompt ideas are guidelines meant to inspire creators and give them subjects to tackle. The intention is to get the ideas flowing, break with the fear of facing the blank canvas, and just DO.

A good way to exercise your creativity is to work with an Art Prompt every day.

Art Prompts Ideas to follow

We are all creatives, but to keep those innovative ideas flowing, that creative muscle needs to be exercised. With that idea in mind, the ArtPlacer team has come up with an Art Prompt Guide with 31 universal ideas, subjects, and themes to follow. These are universal concepts that can be adapted to any medium to boost your creativity.

Ready to start? Let’s get going!

1. Your favorite character
2. A happy memory
3. Portray an emotion
4. Your safe place
5. A self-portrait
6. A splash of color
7. Golden hour
8. Hands
9. A close-up
10. A remix of your favorite artwork
11. Theme: the 10th image saved on your phone
12. A treasure
13. Silhouettes
14. A desire
15. Your surroundings
16. Eyes
17. Black & White
18. Theme: sky
19. A place you want to visit
20. Something you can’t live without 
21. Challenge: do it with your eyes closed
22. An icon
23. Theme: shadow
24. A guilty pleasure
25. Challenge: use a medium you have never worked with before
26. A sound
27. Underwater
28. A cover for your favorite album
29. Theme: time
30. Challenge: use only geometrical shapes
31. An achievement

Art Prompts give artists the chance to experiment with different tools and mediums.

What do you need to start working with art prompt ideas: tools & supplies

Art Prompts are meant to encourage working with certain ideas to create new artworks. The themes are just as diverse as the approach you might take to bring that concept to life. What do you need to work in your Art Prompt Guide? Well, all your favorite artist’s tools!

This is a short list of tools that might come in handy: 

-Pencils, crayons, markers, and pens.

-Acrylic and oil paints, as well as watercolors.

-Paper sheets

-Canvas

–Journal

-Materials for collages

-Brushes

-And digital art tools like editing software, drawing pads, and stylus pens.

Using prompts to improve your art skills

Art prompts are not only useful to spark your creativity, but they are also a good way or a friendly excuse to develop the daily habit of practicing your art skills, they can cover anything from basic forms to the study of your surroundings and how to capture it in your medium of preference. Plus, this is a good way to experiment with different techniques and tools.

Follow these art skills prompts to exercise and improve your technique

Open up your creative process: share your art prompt-inspired creations with your audience.

What to do with your art prompt-inspired creations

Inspiration and creativity generate a cycle, one feeds the other. Once you get working with your Art Prompt guide, facing the blank page (or canvas) will turn into a daily habit. What to do with the results of this exercise? A good option is turning your whole month of daily creations into a 3D digital art show.

With ArtPlacer’s Virtual Exhibitions you can easily upload your new artworks, place them in a digital gallery (ranging from an art fair booth to a museum space), frame them, and customize floor, walls, and ceiling colors to create an atmosphere. This could be a register you keep for yourself to track your progress or a chance to create a bond with your audience by sharing a part of your creative process. You can easily curate and share your online gallery with a link or host it on your professional website.

If you want to inspire your audience you can share your new art pieces on social media in a creative way. Hang your art prompt-inspired drawings or paintings in a digital mockup. With ArtPlacer’s Room Mockups, just “drag and drop” your artwork in a room that fits your style, customize the frame and lighting to achieve a real-life look, crop it in your desired social-media size ratio to post it, and share it. Is that easy!

Frequently asked questions about Art Prompts

Have you started your creative practice? Here you’ll find the answers to some of the most common questions and doubts artists tend to have when working with art prompts.

How to turn following art prompts into a habit?

If you want to follow art prompts on a daily basis and turn this creative practice into a habit, the first thing you should do is define a time frame for it. Choose a time slot that is available every day for this work. It also helps to choose a special space for it, maybe another room in your house, or a different part of your studio. It could also help to go for a walk and choose a place outside to get working and let your creativity flow. 
A good way to develop your art prompt practice into a habit is to carry a journal with you at all times to work on it in your chosen time frame or whenever creativity sparks.

How frequently should I work with Art Prompts?

The art prompts you’ll find here were designed with the intention of covering a full month of practice. However, you can come back to it as many times as you want. Even if they are the same prompts every time you go back to that list you have a different train of thought or even a different set of skills or available tools to approach the prompt, this way you’ll always have a different result and a new creative outlet.

Can I work on my skills with Art Prompts?

Yes, art prompts are an ideal way to practice your art skills. You can follow the prompt and make it your goal to follow it by applying a particular skill you want to improve. There are also specific prompts to practice art skills that you can follow if that’s your main goal.

What other uses do prompts have for artists?

As mentioned above, prompts are an idea or a concept that can cue a particular action. For artists and creatives, prompts are a good way to face the fear of the blank page or canvas. These are also a perfect way to start practicing different skills or experimenting with a new medium.
With the advance of AI technology prompts are also used to generate content that can help you present your art, from descriptions of art pieces and content for your webpage to social media posts captions, and more. Follow these proven prompts for ChatGPT to generate content that will highlight your artistic work.

Now go back to the Art Prompt Guide by ArtPlacer, go to Day 1 and work with a new concept to spark your creativity.

Remember to share your ArtPlacer creations on Instagram with #artplacer to get featured.