What to draw next, when you sell what you draw
If you are drawing for yourself, any list of prompts will do and this is the wrong page. This one answers the harder version of the question: what to draw that will sell — chosen from what buyers are searching for, how much of it already exists, and how much of that supply is AI.
SincereTrend tracks 28,300+ illustration subjects and refreshes them daily. Below is the method it applies, and the subjects it applies it to.
14-day free trial · no credit card to start · then $5/month
How to choose a subject
Four questions, in this order. The order matters — a subject that fails the second one is not rescued by passing the first.
1. Is anyone actually looking for it?
An idea you love that nobody searches for is a hobby, not a listing. Demand comes from Google Trends, Pinterest Trends and Reddit — places buyers and the people who brief them are searching, rather than the marketplace you are trying to sell on.
2. How much of it already exists?
A subject with two hundred thousand illustrations already on Adobe Stock is a worse bet than a quieter one with two thousand, even when the first is more popular. Supply is counted on Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and iStock, and seller competition separately on Etsy.
3. Has AI already commoditised it?
Adobe Stock labels its own AI-generated assets, so the AI share of a niche is reported rather than guessed. A subject sitting at three-quarters AI is competing on price whoever made the files — that is a reason to avoid it regardless of how you work.
4. When does it peak?
Seasonal subjects are decided months before the date. Every phrase carries a 52-week demand projection, and holidays and releases come with measured lead times — how many weeks before the day buyers historically started searching — so an idea arrives while there is still time to make it.
Ideas worth dropping
The useful half of this question is subtractive, and it is the half a list of prompts cannot answer.
- Subjects where the supply count is enormous and the search interest is flat — the classic "popular but pointless" trap. Popularity and opportunity are different numbers.
- Niches already past three-quarters AI. They still sell, but on price, and a single piece takes you longer to make than a batch takes to generate.
- Seasonal ideas found in-season. If you are reading about Halloween subjects in October, the buyers who were going to search have already searched.
- Anything the marketplace publishes no AI flag for, treated as if it were AI-free. Shutterstock, iStock and Etsy report no flag at all — an unknown is not a zero.
Where the ideas come from
Every subject SincereTrend tracks, grouped by theme. Open one to see the phrases inside it; open a phrase for what sellers tag alongside it and which events move it.
Not every tracked phrase carries a category — the A-Z index is the complete list.
Questions people ask
What should I draw to sell?
Subjects where buyer demand is high, the existing supply is small, and AI has not already flooded the niche — in that order. The ranking is the ratio of the first two, adjusted for the third. What it is not is a list of trending topics: by the time a subject is visibly trending, the supply for it is already being uploaded.
What kind of illustrations sell best on Adobe Stock?
There is no single answer that stays true, which is the whole problem with a fixed list. What is stable is the shape of a good bet: a subject with steady search interest, a supply count in the thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands, and a low AI share. SincereTrend tracks those three numbers per phrase and refreshes them daily.
Does this only apply to hand-drawn work?
No. The tracked phrases name subjects, not techniques — the great majority mention no medium at all — and the supply counts cover the whole illustration catalogue on each marketplace. Hand-drawn, vector, 3D and AI-assisted work compete for the same subjects, so the same ranking applies. It does not cover photography.
How do I know if a niche is already saturated?
Compare how many works already exist for the phrase against how much it is searched for, and check what share of that supply the marketplace has flagged as AI. A high supply count on its own is not saturation — a high supply count against flat demand is.
Is this a list of drawing prompts?
No, and deliberately not. If you are drawing for yourself, any prompt list will do and this page is the wrong tool. This is for people who publish what they make and want the subject chosen on evidence: which phrases have buyers, how crowded each one is, and when to have the work indexed by.
How is this different from a trending-keywords list?
A trending list is a report on what has already won — the files and keywords currently topping a marketplace. That tells you where the competition is, not where the room is. This measures demand against supply to find subjects that are under-served now, which is the opposite question and the more useful one if you have not made the work yet.
What does it cost to see the numbers?
Every tracked phrase has a free page naming the subject, its category and the tags sellers use alongside it. The measurements — demand, supply, AI share, the 52-week projection and the upload window — are what the subscription buys: 14-day free trial, no card up front, then $5/month.
Where does the data come from?
10 sources, refreshed daily: supply from Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and iStock; seller competition from Etsy; demand from Google Trends, Pinterest Trends and Reddit; plus a timing layer of holidays, observances and upcoming film and TV releases, each linked to the phrases it moves. Nothing outside that list is collected.
Stop guessing what to make next.
See the demand, supply and AI share behind every subject — and the week to have the work indexed by.
Create your free account