• 60 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Mysterious Drawing Ideas

Three mysterious pictures per press, each with the one thing to hide or leave out.

Mysterious Drawing Ideas

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  1. Hillside steps that stop at a blank rock faceDeep, worn steps end at solid stone. No door and no crack, only the wear of many feet.
  2. Trail of lit candles leading into a caveShrink each flame a little. Stop the trail at the cave mouth and fill the rest with black.
  3. Glowing footprints crossing a dark beachSoft blue prints that start at the water and fade after five. Shape them like neither shoe nor paw.

Next step Scratch the light out of blackPractice the vanishing point

All 60 ideas

Half seen 12

  • Figure behind frosted glass with one hand raised Blur every edge except the palm on the glass. Where the face would be, leave a pale oval.
  • Long shadow sliding under a paddle boat Keep it a soft dark shape with no fins and no eyes. The boat's own small shadow gives the scale.
  • Open fan held just under a pair of eyes Only the eyes show. Decide what the mouth is doing behind the fan, then keep it to yourself.
  • Pair of boots showing under a stage curtain The curtain hides all above the ankle. Pick boots that say something: muddy, buckled, far too big.
  • Shadow of a hat and coat on a window blind Draw the shadow, never its owner. It could be a person or a coat stand. Leave both possible.
  • Sitter holding a hand mirror in front of the face Draw what the mirror shows instead of the face: a corner of a room the viewer is not standing in.
  • Someone walking away under a huge umbrella Coat, boots and umbrella only. The wet street reflects them, and the reflection has no face either.
  • Statue on a town square wrapped in canvas and rope Wrap it completely. A pointing arm and the base of something winged push against the canvas.
  • Stranger reflected in a shop window at dusk We stand behind them. Draw the back of the head sharply and smudge the features in the glass.
  • Tail vanishing around the end of a bookshelf Draw the tail and nothing else of the animal. Its length and its tuft are the only clues.
  • Tall shape under a dust sheet in a museum storeroom Let the folds give three hints: a point, a curve, a wheel. Never lift a corner of the cloth.
  • Train passenger asleep with a hat over the face The brim hides the face. Put the story in the luggage tag, turned so it cannot quite be read.

Locked and sealed 12

  • Book tied shut with ribbon, a pressed flower sticking out No title on the cover. One dry stem pokes out from a page that stays closed.
  • Chained garden gate with a freshly swept path beyond Rust on the chain, weeds through the bars, and a clean path behind. Leave out whoever sweeps it.
  • Chest of drawers with one handle taken off Three drawers have handles. The fourth has two screw holes, a thin dark gap and no way to pull it open.
  • Covered birdcage with one bright feather on the floor Drape the cloth right to the base. Colour the feather like no bird you could name.
  • Glass dome over something covered by a cloth Hidden twice. Give the cloth one sharp corner and one soft bulge, and let the glass catch a window.
  • Letter with its wax seal unbroken Draw the stamp in the wax clearly and lay the address side face down. Who it is for stays unknown.
  • Parcel in brown paper tied with too much string Give it a lumpy outline that fits no object you can name, and smudge the postmark.
  • Sealed envelope addressed with only a small ink bird No name and no stamp. The bird sits where the address goes, and the flap stays stuck down.
  • Tin box half dug out of a flower bed Leave it half in the soil with the lid still shut. A spade handle leans in from the edge of the page.
  • Travel trunk roped twice, its labels half torn off Tear each label through the place name. The trunk is old, the rope is new, the knots are neat.
  • Wall safe behind a painting that hangs crooked The tilted frame shows one corner of the safe and half its dial. Cover the rest with the picture.
  • Wooden box with three different locks Three locks by three makers and no key in the picture. Scratches near one say somebody has tried.

Clues on a table 12

  • Charred corner of a letter on a brass tray One corner survived. Give it three words that could begin a dozen different sentences.
  • Chess game left halfway, with a thimble for a pawn Both chairs are pushed back. Set the pieces so nobody could say whose move it is.
  • Group photograph where one person looks the other way Nine people face the camera. The tenth has turned toward something the frame cuts off.
  • Jigsaw finished except for one piece The jigsaw shows a house. The gap falls exactly where the front door should be.
  • Magnifying glass over one muddy footprint on a newspaper Enlarge the tread inside the lens. The shoe, the foot and the owner all stay out of the picture.
  • Note written in a code of small symbols Invent twelve symbols and repeat a few so it looks solvable. Write the answer nowhere.
  • Notebook open at a page that has been torn out Paper stubs stand in the fold. The next page carries dents from the lost writing, too faint to read.
  • Shopping list with one line crossed out past reading Four lines are plain errands. Strike the fifth through until no letter of it can be made out.
  • Three small finds pinned to a numbered card A feather, a foreign coin, a ticket stub. Pin each over a number and explain none of them.
  • Torn map with the middle piece missing On the two outer pieces, aim every road at the gap. The place they all lead to is the lost piece.
  • Train ticket with the destination rubbed away Keep the date, the seat and the punch hole crisp. Wear the place name down to two faint letters.
  • Two cups on a table, only one still steaming Same cups, same saucers. One has gone cold with a skin on top. Draw neither drinker.

Lights where none should be 12

  • Glow at the bottom of a garden pond Ring it with lily pads and a few fish in silhouette. The thing that shines stays under the mud.
  • Glow leaking from a knothole in an old oak Warm light shows through the cracks in the bark too. Keep the knothole too small to see into.
  • Glowing footprints crossing a dark beach Soft blue prints that start at the water and fade after five. Shape them like neither shoe nor paw.
  • Lantern hanging deep in a forest with no path to it One warm dot between dark trunks. No trail, no footprints, and no one holding the lantern.
  • Lit window in a tower that has no door Stone all the way around and no way in. One window glows, and its curtain is drawn.
  • Model ship in a bottle with one porthole lit A tiny yellow dot in a corked bottle on a dark shelf. No wire runs in and the cork is dusty.
  • One star hanging lower than the rooftops Every star sits above the roofs but one, level with a chimney. Tint it warmer and give it nothing to hang from.
  • Single streetlamp in the middle of a hay field No road and no wire. It lights a neat circle of stubble and a bench that faces nothing.
  • Strip of light under a cupboard door A bright line along the floor with two short shadows in it, as if something inside is standing still.
  • Three lights in a row on a bare hill Draw the hill's outline and three small lights, level and evenly spaced. Add nothing that could hold them.
  • Trail of lit candles leading into a cave Shrink each flame a little. Stop the trail at the cave mouth and fill the rest with black.
  • Waterfall lit from behind Warm light through cold falling water. Hint at an opening in the rock, and not at who lit it.

Doors, stairs and paths that go on 12

  • Canal slipping into a low brick tunnel The towpath stops at the arch and the water goes on. Bend the tunnel so no far end shows.
  • Corridor of nine plain doors, one with a doormat The mat is worn through in the middle. Keep all nine doors shut, that one included.
  • Hallway mirror showing one door too many The hall has three doors. Draw four in the mirror, and keep the extra one closed.
  • Hedge tunnel with a bend at the far end Clipped green walls and a gravel floor. The path turns left and takes the answer with it.
  • Hillside steps that stop at a blank rock face Deep, worn steps end at solid stone. No door and no crack, only the wear of many feet.
  • Ladder with its top rungs inside a cloud The feet stand in ordinary grass. The rungs fade as they climb, and nothing comes back down.
  • Railway line that forks, one branch rusty and one bright Both branches curve out of sight. Only one has carried a train lately. No signal, no sign.
  • Rope bridge that ends in a wall of leaves Wear the planks pale in the middle, so it is clearly used. The far end runs straight into the green.
  • Signpost at a crossroads with every name worn off Four arms, four roads, no paint left on any. Make one arm from newer wood than the rest.
  • Spiral staircase climbing out of the top of the page Crop it before it arrives anywhere. A hand on the rail, three turns up, is all we see of anyone.
  • Stepping stones crossing a lake into fog Draw six stones, each paler and softer than the one before. The seventh is only a guess.
  • Trapdoor showing under a rug pulled half back Show the iron ring and two edges. The rug covers the rest, and a chair leg pins its corner.

How it works

A mysterious drawing shows enough to raise a question and stops before the answer. These 60 are sorted by how they hold back: half seen, locked, left as clues, lit with no reason, or leading out of the picture.

Read the full guide

Know the answer, then hide it

Before you draw, settle what is under the dust sheet or who hung the lantern. The folds and the light land better when you know. Then keep it off the page.

Crop, cover or fade

Crop: let the spiral stair run off the top of the page. Cover: a cloth, a brim, a closed lid. Fade: the farther away a thing is, the less it contrasts with what is behind it, so draw the near stepping stone dark and let the last one thin into the paper. Whatever you do show, draw sharply. A vague drawing is not a mysterious one.

  • Draw the wear: scratches by a lock, planks rubbed pale in the middle. Wear says someone was here without showing them.
  • Let one detail read two ways, like the shadow that could be a person or a coat stand.

Questions and answers

What makes a drawing look mysterious?

A clear picture of an unclear situation. Something is covered, cropped, locked or lit from nowhere, and the drawing gives a clue or two and no answer. A good question does more than dark shading.

What are some mystery drawing ideas?

The group Clues on a table holds 12 for a detective's desk, such as Torn map with the middle piece missing, Note written in a code of small symbols and Jigsaw finished except for one piece. None shows a crime, only a puzzle.

What is an easy mysterious thing to draw?

Letter with its wax seal unbroken, Single streetlamp in the middle of a hay field or Signpost at a crossroads with every name worn off. Each is one simple object and one decision about what to leave out.

Is a mysterious drawing the same as a scary one?

No. Scary things to draw sets out to unsettle, with creatures and empty places at night. Nothing here is meant to frighten. The viewer should want to open the box, not run from it.

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