• 146 ideas

Scary Things to Draw, Each With the Scare That Makes It Work

Press the button for one scary subject and the device that makes it frightening, then start the clock.

Scary Things to Draw, Each With the Scare That Makes It Work

All 146
  1. Television lighting an empty living roomOne light. The only light is the screen. It throws the shadow of an armchair, and of someone in it.

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All 146 ideas

Creepy and uncanny 41

  • Bedroom door open a crack at night Half hidden. A strip of black between door and frame, with nothing in it. That strip is the drawing.
  • Child's crayon drawing of a friend in the wall Wrong place. Draw it as a child would: stick family, sun, house, and one long grey shape inside the wall.
  • Commuter with a smooth blank face Almost human. Draw the hair, ears, collar and newspaper with care. Leave the face as unbroken skin.
  • Doll's house with one attic light on Wrong scale. Everything is dark and toy-sized except one lit window with a small figure standing in it.
  • Eye looking back through a keyhole Watching. Draw the brass plate large and the keyhole black, with one wet highlight deep inside it.
  • Eyes in the gaps between floorboards Watching. A wooden floor seen from above. Three of the gaps each hold one small upturned eye.
  • Eyes shining from the gap in a wardrobe door Watching. The door stands open a hand's width. Two small highlights sit at the wrong height for a person.
  • Face pressed against frosted glass Half hidden. Only the nose, palms and forehead are sharp, where they touch. Everything else is a pale blur.
  • Far-off figure in an empty field, facing you Wrong scale. A huge bare field and a figure no taller than a fingernail, arms held straight down.
  • Garden statue whose head has turned to follow you Watching. The body faces the path and the head is twisted a little too far round. Moss everywhere but the eyes.
  • Grin floating in the dark with no face round it Half hidden. Black page, one crescent of teeth, placed slightly too high to belong to a person.
  • Hand with one finger too many Too many. Draw an ordinary relaxed hand, then add a sixth finger so neatly that it takes a second look.
  • Hands pressing out from inside a wall Wrong place. The plaster stretches like cloth over ten fingertips and part of a forehead.
  • Jack-in-the-box with fingers on the rim Half hidden. The lid is lifted a little, and two gloved fingers grip the edge from inside.
  • Jar of baby teeth with a handwritten label Too many. A jam jar packed with tiny clean teeth. The label carries a year and nothing else.
  • Long fingers curling round a door frame Half hidden. Four fingers, each with one joint too many, at a height no adult hand would reach.
  • Long hair hanging down from the top of a doorway Wrong place. The hair enters the frame from above, as if someone is on the ceiling of the next room.
  • Long-necked figure peering over a garden fence Almost human. The fence is taller than a person. The head clears it easily, and tilts.
  • Mirror showing a figure in the doorway of an empty room Wrong place. Draw the room twice, once real and once reflected. Only the reflection has someone in it.
  • Music box dancer with her head on backwards Almost human. Tiny, pretty and precise, with the face where the bun of hair should be.
  • Oil portrait with living eyes Watching. A flat painted face in a heavy frame, but the two eyes are round, wet and lit from the side.
  • Old family photo with one face scribbled out Wrong place. Four stiff figures in a frame. Scribble over one face and keep everything else perfectly neat.
  • Party where every guest wears the same paper mask Almost human. Six children at a table, one identical smiling mask on each. One mask has real eyes behind it.
  • Porcelain doll with one eye shut Almost human. A glassy highlight in the open eye, a hairline crack down one cheek, lips slightly parted.
  • Portrait with too many eyes Too many. Stack a third and fourth eye above the brows, all looking the same way. Keep the face calm.
  • Reflection that does not match its owner Wrong place. The figure brushes its hair. The mirror image stands still and looks out at you.
  • Rocking horse with human teeth Almost human. Everything a nursery toy should be, plus one neat row of flat human teeth.
  • Same stranger in the background of four holiday photos Watching. Four little snapshots pinned in a row. One distant figure stands in all of them.
  • Scarecrow that has climbed down from its pole Wrong place. The empty pole stands in the field behind. The scarecrow waits at the gate, arms still out.
  • Self-portrait with the eyes one size too big Almost human. Enlarge the irises until almost no white shows. A small change with a large effect.
  • Shadow with more arms than its owner Too many. An ordinary person under a street lamp. The shadow on the wall behind raises four arms.
  • Shop mannequins that have all turned to face you Watching. Five blank heads in a window, every one angled at the viewer. They need no eyes.
  • Smile that is slightly too wide Almost human. Stretch the mouth a finger-width past where the cheeks should stop it. Change nothing else.
  • Snowman that is closer in every panel Wrong place. Three panels of the same window. The snowman is nearer in each, and it never faces away.
  • Someone sitting on the end of the bed, seen from the pillow Half hidden. A dark seated shape against a slightly less dark window. Give it no detail at all.
  • Teddy bear with its stitched mouth unpicked Almost human. Worn fur, one button eye, and a mouth opening that was never part of the pattern.
  • Tree knot that looks like a screaming face Half hidden. Pareidolia does the work: two hollows and a split in the bark. Do not add pupils.
  • Ventriloquist dummy alone on a chair Almost human. Hinged jaw hanging open, eyes slid sideways toward the viewer, hands folded too neatly.
  • Wallpaper pattern with faces hidden in it Half hidden. Repeat a leafy motif across the page and let three of the repeats resolve into staring faces.
  • Wet footprints across the ceiling Wrong place. Bare prints cross the ceiling, step round the light fitting and stop above the bed.
  • Window with a pale oval in every pane Too many. Twelve panes, twelve pale ovals. Only one of them has features.

Horror creatures 39

  • Anglerfish with its lantern lure One light. Black water, a glowing bulb on a stalk, and behind it only the needle teeth the glow reaches.
  • Antlered shape standing among birch trunks Half hidden. The trunks are white stripes. One stripe has joints, and antlers begin where branches should.
  • Bandaged fingers lifting a sarcophagus lid Half hidden. A heavy stone lid raised two fingers' width, with dust pouring from the gap.
  • Bats pouring out of a well Too many. One dark stream that thins into single bats near the top of the page.
  • Black dog with lamp eyes on a moor road Watching. Low horizon, a pale road, and a dog-shaped hole in the dusk with two round lit eyes.
  • Centipede the length of a corridor Too many. Each leg is simple. A hundred of them, rippling in one wave along the wall, do the work.
  • Chair of piled coats that is not only coats Half hidden. It is a heap of clothes. Except one sleeve ends in fingers, and one button has a pupil.
  • Deep-sea eye behind a tiny submarine Wrong scale. The submarine is a small lit capsule. The eye behind it is the size of the whole craft.
  • Double waving from across the street Almost human. Draw one person twice. The far one smiles a little more and waves with the wrong hand.
  • Empty suit of armour glowing at the visor One light. Nobody inside. A faint glow leaks through the visor slits and the joints at the elbows.
  • Eyeless cave creature with enormous ears Almost human. Pale, thin, no eyes at all. Both ears are turned toward the viewer. It has heard you.
  • Feeler coming up through a bath plughole Wrong place. A clean white bath, bright tiles, and one thin dark feeler testing the air.
  • Figure made entirely of perched crows Too many. A human outline built from birds, with two birds' eyes sitting exactly where eyes would go.
  • Ghost in a hallway, feet not touching the floor Wrong place. Everything about the figure is normal except the hand's width of air under its shoes.
  • Giant hand rising from fog over rooftops Wrong scale. Chimneys and aerials stay tiny and crisp. The hand is soft-edged and taller than the church.
  • Hand breaking through soil by a blank headstone Half hidden. Just the hand, fingers spread, soil crumbling off it. Leave the stone without a name.
  • Hand under the bed reaching for a dangling foot Half hidden. Draw from floor level: dust, a slipper, and one long grey hand flat on the carpet.
  • Mermaid as the deep sea would really make her Almost human. Needle teeth, huge pale eyes and a glowing lure growing from the forehead.
  • Moth whose wing markings make a face Watching. Spread wings, soft fur, and eyespots that line up into something looking back.
  • Open eye under the ice of a frozen lake Half hidden. A skater's view of the ice. Beneath it, blurred, one eye the size of a dinner plate.
  • Owl-headed figure in a long coat Almost human. A human stance and human hands, under a head that has turned right round to look at you.
  • Pale hands rising from a still lake Too many. Calm water and dozens of hands up to the wrist, all open, all reaching the same way.
  • Pinprick eyes at the bottom of the stairs Watching. Fill the stairwell with solid black. Two tiny dots of bare paper, low down, are enough.
  • Pumpkin-headed figure at a crossroads One light. The carved face glows from inside, so the light catches the hat brim above and nothing else.
  • Round creature with a grin across its belly Wrong place. A friendly round body, a small sleepy face, and a wide toothed mouth where the stomach is.
  • Sea serpent coiled round a lighthouse Wrong scale. The lighthouse is your ruler. Wrap three coils round it and keep the head out of frame.
  • Shadow peeling itself off a wall Wrong place. The owner walks off to the left. The shadow stays, one hand already lifted from the plaster.
  • Skeleton rider on a skeleton horse One light. Put the moon behind them, so both read as pale bone shapes with black gaps between the ribs.
  • Small witch whose shadow fills the ceiling Wrong scale. A bent old woman stirs a pot in an ordinary kitchen. Her shadow has claws and covers the wall.
  • Snake with a human smile Almost human. A plain coiled snake, carefully scaled, with lips, even teeth and laughter lines.
  • Spider waiting above a web that fills a doorway Wrong scale. Draw the web first, corner to corner. The spider sits at the top with its legs drawn in.
  • Suitcase with one eye at the zip Half hidden. An ordinary case on a bed, the zip open a few teeth, and one round eye in the gap.
  • Swamp creature surfaced to the eyes Half hidden. Flat water, duckweed, and two pale eyes with the brow ridge just clear of the surface.
  • Tentacles closing round a rowing boat Wrong scale. The boat is tiny and unharmed. Eight arms rise round it like the fingers of a closing hand.
  • Tree creature pulling its roots free Almost human. Knots for eyes, a split for a mouth, and roots lifting out of the ground like toes.
  • Vampire with no reflection at a dressing table Wrong place. The brush, the collar and the chair all show in the mirror. The sitter does not.
  • Wailing spirit with hair streaming upward Wrong place. The trees are still, yet the hair and sleeves stream straight up. The mouth is a long dark oval.
  • Werewolf caught halfway through the change Almost human. Human eyes and one human hand. The jaw, the ears and the other arm have already gone.
  • Winged figure crouched on a water tower Watching. Silhouette only, wings folded like a cloak, two round eyes catching light from the street below.

Empty places at night 35

  • Abandoned classroom with chairs stacked to the ceiling Wrong place. Dust, sun through the blinds, and a single tower of chairs that no caretaker built.
  • Attic of dust sheets, one of them person-shaped Half hidden. Sheets over chairs and a lamp. One sheet is the height and outline of someone standing.
  • Bedroom seen through the slats of a wardrobe Watching. Frame the page with hanging coats. Through the slats: a bed, a lamp, someone reading.
  • Bus shelter in fog with an open umbrella left behind Just left. The timetable is unreadable. The umbrella stands upright on the bench, still dripping.
  • Cabin in the woods with the door open and a lamp lit Just left. Warm light spills down the steps on to the snow. No prints lead in or out.
  • Cellar doors open at the bottom of the garden Half hidden. Two slanted doors flung wide on a black rectangle. Four steps show, then nothing.
  • Cellar stairs under a swinging bare bulb One light. Draw the banister's shadow twice at two angles, because the bulb is still moving.
  • Dining table under dust with one clean plate Just left. Cobwebs on the candlesticks and a grey film over every place setting but one.
  • Drained swimming pool with wet footprints leaving it Just left. Dry tiles, a dry ladder, and one line of wet prints from the deep end to the edge of the page.
  • Empty playground at night with one swing moving Just left. Every swing hangs straight except one, drawn twice in light lines to show it still going.
  • Empty theatre with one seat folded down Just left. Rows of tip-up seats, all sprung shut except one in the very middle of the stalls.
  • Fairground at night with one ride still turning Just left. Stalls shuttered, bulbs dead, and one carousel lit and blurred with every horse riderless.
  • Forest path where every arrow points back Wrong place. Arrows cut into a dozen trunks, all aimed past the viewer, the way you came.
  • Graveyard gate hanging open in fog Half hidden. Draw the iron gate sharply and the first two stones softly. After that, only white paper.
  • Hospital corridor with one working light One light. One-point perspective. Light only the far end, and leave a trolley parked across the middle.
  • House with every window lit except one Half hidden. Warm yellow windows, smoke from the chimney, and one upstairs window left solid black.
  • Lift opening on a floor that is not on the panel Wrong place. The buttons run 1 to 9. The display over the door reads 13, and the corridor beyond is unlit.
  • Lighthouse with its beam turned inland Wrong place. The beam sweeps over the keeper's cottage and the dark hill, never the sea.
  • Lit window shining up through lake ice Wrong place. Snow, skate marks, and under the ice a yellow square with curtains, as if a house is below.
  • Maize maze from above, something flattening a path Half hidden. Bird's-eye view. A straight line of bent stalks heads for the small figure in the middle.
  • Nursery mobile turning with no draught Just left. The curtains hang dead straight. The mobile over the cot is drawn in mid-spin.
  • Petrol station alone on a night road One light. A small island of white light in a page of black, and nobody standing at the till.
  • Pier arcade with every machine lit and nobody there Just left. Rows of glowing cabinets, a coin still spinning on the floor, sea fog at the open doors.
  • Row of school lockers, one breathing mist Wrong place. Thirty identical doors. Cold mist curls from the vents of just one.
  • Rowing boat adrift, oars shipped, lantern burning Just left. Flat fog and no shore. The oars lie neatly inside and the painter trails in the water.
  • Shopping centre escalator overgrown with ivy Just left. Skylights broken, ferns in the fountain, and one shop still has its lights on.
  • Snowy lawn where the footprints stop halfway Just left. One line of prints from the gate to the middle of the garden, then clean snow.
  • Staircase going down into black water Half hidden. Steps in clean perspective. The water line crosses the sixth step. Below it, draw nothing.
  • Steamed mirror with a handprint too high to reach Wrong place. An ordinary bathroom. The print sits right at the top of the glass, fingers pointing down.
  • Television lighting an empty living room One light. The only light is the screen. It throws the shadow of an armchair, and of someone in it.
  • Tent lit from inside with a second shadow outside One light. A camper's lamp shows one seated shadow within. A taller shadow falls on the canvas from outside.
  • Tunnel with a silhouette standing in the light at the end Wrong scale. The figure is too tall for the opening, so it stoops a little under the arch.
  • Underground car park with one car, all doors open Just left. Pillars recede in one-point perspective. The interior light is on and the engine is not.
  • Waist-high door at the end of a normal corridor Wrong scale. Ordinary skirting boards, ordinary light switch. The door at the end is half the right size.
  • Well in a clearing with a taut rope going down Half hidden. The rope is tight and slightly blurred. Whatever is on the end is below the edge of the page.

Spooky, not scary 31

  • Arched black cat on a fence post against the moon Kept friendly. Solid black silhouette, puffed tail, and a moon drawn round a cup.
  • Bat snoring upside down in a blanket of wings Kept friendly. The wings fold round like a blanket and only the ears and a snore bubble stick out.
  • Broomstick locked up in a bike rack Kept friendly. An ordinary street rack, two bicycles, and a broom with a padlock and a small bell.
  • Candle stub with a wobbly flame and a long shadow Kept friendly. Drips down one side, a flame like a leaning teardrop, and a shadow three times its height.
  • Cauldron whose bubbles have tiny faces Kept friendly. A fat pot on three legs. Every bubble gets two dots and a different expression.
  • Cobweb in the page corner with one patient spider Kept friendly. Straight threads fan out from the corner, then sagging curves join them up.
  • Crooked house with one smiling window Kept friendly. Lean every wall a different way, bend the chimney, and curve one window into a grin.
  • Crooked signpost reading This Way, That Way, Don't Kept friendly. Three boards nailed at different angles to one leaning post. Letter them by hand.
  • Ghost dog fetching a glowing bone Kept friendly. A see-through dog, tail mid-wag, with the garden fence visible through its body.
  • Ghost napping against its own gravestone Kept friendly. Hands folded, a row of Zs drifting upward, and a snail crossing the top of the stone.
  • Ghost reading a bedtime story to three smaller ghosts Kept friendly. Soft rounded shapes and a book held upside down. The smallest ghost hides behind a pillow.
  • Grandfather clock with eyes behind the pendulum Kept friendly. A tall case, a round face at five to midnight, and two eyes peering through the little window.
  • Hollow-eyed tree wearing a bird's nest for a hat Kept friendly. Two knot-hole eyes, branch arms raised in a shrug, and a nest with one egg on top.
  • Mummy tangled in its own bandages Kept friendly. Two round eyes in a gap, one foot caught in a loop, a loose end trailing off the page.
  • Owl with huge surprised eyes on a bare branch Kept friendly. Two big circles with small pupils fill most of the head. Ear tufts straight up.
  • Pairs of eyes in a dark bush, one pair upside down Kept friendly. Black bush shape, six pairs of white ovals. Flip one pair and cross another.
  • Procession of little ghosts carrying lanterns Kept friendly. Seven small shapes in a wavy line, each lantern a circle of bare paper in a grey wash.
  • Pumpkin lantern in the middle of a yawn Kept friendly. Triangle eyes half closed, mouth a tall oval, and a candle flame leaning in the draught.
  • Scaredy-cat under a blanket with its tail showing Kept friendly. A lumpy blanket, two eyes in the dark opening, and a puffed-up tail sticking out behind.
  • Sheet ghost tripping over its own hem Kept friendly. Round eyes, no mouth, and a pair of trainers showing under the sheet.
  • Shelf of potion bottles with hand-drawn labels Kept friendly. Six bottle shapes, six cork stoppers. Invent the labels: Hiccups, Fog, Monday.
  • Skeleton walking a skeleton dog Kept friendly. Give them both a jaunty step and the dog a wagging tail of tiny bones.
  • Small vampire in a bath-towel cape Kept friendly. A child's pose, arms wide, two tiny fangs and a towel pegged at the neck.
  • Spider in a party hat at the centre of its web Kept friendly. Spokes first, then the spiral. A round body, eight bent legs and a cone hat with a pom-pom.
  • Swamp monster floating in a rubber ring Kept friendly. Weed for hair, webbed hands behind its head, and a striped ring holding it up.
  • Three-toed monster footprints crossing the page Kept friendly. Left, right, left, from one corner to the other. They step over your margin.
  • Tiny ghost peeking out of a teacup Kept friendly. Draw the cup first. The ghost is one rounded bump with two dots and fingers on the rim.
  • Under-the-bed monster handing back a lost sock Kept friendly. One furry arm, three blunt claws and a striped sock held out politely.
  • Werewolf pup howling at a street lamp by mistake Kept friendly. Oversized paws, head thrown back, and the real moon watching from behind a roof.
  • Witch's hat with a spider abseiling from the brim Kept friendly. A bent cone, a wide brim, a buckle, and one thread with a round spider on the end.
  • Worried moon behind thin clouds Kept friendly. A big circle with raised eyebrows, and three streaky clouds drawn across it.

How it works

All 146 of these scary things to draw frighten without gore. Every hint opens with its scare: Too many, Almost human, Half hidden, Wrong place, Wrong scale, One light, Watching or Just left. Portrait with too many eyes is the first kind. Staircase going down into black water is the third.

Read the full guide

Eight scares, no gore

Fear on paper comes from what is slightly off. Almost human is the uncanny valley: things that look nearly human can feel eerie, which is why Porcelain doll with one eye shut works. Half hidden borrows pareidolia, the habit of seeing faces in vague patterns, as in Tree knot that looks like a screaming face. Good horror art ideas lean on suggestion, not detail, and these scary drawing ideas were picked for an October sketchbook.

Creepy, horror and empty places

The 41 creepy things to draw are everyday objects with one detail wrong. The 39 horror drawing ideas are creatures, all folklore or invented here, with no film characters. Anglerfish with its lantern lure is real: a deep-sea fish carrying a glowing lure on a fin ray. Empty places at night, 35 ideas, has no monster, only a swing still moving. The rule for creepy drawing ideas: change one thing and draw everything else straight.

  • Hide more than you show. Pinprick eyes at the bottom of the stairs is a black page and two dots.
  • For One light ideas, shade the whole page first, then lift the lit shapes out with an eraser.
  • Draw the creature small. A figure a thumb high at the far end of a corridor is worse than any close-up.

Questions and answers

Which ones can a beginner manage?

Choose Easy for 61. Most need one wrong detail on a plain drawing: Smile that is slightly too wide, or Wet footprints across the ceiling. These easy creepy things to draw suit the five-minute clock, because a quick flat drawing can look stranger than a polished one.

Is there gentler stuff on the list?

Yes. Spooky, not scary holds 31 ideas whose hints open with Kept friendly, such as Tiny ghost peeking out of a teacup and Skeleton walking a skeleton dog: the spooky things to draw for a cosy Halloween. The rest of the page is written for teens and adults. For a young child, drawing prompts for kids is the better page.

What should I draw these with?

Something that goes properly black. A 4B pencil, charcoal or a brush pen gives the One light ideas the dark they need, where a hard pencil leaves them grey. For Creepy and uncanny a fine liner is enough, because the scare there is one wrong detail, not the shading.

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