There are lots of fantastic drawing games that work really well over Zoom. These develop artistic skills, as well as being brilliant team-builders and developing a sense of fun and teamwork.
I’ve been a teacher for the last 12 years, and in that time I have tried all sorts of team drawing games, that now work really well over Zoom.
In particular, these games:
- Are great for a range of ages, from young children, teens, and even adults
- Are good for home learning, family meet-ups, social clubs, or whatever else you’re doing over Zoom
- Good as team-builders and cooperation games (Source)
- Good for mental health, wellbeing, and just generally having fun
All of these Zoom drawing games can be played by small numbers on Zoom, or large groups instead. Either will work well.
Some have one person drawing, but others have everyone drawing at the same time.
So, let’s dive into the ultimate list of Zoom drawing games:
1. Draw A Picture On Your Head
This is a really funny game for kids of all ages.
The idea is pretty simple – you are all going to draw something on your head!
You can do it in different ways:
Just freestyle!
Everyone just has a go together of drawing on their head, and everyone checks out each other’s efforts at the end and tries to guess what they are.
Do It One At A Time
Do it with everyone watching one person, and then trying to guess. Whoever guesses right what the thing is, can then be the person that draws next.
With younger children, it is better if they have something lean on while they draw, like a book balanced on their head. You don’t want them spiking themselves with a pencil on their head, or some other crisis like that.
2. Draw Something With Eyes Closed
This is another funny Zoom game and one that kids of all ages will enjoy.
You can play it in several different ways.
Probably the way I’ve tried it most myself is that one person is ‘it’. They are going to be doing the drawing.
The rules are a bit like Pictionary. The person doing the drawing is going to pick something and draw it with their eyes closed.
Everyone else will guess what they have drawn.
If you want to do the very easiest version of this game, I suggest you pick a theme.
This is especially good for younger children – probably from about 3-7. This simplifies the game a lot.
Basically, you have a theme such as:
- Superheroes
- Vehicles
- Animals
For example, if your theme is ‘vehicles’ then the person drawing is going to pick a ‘vehicle’ (such as ‘tractor’) and then try to draw it.
This gives the drawer a fighting chance of thinking of something, and everyone watching at least some hope of working out what it is.
3. Speed Draw With Eyes Closed
This is a similar idea to the game above, only now you have a time limit, for example, three minutes.
This is a game of speed against the clock!
Split into two teams. There is one ‘drawer’ in each team, and everyone else is guessing.
Start the clock, and the ‘drawer’ starts, and everyone tries to guess what they are drawing. When they get it right, continue with the next and then the next.
Keep score of how many each team gets right, and see who are the champions at the end.
4. Positional Words Game
This is a great math game for children between the ages of about 4 to 8 (but older kids could potentially have a go of this too).
The idea is to really engage with positional words – words like ‘under’ ‘beside’ ‘on top of’, and all that kind of thing.
Everyone is going to be drawing together at the same time in this game, with one leader giving the instructions.
The leader will describe the picture that the players are going to draw, but they will do it in a way that includes lots of positional words.
For example, they might say:
‘Draw a tree.
Above it draw a bird.
The sun is next to the bird.
There is a cloud under the sun.
There is a slide beside the tree.
A girl is at the top of the slide.
A boy is at the bottom of the ladder.’
This is a really visual way to experience positional words.
When you’ve done the first picture, the children can then have a go at leading the game one at a time.
The finished pictures will hopefully look something like this:
5. Portraits
Here’s a really simple idea, but one that is really engaging for a range of ages – creating portraits.
There are different ways of doing it. You could:
Partner Portraits
All double up with a partner over the group Zoom, and each draws them.
One Model
Pick one person to be the model, and then you can all draw them. You can look at all the similarities and differences between the finished drawings at the end, and see how different the interpretations looked.
6. Mystery Portraits
The idea of this simple game is that everyone is going to draw another member of the Zoom group. (Just pick whoever you want each, but keep it a secret).
All draw your different portraits, and then show each other what you all have at the end.
The fun bit is working out who is the subject of each picture.
Sometimes there are obvious clues, but other times it’s much trickier to guess.
7. Storytelling Pictures
This is a great way of combining literacy and art.
Everyone that is involved in this game is going to draw something that features in a story.
They could draw:
- A character
- A setting
- A problem
- A solution
For characters, you could draw a witch, a bear, a knight, a princess, or whatever other story characters you can think of.
For settings, draw a castle, a mountain, a haunted wood, a pirate ship, or the sea.
For problems, think about bad things that might happen in stories. So draw a fire, a storm, a ghost, a witch, or whatever else.
And solutions could be a pen, a rainbow, a unicorn, a key, a book, a magic spell, or whatever else you can think of.
When everyone has just one of the above, then you are ready to start.
You could have a leader who tells everyone what order to go in, or you could just do it spontaneously. Probably having a leader would be the safest way to do it the first time around.
Basically, one person will go, and they will start the story.
For example, say they were holding a picture of a princess, they would start the story with the princess. They might say:
‘One day the beautiful princess went for a walk.’
Select the next person to go (for example someone holding a ‘forest’ picture). They might say:
‘She walked through the forest, under the giant trees.’
Basically, keep going like this. The story will probably be extremely random, but that’s all good! Just keep going till everyone has had a go.
If you come to no real conclusion in the story, that is perfectly normal.
This is just a great exercise for communicating and imagining together.
8. Story Picture
This is another idea that links storytelling and drawing.
Everyone is going to be drawing at the same time here, preferably each on a big piece of paper (or whatever else they can find).
You need a leader for this game (probably the adult/teacher/leader). They are going to make up a story.
Everyone else is going to draw elements of the story as you go along to bring the whole thing to life.
So it might go:
One day the pirate ship set out on the stormy sea.
Everyone draws some stormy waves on their paper.
A storm started, and the lightning with zig-zagging in the sky.
Everyone draws zig-zag lightning.
A shark swam out of the water with giant teeth.
Everyone draws the giant teeth.
Keep going like this!
9. Object Drawing
This one is a bit like art class over Zoom.
Have some kind of picture or object that everyone is going to draw.
The object could be a vase of flowers or some interesting fruit.
The picture could be of a beautiful animal, or of a landscape.
Everyone has a go of drawing the object or picture, and then showing each other the different interpretations at the end.
10. Mystery Picture
One leader is required in this game, and everyone else is going to be drawing at the same time on separate pieces of paper.
The idea is that the leader is going to try to get everyone to draw a well-known object or thing, but they’re not going to say what it is. The people drawing it must guess.
The leader is simply going to describe how to draw the object, and everyone is going to follow what they say.
So you might say:
Draw a large oval on your paper.
Draw six sticks pointing out of the oval.
Put a teardrop shape at the top of each stick, pointing away from the big oval.
What is it?
This is supposed to be a birthday cake with six candles! Give it a go, and see if that’s what you get.
11. Pictionary
This is probably the most obvious Zoom drawing game, but I thought I would briefly include it here as it’s definitely a great one to try.
The basic idea is that one person is drawing, and everyone else is guessing what they have drawn.
It’s probably simplest if the ‘artist’ just thinks of their own subject to draw, and goes for it. They could do any objects, animals, films, TV shows, or whatever else they can think of.
12. Simple Pictionary
I already touched on a similar game to this earlier.
But definitely, the easiest way that I have managed to play Pictionary with young kids is to pick a theme.
So, before, you start, you will agree that you are all doing something like:
-Sports
-Superheroes
-Vehicles
Or whatever else it might be.
This gives everyone a much higher chance of both being able to think of something to draw, and also at least some hope of guessing what it is that has been drawn.
13. Pictionary Speed
Here’s another fun variation of Pictionary – the legendary Pictionary Speed.
In this, split all the players up into teams.
The first team is going to have one artist, and everyone else will be guessing.
Have a time limit, for example, 3 minutes.
The artist is going to draw something and wait for their teammates to guess it right. Then they’ll move on to the next object to draw.
The idea is to get as many correct answers within the time limit as possible.
Then the next team will go and try to beat your score.
14. Hangman
I’m pretty sure you know how to play this, but I thought I’d better include it as it’s definitely one of the simplest and best drawing games that work fantastically over Zoom.
15. Drawing Can’t Laugh Challenge
This is a fun team-builder that is definitely worth giving a go.
This is a good game for small or large groups on Zoom.
One person is the ‘leader’ for this game. That person is going to be drawing first. Everyone else is going to be watching.
The artist will have their sound on, but everyone else will be muted.
The person drawing is going to be doing their best to draw something funny and get the other people laughing.
The people that are watching will try to resist! If you laugh you are out.
Some good things to draw might be:
- Funny faces
- A silly story (you could draw along while telling the story)
- Draw a joke, and tell it
Every time someone laughs they are out.
Summing Up
Keeping any Zoom interactions as fun and engaging as possible is a big target.
These Zoom drawing games are interactive, enjoyable, and involve lots of skills as well. Good luck if you give any of these games a try!