Table of Contents >> Show >> Hide
- What “Hey Pandas” Prompts Really Are (And Why They Work)
- Why Drawing the Future Feels Weirdly Powerful
- Drawing 2020: Three Popular “Vision Styles”
- Five Simple Tricks to Make Your “Draw 2020” Piece Tell a Story
- How to Join the Spirit of a “Hey Pandas” Drawing Thread (Even Off-Site)
- Mini Prompt Pack: 10 Fun Ways to “Draw 2020” Without Staring at a Blank Page
- Extra: of Experiences Connected to “Draw 2020”
- Conclusion
If you ever want proof that humans are both wildly creative and hilariously optimistic, look no further than a simple community prompt:
“Draw 2020 the way you envision it.”
On Bored Panda, “Hey Pandas” threads are basically the internet’s cozy campfiresomeone tosses in a question, and the community responds with stories,
opinions, and sometimes art. And when the prompt is about drawing the future, it becomes a time capsule made of doodles: hope, anxiety, humor, and
the kind of imagination that doesn’t ask permission.
What “Hey Pandas” Prompts Really Are (And Why They Work)
“Hey Pandas” posts are built around participation. Instead of a polished “look what I made” showcase, they’re an invitation: share a thought,
share a photo, share a hot takeor, in this case, share a drawing. That matters because low-stakes creativity is the easiest kind to actually do.
You don’t need an art degree; you need five minutes, a pen, and the willingness to make something imperfect on purpose.
Prompts like “Draw 2020” work especially well because they combine two things our brains love: storytelling and shortcuts. A drawing is a shortcut.
It lets you say, “Here’s the vibe,” without writing a 900-word essay that begins with “It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.”
Why Drawing the Future Feels Weirdly Powerful
Drawing isn’t just decorationit’s thinking with your hands. When you sketch a year you haven’t lived yet, you’re doing a form of “visual planning”
mixed with emotional forecasting. Even if you’re joking, you’re still making a statement: “This is what I expect,” or “This is what I want,” or
“This is what I’m afraid of, but I’m going to laugh at it so it can’t win.”
It lowers the pressure (and sometimes your stress)
One reason these prompts spread so easily is that art-making can be calmingeven when the result looks like a potato wearing sunglasses.
Research on art-making has found measurable stress-related changes in the body, and it doesn’t require “being good at art” to count.
In other words: stick figures are welcome here.
It turns a big year into a small, manageable image
A year is huge and abstract. A drawing is small and concrete. That shift is sneaky helpful. The moment you decide, “2020 is a roller coaster,”
or “2020 is a sunrise,” you’ve taken chaos and given it a frame. You can’t control everything in life, but you can control whether your cartoon
tornado has a tiny bow tie.
Drawing 2020: Three Popular “Vision Styles”
A fun thing about a prompt like this is that it doesn’t demand a single mood. You can go wholesome, realistic, or full meme-goblin.
Here are three common approachesand what they communicate.
1) The “Bright Future” Postcard
This version is all hope: clean horizons, fresh calendars, big goals written in bubble letters. People who draw 2020 as a postcard often lean into:
new habits, travel dreams, graduation caps, a promotion ladder, or a big heart labeled “more kindness.” It’s not naiveit’s motivational.
It says, “I’m planting a flag in possibility.”
Example idea: A road stretching into the distance with signposts like “Health,” “Family,” “Adventure,” and “Peace,” plus a tiny
car labeled “me (trying).”
2) The “Realistic Forecast” Panel
This style looks like a weather report: some sun, some clouds, and a decent chance of surprise plot twists. Realistic forecast drawings often include
the practical stuff: budgeting, routines, boundaries, school schedules, and the quiet desire to be a little steadier than last year.
Example idea: A “2020 forecast” with icons: sun for “good days,” clouds for “stress,” a tiny umbrella for “coping skills,” and a
rainbow labeled “still here.”
3) The “Meme Prophecy” (A.K.A. Comedy as Armor)
The internet’s default coping mechanism is humorespecially the kind that winks at uncertainty. The meme prophecy version of “Draw 2020” tends to use
exaggeration: a dumpster on fire wearing a party hat, a calendar sprinting away, or a giant “LOL” stamp over everything.
Example idea: A giant number “2020” drawn as a carnival ride, with a sign that reads: “You must be this tall to be confused.”
Five Simple Tricks to Make Your “Draw 2020” Piece Tell a Story
1) Pick one big symbol
Choose a single object to represent the year: a door, a bridge, a roller coaster, a garden, a clock, a backpack, a puzzle. One symbol = instant clarity.
2) Add one “detail that makes it yours”
A tiny detail can carry the whole emotional message: a sticky note that says “therapy,” a coffee cup labeled “try again,” a heart-shaped bandage,
a cat sitting on your plans like it pays rent.
3) Use captions like seasoning
A short caption can sharpen the meaning without turning your art into a PowerPoint slide. Think: one phrase, one punchline, or one intention.
4) Steal structure from posters and comics
If you don’t know what to draw, borrow a format: movie poster, comic strip, album cover, or book jacket. Structure is creativity’s training wheels.
Training wheels are not shamefulthey’re efficient.
5) Let color do the emotional heavy lifting
Bright colors feel energetic. Muted colors feel reflective. Black-and-white can feel sharp, serious, or classic. You don’t need fancy supplies
even a single highlighter can change the mood.
How to Join the Spirit of a “Hey Pandas” Drawing Thread (Even Off-Site)
The best part of community prompts is the ripple effect. One person draws, another person responds, and suddenly a bunch of strangers are laughing,
empathizing, and creating at the same time. If you’re posting your own “Draw 2020” response anywhere, a few community-friendly habits help:
- Be kind in feedback. Respond to the idea, not the skill level.
- Credit references. If you’re inspired by a meme or artwork style, say so.
- Encourage variations. Prompts are better when people remix them.
- Keep it accessible. “Pen, paper, go” beats “$80 supplies required.”
Mini Prompt Pack: 10 Fun Ways to “Draw 2020” Without Staring at a Blank Page
- Draw 2020 as a creature. Friendly? Chaotic? Wearing a tiny tie?
- Draw 2020 as a recipe card. Ingredients: patience, humor, and maybe a pinch of luck.
- Draw 2020 as a playlist cover. Track 1: “New Beginnings.” Track 2: “Please Stop.”
- Draw 2020 as a travel brochure. “Come for the growth, stay for the plot twists.”
- Draw 2020 as a calendar page with doodles in the margins.
- Draw 2020 as a “before and after.” Expectations vs. realityalways a crowd favorite.
- Draw 2020 as a weather map. Sunny in one corner, storms in another, hope everywhere.
- Draw 2020 as a room. What’s inside? What do you want to leave outside the door?
- Draw 2020 as a comic strip. Three panels: “Plan,” “Oops,” “Adapt.”
- Draw 2020 as a single object with a label. Simple, bold, and oddly satisfying.
Extra: of Experiences Connected to “Draw 2020”
When people look back on 2020, the memories tend to arrive in fragmentssmall scenes that feel bigger than they should. That’s exactly why a drawing prompt
about envisioning 2020 hits differently after the fact. The year became a collage of moments: an empty commute replaced by a hallway shuffle from bed to desk;
a calendar that kept changing; a quiet that sometimes felt peaceful and sometimes felt too loud. In drawings inspired by “Draw 2020,” those fragments often
show up as symbols because symbols travel faster than paragraphs. A mask becomes a moon. A bottle of hand sanitizer becomes a magic potion. A laptop becomes
a stage, a classroom, an office, and a confessionalsometimes all in one day.
A lot of “2020 drawings” (made during the year or after) reflect the strange mix of closeness and distance. People stayed apart, but they also checked in
more. Grandparents waved through windows. Friends met on screens. Celebrations shrankbirthdays with a handful of candles and a phone on speakeryet the emotion
didn’t shrink. If you were to draw those experiences, the visual language almost writes itself: speech bubbles floating across a gap, little hearts traveling
through Wi-Fi signals, stick figures standing six feet apart while their thought bubbles hold hands. Even the humor had a purpose. Jokes about “what day is it?”
or “my new coworker is a houseplant” weren’t just punchlines; they were pressure valves.
Another common theme is the feeling of time doing backflips. Some days felt endless; whole months disappeared. Artists and non-artists alike captured that with
warped clocks, melting calendars, or a “2020” that looks like it’s sprinting away while dragging everyone behind it. And then there were the moments that made
people want to draw hope on purpose: neighbors leaving chalk messages on sidewalks, people learning to bake or garden, families turning living rooms into gyms,
classrooms, or art studios. Museums and arts groups pushed out at-home activities so creativity could stay in the daily routine, not just in “special” spaces.
For many, doodling wasn’t about producing art to frameit was about recording a feeling so it didn’t swallow the whole day.
If you’re writing about this prompt today, the most honest takeaway is that “Draw 2020” can mean two things at once: envisioning a year you haven’t lived,
and processing a year you survived. In both cases, the act of drawing is a way of saying, “Here’s my version.” Not the official version, not the headline version,
not the argument-filled comment section versionjust a personal snapshot. And when those snapshots pile up in a community thread, they become a shared archive:
different styles, different lives, one collective attempt to make sense of a year that changed how many people think about time, safety, connection, and what really
matters when everything else is uncertain.
Conclusion
“Hey Pandas, Draw 2020 The Way You Envision It” is more than a cute art promptit’s a reminder that creativity doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful.
Whether your 2020 is a sunrise, a weather map, or a chaotic cartoon with a party hat, the point is the same: you turned an abstract year into a story you can see.
And sometimes that’s the most powerful kind of clarity.