The Mind Flayer from Stranger Things is one of TV's most terrifying creatures — a colossal shadow-monster with a spider-like body, towering height, and tentacle limbs that loom over the town of Hawkins. Part of the 6-minute 100 Days Sketching Challenge, this guide breaks the imposing creature into drawable shapes. (A spooky one for older kids!)

🖍️ What You Need

  • Pencil and eraser
  • Black and dark grey markers
  • Charcoal pencil for shadow effects (optional)
  • White gel pen for highlights against the dark body
  • White paper

How to Draw the Mind Flayer Step by Step

  1. Draw the central body — a large, bulbous shape in the centre-top of your page, like a swollen spider abdomen. This is the creature's core mass.
  2. Add the head structure — at the front of the body, draw a pointed, almost faceless head that splits open into petal-like jaw sections (similar to a flower or a beetle's mandibles opening).
  3. Draw the towering legs — multiple long, spindly, spider-like legs extending downward and outward from the body. The Mind Flayer stands on 6-8 of these, each bending at sharp angles like a spider's.
  4. Add the tentacle details — the body and legs are not smooth — they are made of writhing, smoke-like tendrils. Add wavy texture lines all over to suggest the creature is formed from shifting shadow.
  5. Draw the scale reference — at the very bottom, add tiny silhouettes of houses or trees to show the Mind Flayer's enormous size towering over them.
  6. Add the storm-cloud base — the Mind Flayer often appears emerging from dark swirling clouds. Add a turbulent cloud mass at its base.
  7. Shade heavily — this creature is almost entirely shadow. Fill most of the body solid black, leaving only edge highlights to define the shape.
  8. Add the lightning — a few jagged lightning bolts in the clouds behind it heighten the menacing atmosphere.
💡 Parikshet's Tip: The Mind Flayer's terror comes from its scale. Always include something tiny at its base — houses, trees, or human figures — so the viewer understands how impossibly huge it is. A monster alone on the page has no scale; a monster looming over tiny houses is genuinely frightening.

🌟 Did You Know?

The Mind Flayer's name and spider-like design were inspired by the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons, which the characters in Stranger Things play throughout the show. The creators use the kids' D&D campaign as a way for the characters to name and understand the monsters from the 'Upside Down' — blending 1980s pop culture references throughout the series.

Drawing Shadow Creatures: Techniques

  • Edge lighting — define a black creature with thin light edges rather than internal detail
  • Smoke texture — wavy, wispy lines suggest a body made of shifting shadow
  • Scale anchors — tiny familiar objects nearby show enormous size
  • Atmospheric base — clouds, mist, or storm at the base ground the creature in menace

🎯 Try This: Draw a Creature Towering Over a Town

  1. Invent your own shadow creature using the Mind Flayer techniques.
  2. Draw it large, filling the upper two-thirds of the page.
  3. At the bottom, draw a tiny town skyline for scale.
  4. Add a stormy sky with lightning to set the mood.