Halloween Art Journal Prompts: 13 Ideas For Mindful Spookiness
Are you a Halloween fan? I was never into this holiday, and I never really did any art journaling connected to Halloween before.
Below, you’ll find 13 Halloween art journal prompts you can do this month. Some of them are just for the sake of drawing and painting, but most of them are my ideas on how to be more mindful while creating art and exploring your darker side.
The other day, while thinking about the holiday and its “dark side”, I figured out how even the darkest art has something uniquely beautiful to it.
Halloween art journal prompts
What I’ve realized is that Halloween doesn’t have to be just kids and costumes and getting caries from a ton of candies. This spooky holiday can inspire you to try art journaling with a different approach: to acknowledge the dark and scary but still find your way through it to something beautiful.
In order to inspire you, I’ve come up with 13 Halloween art journal prompts. Yes, 13. Yes, it’s intended.
Now, make some spookalicious art!
1. Edgar Allan Poe’s Halloween
He’s one of my favorite authors and no wonder he was the first to come to my mind.
For this kind of page, you can use his poem or only a quote. Choose one that resonates with you and makes you feel something. Do you know any other similar poets? Choose their words and incorporate them on your page.
Explore how dark you can go with their words, and if something feels uncomfortable to read or it’s too heavy for some reason, give it some attention. Why is this hard to read? Too dark? Boring?
Whatever the reason is, you’ll find out something about yourself. And that’s something to treasure.
If you want to read more, check out E. A. Poe’s poetry here.
2. A black cat
Draw a silhouette of a black cat and then write a quote or a poem in it using a white pen or marker.
3. A naughty witch
Draw a witch, or glue a picture if you have. This doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t start taking drawing classes for this. A picture from a magazine will do just right.
Next, imagine her being really naughty but extremely powerful. She can do things with a touch of her wand.
If you were that witch, what naughty thing would you do? Would you turn somebody into a slimy, little cockroach with no friends? Would you go back to school and find that one pompous kid and kick him in the nuts for calling you a friendless little nerdy nerd?
4. Goodie two-shoes witch
If you imagine you’re this one and still have all the power, what would you change? Let this one be whimsical and colorful. She’ll make all your wishes come true. What would those be?
5. Witchy symbols
If you start looking for these symbols, you’ll find many of them online. For me, this is wonderful geometrical art. I don’t care much about their meaning, nor have I invested any time in researching them. But there’s something very aesthetic and balanced about them that makes me enjoy doodling them.
So, for this Halloween art journal prompt, try coming up with your own symbols for the positive things you want in your life. For example, you can invent a symbol of wisdom or courage.
I’ve done this on my art journal page and here’s what it looks like. I was surprised at how this page spoke to me and how I just loved it.
First, I used all the kinds of rulers I have in my stash and drew geometrical shapes into symbols. For this purpose, use a waterproof pen if you have one. Then, I painted them with watercolor, in all the colors I like.
Next, I wrote the name for each symbol with a gel pen in different colors for each symbol.
Finally, I wrote a positive affirmation on each symbol using its name in the affirmation.
From a Halloween witch to a mindful moment in only a few minutes. Isn’t that just amazing?
6. Dia de Muertos
The Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico as Dia de Muertos. It has nothing to do with Halloween, but the visual poetry of this tradition is mesmerizing and can be great inspiration for art-making.
What I also like about this holiday is that it celebrates the joy of life and respect for the dead. It’s not a gloomy holiday although it’s directly connected to death. You can read more in a great article about the Dia de Muertos traditions on National Geographic’s site.
Have you seen how the women dress up during the holiday? They look amazing with their make-up and dresses. It’s a colorful feast for the eye.
I did this in my DIY art journal and found a page that’s made from scrapbook paper. The colors and the flowers on the paper served as a great background for my sugar skull lady.
7. Magazine photo make-over
Find a magazine photo of a girl you like. Even better if you can find a black-and-white image because the colors of your doodles will have a better effect.
Glue it in your art journal and do a makeover. Doodle all over her to make her look like a witch.
You can use markers of different colors and draw tattoos, a birthmark, make-up, jewelry, or whatever you like.
8. An angry witch’s hat
Usually, a witch’s hat is quite big, don’t you think so? Well, you could put some heavy dirt in there. By this, I mean that you can use the hat as a symbol container to pour your feelings in it.
Since we’re using Halloween as inspiration for art journaling, let’s deal with the darker side of our emotions. More specifically, let’s hang out with anger for a bit.
Draw a big witchy hat on your page, but turn it upside down. Next, inside it, write all the things you’re angry about. Especially those little things that annoy you daily. Like rude people at work, or a nagging aunt who always comments how you’ve gone strange ways. Argh.
After you’ve written all these, color all over them and make the hat beautiful, or ugly. Explore how you feel at the moment and choose one way or the other.
9. A spooky tree of fear
Fear is a big thing for all of us. Every human being on this Earth is afraid of something. I think that the first step in changing and dealing with fear is to become aware of it and acknowledge its presence.
To do this through art journaling, here’s a Halloween prompt with a spooky tree. This tree is without leaves and the branches are like old, dry arms in spasms. You’re familiar with the well-known Halloween trees.
Draw a tree like this and write your fears on the branches. After you’ve finished, think about how the tree is practically dead and has no control over anything anymore. Now, your words being on it become just like the tree: ugly and dead. You can write beneath the tree something like this:
This tree is dying and so are my fears.
10. Halloween patterns
Doodle Halloween-themed patterns like bats, cats, and symbols all over your art journal page.
You can use different markers or pens for this to make it more colorful.
11. Spider web wishes
Draw a big spider web and use it to write all the things you want to catch in your life like a spider catches small insects with its web.
Mine turned out simple and basic but doing it was a mindful moment of gratitude for the important things in my life.
12. Full Moon + a quote
I’ve been in love with the moon forever. It has appealing magic about it.
First, draw a circle on your page. That’ll be the moon.
Then, with watercolor, paint all around the circle, leaving the circle white. As you go further from the moon, make the colors darker. After that, just add some grey on the moon, just to give it some texture.
Next, paint tall houses in black. These will serve as a background for your text. Write a quote or anything you like. Maybe something about the moon that inspires you, or a deep quote. Use a white pen or a marker.
Finally, take a black pen and circle a few times around the moon to make it more interesting.
13. Quotes
If you like dark poetry like Poe’s or by somebody else, find poems or quotes that you like on the subject.
Write the quotes on a watercolor background, or on a piece of paper and glue each word separately. Make some art with your quote.
Here are some quotes by E. A. Poe that I like:
There’s no beauty without some strangeness.
The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls.
Deep in the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
A sombre yet beautiful and peaceful gloom here pervaded all things … the shade of the trees fell heavily upon the water, and seemed to bury itself therein, impregnating the depths of the element with darkness.
Look at the wording he uses. Wonderful.
Love these Halloween art prompts?
Have you found these prompts inspiring? Do you think you can learn something new about yourself while doing these Halloween prompts?
I hope you’ll enjoy them in this month of spookiness.
The bottom line is that you can use the concept of the holiday and make art with another approach. What this means is that you can explore how you create when you want to express the dark side.
We all have that side. You know, the one nobody talks about.
We all get angry or envious and we all have dark thoughts. The sooner you embrace this side the sooner you’ll become aware of the opposite and start appreciating both.
And all that by doing some art! That’s why it’s such a fun process.
The fun part of making art, the mindfulness, the learning process, exploring your emotions and expressing them, this is what art journaling is about, and the reasons it’s so awesome.
Do you want to save these Halloween art journal prompts for later? Save them to your favorite Pinterest board!
