Here’s a kitty cat my daughter drew when we had some free draw time. She is in a phase of everything she draws looks a little like a person with a cute happy smile. I love them! Sometimes it’s good to just pull out the markers and paper and let the kids create whatever comes to mind. You can combine materials for creative experimenting or limit the supplies to help add some focus to the project. We have a few bins in our art cabinet that contain different materials, markers, crayons, colored pencils… and a stack of paper (much of it recycled from Mom and Dad’s work), so the kids have easy access when they are feeling creative.
A bonus with free draw time is it’s fun art the kids like but it’s also drawing and fine motor practice.
If you ever have a little bit of time but no creative ideas and not enough time to play some big creative project, just get out a few art supplies and let the kids create. If you have messy creators, just limit the supplies to materials that don’t create lots of mess such as colored pencils and crayons. Also, make sure to have an art mat that your kids learn to always use whenever they want to make any kind of art project (including coloring). We use plastic placemats and they are stored in the same cabinet as the crayons so they are available when coloring begins.