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Weird Drawing Ideas

Press the button for three surreal mash-ups, with hints on how to make the impossible part look as if it belongs there.

Weird Drawing Ideas

Show all 80
  1. Cactus with a full head of combed hairA side parting sells it. The spines stay everywhere except the scalp.
  2. Knitted river with the needles still in itRows of V stitches follow the current. It unravels into real water at the far bank.
  3. Bed drifting down a river with someone asleep in itThe quilt trails in the water. Reeds part for the headboard.

Next step Build a stranger hybrid, one body part at a timeGlass, water, cloth: practise the hard materials

All 80 ideas

Hybrids 20

  • Bird whose body is a cage with a smaller bird inside Bars replace the ribs. The inner bird sits on a swing where the heart would be.
  • Cactus with a full head of combed hair A side parting sells it. The spines stay everywhere except the scalp.
  • Centaur with the human half at the back Horse head and forelegs in front, a pair of legs in trousers bringing up the rear. Both halves look tired.
  • Deer with bare winter trees for antlers One bird's nest sits in the left antler. Each trunk thickens where it joins the skull.
  • Dog that is half dachshund, half accordion Bellows pleats replace the long middle. Stretch it across two pages if you have them.
  • Fish with legs waiting at a bus stop Draw the bus stop dull and correct: timetable, bin, kerb. The stranger the fish, the plainer the street.
  • Giraffe with a desk lamp for a head The neck already bends like a lamp arm. Aim the cone of light at something small on the ground.
  • Hermit crab living in a chipped teacup Hermit crabs borrow empty shells, so a cup is nearly plausible. Keep the handle and chip the rim.
  • House growing roots into the pavement Roots lift the paving slabs like a street tree's. The front step has cracked and the gutter sprouts leaves.
  • Jellyfish with a lampshade bell and pull-cord tentacles Fringe on the shade, one beaded pull cord among the tentacles. It glows from inside.
  • Lighthouse with a giant eye for a lamp The beam is a cone of looking. Add an eyelid as the shutter, half closed.
  • Moth with stained-glass windows for wings Black leading between the colours, as in a church window. Coloured light falls through onto the wall.
  • Owl with clock faces for eyes The two clocks disagree by an hour. The feather ring round each eye doubles as the clock rim.
  • Pigeon with human hands instead of wings Hands clasped behind its back, like someone waiting in a queue. Draw the fingers properly or it falls flat.
  • Snail carrying a block of flats on its back Windows follow the spiral of the shell. Light one of them so that somebody is home.
  • Snake that is a zip, half undone The zip teeth are its belly scales. Where it has opened, show a plain striped lining.
  • Teeth laid out as piano keys Keep the piano lid glossy and exact. Gums replace the felt strip, and one key is a gold filling.
  • Tree that grows light bulbs instead of fruit Bulbs hang from their screw caps like pears. Only the ripe ones are lit.
  • Umbrella with bat wings, asleep upside down An umbrella's ribs already match the long finger bones of a bat's wing. Hook the handle over a branch.
  • Whale with a terrace of houses along its spine Chimneys smoke, and the blowhole is just one more chimney. String washing lines between them.

Wrong material 14

  • Armchair upholstered in freshly mown grass Short upright strokes for turf and one daisy on the armrest. The wooden legs stay wooden.
  • Brick cloud casting a soft shadow Mortar lines wrap a puffy outline. It floats, so drop the shadow far below it.
  • Feather so heavy it cracks the pavement Draw the softest barbs you can, then radiating cracks under the tip of the quill.
  • Glass apple with a bite taken out The bite shows thickness, like a broken bottle. The table edge bends where you see it through the fruit.
  • Hair made of running water It pours off the shoulders and splashes at the floor. Highlights run down the strands, never across.
  • Knitted river with the needles still in it Rows of V stitches follow the current. It unravels into real water at the far bank.
  • Melting staircase pooling on the hall floor Top steps crisp, bottom steps a puddle with the banister sagging into it. One drip hangs mid-fall.
  • Moon made of crumpled paper, lit from one side Craters become creases. A strip of sticky tape holds it to the sky.
  • Mountain range folded from a road map Peaks are paper creases, and roads and place names run up the slopes. Blue rivers still find the valleys.
  • Paper boat built from riveted steel plates Keep the origami folds exact, then add rivets, rust streaks and an anchor chain.
  • Rain falling as threads and being sewn into the ground Every thread ends in a neat stitch. Somewhere up in the cloud there is a needle.
  • Sea made of folded bedsheets Wave crests are fold ridges with pillowcase hems. A small boat presses a dent into the linen.
  • Stone balloon on a taut string Granite speckle and a crack, yet the string pulls straight up. The contradiction is the whole drawing.
  • Wooden flame on a real wax candle Carve the flame with grain lines and one knot. The wax still melts beneath it.

Wrong size 14

  • Ant carrying a full-size sofa An ant hauling an oversized load looks normal, so only the furniture is wrong. Six legs, slight strain.
  • City built on a dinner plate, fork for scale Tower blocks rise out of the mashed potato. Traffic circles the rim.
  • Elephant balanced on a dandelion clock All four feet bunched together on the seed head. Not one seed has come loose.
  • Forest of pencils taller than the walkers beneath Six-sided trunks, painted bark, graphite tips in the clouds. Shavings lie about like leaves.
  • Giant house key leaning against a cottage The key stands taller than the chimney. Its shadow has to cross the whole garden to convince.
  • Goldfish wearing its too-small bowl as a helmet The bowl sits over the head like a diving helmet, with the rest of the fish out in the dry air.
  • Housecat the size of a bus, asleep across a road Cars queue politely. Perspective sells it: the far paw is already small.
  • Lighthouse no taller than the candles on a birthday cake Its beam sweeps across the icing. The real candles tower over it.
  • Moon small enough to keep in a jam jar Craters and all, glowing through the glass. Air holes are punched in the lid.
  • Rower crossing a soup bowl in a walnut shell Steam stands in for fog. A spoon resting on the rim reads as the pier.
  • Staircase whose steps are taller than the climber They have brought a ladder. Show three steps only, so the top stays out of sight.
  • Thunderstorm inside a drinking glass Cloud at the rim, rain in the middle, rough sea at the bottom. The table outside stays dry.
  • Tiny front door in the skirting board, with a doormat A milk bottle the size of a pin stands outside. A line of light shows under the door.
  • Whale asleep in a teacup Tail draped over the rim. The saucer holds a little spilled sea.

Wrong place 14

  • Armchair and floor lamp at the bottom of a swimming pool The lamp is still lit. Tile lines wobble with the water and bubbles rise from the cushion.
  • Bath on a mountain summit with the taps running The overflow becomes the river you can follow all the way down the valley.
  • Bed drifting down a river with someone asleep in it The quilt trails in the water. Reeds part for the headboard.
  • Cloud on a leash being walked down the street Keep it at knee height and a little reluctant. It leaves a damp trail on the pavement.
  • Front door standing alone in the sea, slightly open No wall and no house. The strip of light behind the door is warmer than the daylight.
  • Goldfish in the birdcage, canary in the fishbowl Swap the two pets and change nothing else. The water holds its shape between the bars.
  • Moon caught in the branches of a garden tree A ladder leans on the trunk. The branches sag under the weight and are lit from within.
  • Rain falling upward from the puddles Drops are fat at the bottom and thin at the top. People hold their umbrellas upside down.
  • Row of office desks in a forest clearing Moss on the keyboards, in-trays full of leaves. One chair has been pulled out.
  • Staircase rising out of a lake to nowhere The reflection doubles it into a diamond. The top step simply stops.
  • Street lamp growing in the middle of a wheat field A circle of lit wheat beneath it, even in daylight. No road and no wire.
  • Traffic lights on the seabed, directing fish A green glow in murky water. A shoal waits at red.
  • Washing line strung between two planets The socks drift instead of hanging. The pegs are the only things behaving normally.
  • Zebra crossing painted across the sky Birds wait at the kerb of a cloud. The stripes shrink toward the horizon like any road.

Weirdcore 18

  • Bedroom whose ceiling is a calm sea seen from below Ripples of light cross the duvet. The hull of a small boat passes over the wardrobe.
  • Birthday table set for twelve with no guests A paper hat on each plate, candles lit, chairs pushed in. The balloons have sunk to the floor.
  • Blurry figure of light above a sharp bus shelter Smudge the figure on purpose, since weirdcore borrows the look of a bad photo. Keep the shelter crisp.
  • Bright supermarket aisle with bare shelves and one balloon Shelf edges race to a vanishing point. The balloon string is tied to nothing.
  • Classroom with every chair facing the back wall Nothing else is wrong, which is why it works. The wall clock has no hands.
  • Drained swimming pool with one deck chair at the bottom Blue tiles, a dry ladder, a faded depth marking. The chair faces the deep end.
  • Empty car park under orange light, one shopping trolley Bays in perspective, painted arrows, a single long shadow. Leave out every car.
  • Empty school corridor with one floating eye Flat strip lighting, no shadows, no people. The eye is drawn more carefully than anything else.
  • Exit sign pointing at a solid wall Running figure, arrow, plain brick. Light the wall as if something ought to be there.
  • Figure with a television for a head, showing static Ordinary jumper, hands in pockets. The aerial is slightly bent.
  • Green hill under a flat blue sky, captioned 'come back' Letter the caption in a plain computer font, slightly off centre. The text does the unsettling.
  • Hotel corridor where every door is the same door Run the patterned carpet to a vanishing point. One door, far off, is open a crack.
  • Indoor play area at night with the lights left on Primary colours, padded floor, nobody there. Flatten the light so that nothing casts a shadow.
  • Laundrette at night with an eye in one machine door Round door, round iris: the fit is too neat. Leave the other machines empty and dark.
  • Old family living room with a window onto deep space Patterned sofa, boxy television, net curtains. Outside, the stars do not twinkle. They just sit there.
  • Petrol station glowing alone in fog, no road in sight A hard-edged canopy of light, then nothing. Fade the forecourt out before it reaches a kerb.
  • Playground slide that ends at a door in the ground Bright plastic, soft bark chips, then a plain door lying flat. Its handle is polished from use.
  • School portrait with a black bar across the eyes The bar is dead level and wider than the head. Everything else is a cheerful photo backdrop.

How it works

Something has gone calmly wrong in each of these 80 weird drawing ideas, and the list is sorted by what: two things fused into a hybrid, a thing made of the wrong material, the wrong size, the wrong place, or an empty weirdcore room. Each hint says how to make the strangeness convincing.

Read the full guide

Play it straight

Weird is not funny. A joke needs a punchline, while a weird drawing needs an ordinary world with one thing calmly wrong in it. In Fish with legs waiting at a bus stop, the bus stop has to be dull and correct: timetable, bin, kerb. Surrealist painters set unexpected things side by side and rendered them without a wink. Spend your effort on the believable half.

Four kinds of wrong, plus weirdcore

Hybrids fuse two bodies where their shapes already rhyme: an umbrella's ribs match the long finger bones of a bat's wing. Wrong material keeps the shape and swaps the stuff, as in Knitted river with the needles still in it. Wrong size and Wrong place change only scale or setting. The 18 weirdcore drawing ideas borrow an internet look: empty corridors, flat light, stray eyes, television heads and unsettling captions.

  • For crazy drawing ideas of your own, change one noun. Teeth laid out as piano keys becomes teeth as a garden fence.
  • Shadows and reflections are the proof. Moon small enough to keep in a jam jar convinces once its glow lands on the lid.
  • Three people can invent crazy things to draw with a folded sheet: one draws the head, one the torso, one the legs, each hidden from the next.

Questions and answers

What are some easy weird things to draw?

Choose Easy in the list under the button for 25 that need only simple shapes, such as Cactus with a full head of combed hair, Stone balloon on a taut string and Whale asleep in a teacup. Each is one familiar outline with one swap.

What is weirdcore, and how do I draw it?

Weirdcore is an internet aesthetic popularised in the early 2020s: liminal spaces, low-quality photos, nostalgia, odd captions, eyes and television heads. To draw it, flatten the light, take out the people and let one detail be wrong. Classroom with every chair facing the back wall shows how little it takes.

Pencil, pen or colour?

Pencil or fineliner first, because weird depends on the ordinary half being believable, and plain tone does that best. Add colour only to the part that is wrong: Brick cloud casting a soft shadow works in grey with the bricks alone in red. For the weirdcore rooms, flat marker colour with no shading matches the washed-out look.

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