Things That Make Me Want to Draw

Today, I want to share a few of the things that make me want to draw.

This is another post from the series that began back in December 2025, when I invited readers to ask questions. Most of the questions I’ve answered this year are the behind-the-scenes artist’s life topics that a lot of people want to know but don’t want to ask about. Why? My biggest reason for not asking other artists questions like this is that I don’t want to appear nosy.

But it can be helpful to know what makes an artist tick, what makes them want to draw, so that’s my topic for today.

Things That Make Me Want to Draw

Let me begin by saying there are a lot of things that make me want to draw; too many to list in this post. So my focus for today are main categories, rather than individual subjects.

Landscapes

The Flint Hills

One big category is the landscape. I can find something in almost every landscape that makes me want to draw it.

But I never really felt a strong desire to draw landscapes until my first visit to the Flint Hills region of Kansas. It was a cold, cloudy day in early December 2001. The Flint Hills were shades of brown with a skiff of snow. But there was still something about the vast openness that made me think “I need to paint this”.

I’ve been back there many times in the years since, so I’ve seen the Flint Hills in all seasons and in many conditions. This is my one of my favorite scenes, this time in October.

Nothing has changed. Every time we drive through the Flint Hills, I find something to photograph. Many of those images have become artwork, though there have also been many that didn’t translate well into artwork.

That doesn’t matter. That definitely-not-flat part of Kansas always makes me want to draw.

Michigan Landscapes

I grew up in Michigan and lived in the same area until I was 43. I walked in the woods, through fields of hay and corn, and stalked deer and other wildlife with a camera. Even though the notion of drawing those scenes were very vague during those years, I now look back on some of those photos with thoughts of capturing them in artwork.

This image was taken from the back porch of my mother’s house in 2022. The views from Mom’s house, both front and back, are still among my favorites.

Weather

Storms

Storms have always attracted me. I remember one summer day when I was a kid. Mom and Dad hustled us all to the root cellar because the weather was getting so bad. I don’t know if it was tornadic or not, but the old wood silo behind the barn blew over. My biggest regret about that day was that we spent the time in the root cellar. I would much rather have stood in the open door watching!

I’m still that way. Incoming weather is more likely to have me on the front porch or (even better) in the nearby parking lot taking pictures and watching the sky than seeking shelter.

Dark, dramatic skies and sunlit foregrounds are especially appealing. I took this photo in the 1990s from the front porch of my Mom and Dad’s house in Michigan. You may recognize it. I’ve drawn it several times, and did a Jelly Bean Class for Ann Kullberg based on this photo.

Skies and Clouds

But there doesn’t have to be a storm brewing for the sky to be appealing. Sunsets, sunrises, and clouds are enough to get the creative juices flowing.

Here’s a sunset that prompted me to take several photos. The mix of clouds, lighting, and color were enough to stop the car to take a few pictures. We took a side trip into the countryside just so I could take pictures without the city interfering.

I photographed the clouds below one evening, looking east from our front yard. They were part of a storm passing to the east. Had I not seen the color and clouds with my own eyes, I would think a filter had been used to take the photo or that the photo had been altered afterward. But I used my own photo to take the photo and the only processing was resizing.

This sort of naturally occurring beauty is something that always makes me want to draw it.

Horses

If you had asked me what things make me want to draw ten years ago, the only answer would have been horses. Horses have always had a special place in my heart. They way they look, the way they move, even the way they smell. Watching them has always been enjoyable.

So when I realized I could draw, it was natural to draw horses. The earliest drawing I have is of a pair of harnessed horses.

For over forty years, I painted portraits of horses. Most of that time, the portraits were in oils, but even when I switched to colored pencils, horses continued to be my favorite subject.

Despite the fact that I listed landscapes, storms, and clouds ahead of horses in this post indicates that they are no longer my first subject of choice. But I do still enjoy looking at them and drawing them.

And the perfect combination is like the photo above, which features horses at liberty in the Flint Hills. Need I say more?

Those are a few of the Things That Make Me Want to Draw

As I mentioned at the beginning, a lot of things can grab my attention and make me want to draw. Light and shadow, color, the things all around me every day.

The fact of the matter is that it’s more difficult to find the time to draw than it is to find things to draw!

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