Daily Drawing Prompts for the Dark and Quirky

20 fun daily prompts to give your your darker side a spin.

A drawing a day keeps the gremlins away….

We know that habits are the holy grail to achieving any goal. We’ve all heard the mantras; ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey’… ‘an epic journey is made of a thousand single steps…’ blah blah blah…

As cliché as these sound… it’s true.

In order to get good at any creative pursuit, you need to practice. (there’s that word we all loathe… PRACTICE)

Never fear my friend because today I’m here to make your practice FUN!

To assist you on your way to creative genius and amplify your general brilliance, I’ve created 20 dark drawing prompts to whet your practice appetite.  Designed as tools that spark inspiration, I hope these prompts will encourage you to explore each topic in your own way and challenge your artistic boundaries.

Nicola x

20 Dark Drawing Prompts

1. Creepy Carnival: Illustrate a whimsical yet eerie scene from a twisted carnival.
2. Mischievous Monsters: Create a playful illustration featuring mischievous and endearing monsters.
3. Enchanted Forest: Draw a dark and mysterious forest with whimsical creatures lurking within.
4. Macabre Tea Party: Depict a bizarre tea party where unconventional characters gather.
5. Haunted Doll: Bring to life a spooky and unsettling doll with a unique personality.
6. Shadow Puppets: Explore the dark with a drawing of eerie shadow puppets performing.
7. Nightmare Garden: Imagine a garden filled with sinister plants and unusual inhabitants.
8. Quirky Graveyard: Illustrate a graveyard where unusual and eccentric tombstones come to life.
9. Magical Curiosities: Create a drawing showcasing a cabinet of peculiar and enchanted curiosities.
10. Twisted Fairy Tale: Reimagine a classic fairy tale with a dark and unconventional twist.
11. Strange Steampunk Contraption: Design a bizarre steampunk-inspired contraption with unusual functions.
12. Sinister Superhero: Invent a unique superhero or villain with dark and unconventional powers.
13. Cryptic Encounter: Draw a mysterious encounter between a curious explorer and a mythical creature.
14. Distorted Reflections: Capture the distorted and eerie reflections in a dark mirror or reflective surface.
15. Phantasmagoric Circus: Illustrate a surreal circus performance with fantastical and eerie elements.
16. Oddly Beautiful: Create an illustration that blends beauty and darkness in an unexpected way.
17. Nightmarish Dreamscape: Draw a surreal dreamscape filled with bizarre and unsettling imagery.
18. Twisted Fairy: Give a dark and twisted makeover to a beloved fairy character from folklore.
19. Haunted Objects: Bring to life ordinary objects that possess a sinister and haunting aura.
20. Eccentric Self-Portrait: Create a self-portrait that showcases your own unique quirks and dark sensibilities.

Feel free to interpret these prompts in your own style and let your imagination take flight in the slightly dark and quirky realms of creativity!

How Daily Drawing Helps You Improve

Drawing daily is the key to unlocking your full potential. Like any skill, drawing requires practice and dedication to improve and by committing to the habit of daily drawing, you will strengthen your ‘creative muscle’ so to speak and begin to develop a keen eye for detail, and refine your technical skills.

Drawing daily forces you to confront your fears, experiment with new techniques, and overcome creative blocks because you have less time to perfect things in order to meet the daily prompt deadline. This challenge forces you to start thinking quickly, sketching multiple draft ideas and crafting them into more finished drawings in a much shorter period of time.

They can be frustrating because on some days you feel like you can’t get anything right, but if you push through and complete the challenge each day even if you’re not 100% happy with your piece, then you will start to see significant improvement within a short time frame.

Why Dark and Quirky?

Artists who delve into the slightly dark and quirky side of life, enrich society by inviting others to explore the depths of their emotions, challenging societal norms, and offering alternative narratives. Their contributions spark dialogue, inspire change, and cultivate a more empathetic and inclusive society that values the diversity of human expression.

And it’s fun.

So be free my little bat and draw!