History Main / TerribleArtist

* In ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'', Kate makes the WantedPoster for the Purple Fox, and her drawing of them is what one would expect from a kid: simplistic and not properly colored in.

* In ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'', Kate makes the WantedPoster for the Purple Fox, and her drawing of them is what one would expect from a kid: simplistic and not fully colored in.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS03E05BedtimeStories Bedtime Stories]]", Sam pretends to be a police sketch artist and turns out to be an example of this trope.

* Bowser Jr. of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' expresses himself by painting graffiti with his Magic Paintbrush, as evidenced by ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld Bowser's Fury]]''. Said graffiti is...not too good, to say the least. Though, to be fair, he ''is'' only a child.

* {{Toys/amiibo}} support in ''[[VideoGame/WarioWare WarioWare Gold]]'' has Wario drawing you a picture of the character whose amiibo you scanned, and predictably the pictures are what you'd expect a young child to draw said character for the first time. The only exception, of course, is if you scan the Wario amiibo.

* ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'': Saki proves to be downright lousy at drawing a portrait, as Kindaichi and Miyuki discover when they see [[http://a.mhcdn.net/store/manga/8327/01-006.0/compressed/ikindaichi_short1_ch6_21.jpg?v=1282569548 the portrait itself that Saki draws for a girl he harbors a crush on]], which looks more at home in a Picasso gallery, leaving both of them briefly in StunnedSilence. The story ends with Saki trying to show his hand-drawn portrait to his crush, while Kindaichi and Miyuki frantically try to prevent Saki's crush from seeing it.

** Taken UpToEleven when [=undyingUmbrage=] sends Dirk a drawing he did of them. Dirk calls it the worst drawing possible. He's not exaggerating -- uu's art is [[http://homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/scraps/DIRKTHISISuS.gif completely indecipherable]], when even Terezi or Karkat's horrible art could be identified as a picture and not a bunch of lines.

* Subverted in ''Manga/InuYasha'' -- given that he's the {{Kitsune}} equivalent of seven years old and working in crayons, Shippo's not bad.

* ''VideoGame/ARMS'' states all the "weaknesses" of the ARMS fighters during Springtron's route. [[GadgeteerGenius Mechanica]]'s weakness is apparently her inability to draw.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

''[Cut to Ando's drawing of Picho, who has four legs and menacing eyes]''\\

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Tatsuya's [[http://images.puella-magi.net/f/fa/Madokamadokamadoka.jpg?20110424220326 drawing of Madoka]] is technically an example; but considering he's a ''3-year-old'' scribbling in the dirt with a stick, it's pretty impressive, making it sort of an inversion. What's even more impressive is that [[spoiler:in this timeline, he's never actually seen Madoka, let alone in her MagicalGirl outfit]]. One of Ume Aoki's self-parody comics takes his drawing skills to [[http://images.puella-magi.net/0/0b/BD_6_Ume_4koma_TL.jpg?20110924213042 even more ridiculous levels.]]

** Akane and a vengeful doll switch bodies. Akane, now in the doll's body, tries to draw a pictures of herself to convince her pet pig (a transformed human) of this. The resulting picture is less than convincing, but ''because'' Akane's sketches are so awful, Ryouga recognizes her. Akane isn't very good at arts and crafts...
** Not that Ranma is much better. In the manga chapter where they both moonlight as {{Miko}}, they try to draw a(n already very ugly) horse for talismans while making him look better. Ranma's drawing is only slightly less awful than Akane's.
*** Played with Ranma in the manga -- he's not very good at drawing things when he wants to but [[http://ranmarelated.blogspot.com/2007/12/ranmas-drawing-ability.html is good at doodling]].
* In the third episode of ''Anime/SailorMoon R'', Usagi creates a series of pictures using crayon as a visual aid when she was trying to convince an amnesiac Mamoru about their past. The other person present mocked Usagi for being "too old for {{Fairy Tale}}s" while Mamoru just wandered off.

* In ''Manga/SketDance'', Himeko's animal drawings end up looking like [[NightmareFuel grizzled/mutated/freaky]] versions of whatever she intended to draw.

* Despite her ambitions to be a SequentialArtist, the artistic capabilities of Akane "Ota" Kikuchi in ''Manga/WastefulDaysOfHighSchoolGirls'' are..."lacking", to say the least. She has a very loose grasp on the rules of perspective and anatomy, so her characters often end up with weird poses and body proportions, superimposed onto backgrounds that are NotDrawnToScale. Her drawing skills seem to have barely improved since ''grade school''.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* Big M. of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' is revealed to be terrible at drawing in Season 8 Episode 12, where he has to make his drawings realistic to make them [[ArtInitiatesLife come to life]] with the magic pen. When Little M. sees that his drawing of a door looks more like a hole, he hires an art teacher to help him improve, and by the time he's done Big M. is able to draw a FourthWallPortrait of a person that's so inconsistent with the show's art style that it ''doesn't'' come to life.
[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' features Happy Noodle Boy, a "Comic within a comic" about a [[TalkativeLoon gibberish-spouting]] stick figure, drawn by the [[SociopathicHero main character]] himself. The segments are deliberately done to be so awful, they actually [[SoBadItsGood end up extremely funny]]. The creator, Jhonen Vasquez, also uses them as a nifty way to illustrate Johnny's current mental state.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': At one point on the show, Fred as part of her presentation provides a crude drawing of the MacGuffin they're about to steal. Just then Angel, who was quietly doodling on a sketch pad, holds up a much much better more detailed illustration of the MacGuffin than Fred's, sparking jealousy and embarrassment. He also had it when he drew a near photorealistic portrait of Cordelia, while Fred just drew a crude BedsheetGhost. Which ties back to Angel doing quite detailed portraits of Buffy, during his time in Sunnydale as Angelus; he's got artistic talent and a habit of drawing rather stalker-esque pictures of girls he likes.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Giles is a truly terrible artist. First in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]", with his stick figure explanations of the BigBad that lead Buffy to mime that she doesn't have hips that big and second in a Season 7 episode where he's explaining to the new Chinese Potential what's going on and she freaks out.
** Andrew spends Season 7 as a [[InsistentTerminology "Guestage"]] in the Summers' home where he creates a whiteboard tracking information about [[BigBad The First]] which features cartoonishly bad diagrams of what they know.
** In the series finale Spike tapes a crudely drawn sketch of Angel to his punching bag after seeing Buffy and Angel kissing.
* At one point in Episode 16 of ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'', Gunpei draws something that resembles a carp flag more than anything. The other Go-Ongers are baffled when he tells them that it's meant to be a penguin.

* ''Series/ICarly'''s Carly draws a bunny terribly, and [[WithFriendsLikeThese is mocked by Sam and Freddie]] for a brief time.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E05BedtimeStories "Bedtime Stories"]], Sam pretends to be a police sketch artist and turns out to be an example of this trope.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Probably Opus, from ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty''. In one strip, where he was working as a cartoonist for ''The Bloom Beacon'', Milo rejected his strip after he fails to meet his deadline, and replaces it with an ad for a Hoover vacuum cleaner. None of the readers can tell the difference.
* Played with in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. In a variant of ArtInitiatesLife, Calvin becomes the scribbly version of his drawings and ends up not knowing what to do because he can't for the life of him figure out what he's supposed to ''be.''
--> '''Calvin''': Nobody gets my work...
--> '''Mom''': That's what all artists say.
* ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' has some strips "drawn" -- crudely -- by the character Billy on a semi-regular basis. This has become [[HilariousInHindsight more amusing]] since the real kids have grown up, as the real "Billy" -- Creator/GlenKeane -- worked as an animator at Disney for close to 40 years. He animated (and in some cases designed) such characters as WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}, [[WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder Marahute]], WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}, [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]], [[WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective Ratigan]], [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Beast]], WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}, and the {{cyborg}} [[WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet John Silver]].
* ''Jacky's Diary'', a 1959-61 SundayStrip by Jack Mendelsohn ("age 32½"), was purportedly written and illustrated by a little boy. Part of the reason it only ran for three years was that readers thought it was actually the work of a child (or, worse, a developmentally-disabled adult).
* Inverted in one ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip, where Paige's still-life paintings begin in a very photorealistic manner and eventually progress to the strip's cartoony style. Her parents praise the latter as evidence that her skills are getting better.
* Stephan Pastis, creator of ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'', frequently [[SelfDeprecatingHumor jokes about his own lack of artistic talents]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical'', Draco Malfoy draws ''awesomely''!

** Larry Butz's bad drawings are, naturally, very important to the last case in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations''.
*** His artwork is actually surprisingly ''good'' for a [[TheDitz not-too-bright]] living incarnation of SpannerInTheWorks; it's the fact that his painting displays something utterly impossible [[spoiler: from a certain perspective]] that puts his talents (and sanity) into question.

* This happens in ''[[http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19641 a2 ~a due~]]'' when Hao draws a picture of Sona to show to strangers, since he's running around town trying to find her and doesn't know any English. It's so bad that Sona even comments on how his doodle (more specifically, the way he drew her mohawk) makes her look like [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog "a weird, mutant hedgehog."]]

* In ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'', "Copywrong", Rarity's ZanyScheme to ruin Fluttershy's career is illustrated by a bunch of crude stick figures. Immediately after, series creator Wacarb [[SelfDeprecation inserts a caption mocking his own artistic skills]] (as those bad drawings are the only original art in the episode).

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Early in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'''s run, Fighter posted a couple of comics up to the site, [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/08/17/interlude-01-the-fighter-does-not-liek-the-robot/ beginning here.]]
** Although they're technically in [[SpriteComic the same style]] as the rest of the comic.

* Averted with Tedd and Sarah of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''. Tedd once drew a picture of Grace; while the picture was a rough sketch it wasn't a particularly bad sketch. Sarah meanwhile draws in a chibi style that is the same as one of the author's alternate styles; her art is just as good as the author's in that style. Played straight, on the other hand with drawings by Grace.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', Terezi Pyrope [[https://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/scraps/T34CHM3TH31NT3RN3TD4V3.jpg can't draw very well at all]]. Justified, in that she's blind. How bad is she? In-universe, she was the inspiration for the ''[[DadaComics unique]]'' art style of the [[StylisticSuck deliberately-bad]] ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff''.

---> '''CTG:''' ok youre by far the worst artist out of any of us
---> '''CTG:''' and thats saying something
---> '''CG:''' SHUT UP I DREW IT FAST

** Inverted in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E19MomAndPopArt "Mom and Pop Art."]] Homer scribbles on a piece of paper when Moe tells him he can pay with a priceless sketch. Barney asks if he can do the same but is rejected, dropping his copy of Georges Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte". Homer's sketch is not shown.
* WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants's crude drawings come to life in the episode "Frankendoodle". Even Patrick criticizes him on his lack of structure and perspective, [[HypocriticalHumour and his drawings aren't any better.]]
** Made ironic by the fact that [=SpongeBob=] in "Artist Unknown" is shown to be an impeccable artist, maybe even better than Squidward.

*** The sequel series, ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'', takes this to its logical conclusion in the episode “Bluebird.” Steven assumes the terrible drawings of him laying around the house were left by the titular fusion to mock him; as it turns out, they’re Amethyst’s best efforts. Understandably, she doesn’t take his assumption well.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': While Ray, Cyril and Archer are on a mission in Turkmenistan, Archer is bitten by a very toxic snake (in the ''taint''), and shortly afterwards, the team is found by a group of tribesmen. Unfortunately, none of them speak English, and making matters worse, the local dictator had changed several words of the country's language to the same name as his dog, including "snake", "bread" and "friday", making communication even harder. Cyril tries drawing a snake, but it ends up looking like a loaf of bread with eyes. Ray takes over and produces a very detailed, realistic drawing of a cobra that gets the point across.
--> '''Cyril''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Oh, that's crap!]]

* in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVIII'', Rinoa's model of President Deling's train wagon was mocked by everyone present. She tried to justify it by [[BlatantLies claiming that it represents her hatred toward him.]]

'''Comeau:''' ''[with complete, absolute confidence]'' Yes, that's Ramona Flowers. [[note]]In a hilarious meta-gag, Scott's terrible sketch was drawn by ComicBook/ScottPilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley.[[/note]]

* In ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'', as shown by the episode in which King Dedede attempts to make [[ShowWithinAShow an anime,]] virtually every Cappy is this, along with Kirby and the king himself. ''Then'' they all became very sleep deprived and overworked thanks to Dedede having promised [[IndustrializedEvil Holy Nightmare Co.]] that it would be ready to air in an impossibly short amount of time, [[HilarityEnsues which didn't help]].

'''Comeau:''' ''[with complete, absolute confidence]'' Yes, that's Ramona Flowers.

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[[quoteright:340:[[Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dress.png]]]]

* Subverted in ''Manga/InuYasha'' - given that he's the {{Kitsune}} equivalent of seven years old and working in crayons, Shippo's not bad.

* Monkey D. Luffy from ''Manga/OnePiece'' is really bad at drawing although he doesn't seem to realize this himself. His first draft at a jolly roger had Zoro commenting that the flag ''is'' meant to inspire terror, and that he ''was'' terrified by it.

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Tatsuya's [[http://images.puella-magi.net/f/fa/Madokamadokamadoka.jpg?20110424220326 drawing of Madoka]] is technically an example; but considering he's a ''three-year-old'' scribbling in the dirt with a stick, it's pretty impressive, making it sort of an inversion. What's even more impressive is that [[spoiler:in this timeline, he's never actually seen Madoka, let alone in her MagicalGirl outfit]]. One of Ume Aoki's self-parody comics takes his drawing skills to [[http://images.puella-magi.net/0/0b/BD_6_Ume_4koma_TL.jpg?20110924213042 even more ridiculous levels.]]
** When Madoka starts considering the idea of turning into a magical girl, she scribbles a few quick little drawings of herself in her magical girl outfit. These drawings actually look natural for someone with little drawing skills like Madoka; according to the production notes, this was accomplished by first creating a "normal" concept drawing, then having Creator/AoiYuuki - who is not a skilled drawer - doodle these drawings.

*** Played with Ranma in the manga - he's not very good at drawing things when he wants to but [[http://ranmarelated.blogspot.com/2007/12/ranmas-drawing-ability.html is good at doodling]].

* Giroro from ''Manga/SgtFrog''. During the AmateurFilmMakingPlot episode, his attempts at drawing his squadmates resemble scribbles not unlike how a kindergartener would draw. Also, it took him over ''3 hours'' to just draw one picture.

* In ''Anime/ZoidsWild'', Arashi's drawing skills are pretty pathetic. By comparison, Battalia has a wide range of artistic talents while Analog draws in a cutesy manga style. [[spoiler:Drake is also terrible at drawing, but keeps his stuff hidden more out of maintaining his tough guy facade than embarrasment at his ability.]]

* Big M. of ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' is revealed to be terrible at drawing in Season 8 episode 12, where he has to make his drawings realistic to make them [[ArtInitiatesLife come to life]] with the magic pen. When Little M. sees that his drawing of a door looks more like a hole, he hires an art teacher to help him improve, and by the time he's done Big M. is able to draw a FourthWallPortrait of a person that's so inconsistent with the show's art style that it ''doesn't'' come to life.

* The cover of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''' second comic book appearance (Cartoon Network Starring #5, October 1999) took on the appearance of the art of a five-year-old child as the story itself entails the girls' artistic interpretation of how they spent their weekend.
* Max's scribbles and graffiti doodles in the ''ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' comics are crude, but quite stylish and proportionate with decent shading. Averted in the Telltale games, though, where they're convincingly bad drawings - presumably a less artistically-gifted member of the team was drafted in to do them.

* ''Film/NotAnotherTeenMovie'' inverts this for comedy to lampoon the InformedAttribute trope. Janey is established to be a "plain" but talented artist. She's played by a gorgeous actress, and when we see one of her paintings, it's a crude, childish drawing you might expect to find in a kindergarten.

* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', when [[LovableRogue Mulch]] is helping the heroes break into Koboi Laboratories, he makes some diagrams, the crudeness of which [[DaChief Root]] is quick to comment on. Koboi Labs itself is represented by a rectangle, a fissure leading up to it is a wobbly line, and a foundation pillar ends up looking kind of snake-like.

* ''Series/APBio'': Throughout season one, Jack will draw out plans to screw over his nemesis on the class chalkboard that consist largely of childish stickmen.

** Giles is a truly terrible artist. First in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]", with his stick figure explanations of the BigBad that lead Buffy to mime that she doesn't have hips that big and second in a season 7 episode where he's explaining to the new Chinese Potential what's going on and she freaks out.
** Andrew spends season seven as a [[InsistentTerminology "Guestage"]] in the Summers' home where he creates a whiteboard tracking information about [[BigBad The First]] which features cartoonishly bad diagrams of what they know.

* At one point in episode 16 of ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'', Gunpei draws something that resembles a carp flag more than anything. The other Go-Ongers are baffled when he tells them that it's meant to be a penguin.

* In the pilot of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Maria Hill drew a picture of a porcupine under the [[NoSocialSkills Social Skills]] section of Agent Ward's assessment. Coulson however thinks the picture looks more like a "piece of poop with knives in it."
* In Episode 12 of ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'', Genpachiro draws a composite by hand of what our hero looks like. Problem is, not only does it look terrible, it is also a Frankenstein-drawing, as he drew Drive's Type Speed's forearms, Type Wild's body, and Type Technic's head, thanks to him being unable to see all of Kamen Rider Drive.
* In ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Dee is an utterly dreadful artist. One episode that showed her [[http://s3cf.recapguide.com/img/tv/64/3x5/Its-Always-Sunny-in-Philadelphia-Season-3-Episode-5-5-0a7a.jpg attempt]] at designing a dress left many of the characters uncertain as to whether she was drawing a human being or not. The same episode revealed that her brother, Dennis, is a bit better as an artist, though [[PsychopathicManChild Charlie]] pronounces him to be superior to the point of mastery - not because his drawings were somewhat more recognizable as human beings, but because they were all [[https://i.imgur.com/2ZZmxtZ.jpg pictures of women]] with [[DistractedByTheSexy grotesquely oversized breasts.]]
* [[ActionGirl Kira Nerys]] of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' claims to have been the worst finger-painter in preschool. She also [[EpicFail epically fails]] as a sculptor, creating "a flock of flightless birds".
* ''Series/MagicXWarriorMagiMajoPures'': Rin wants to become a manga artist, but she's bad at drawing.

* Inverted in one ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip, where Paige's still-life paintings begin in a very photorealistic manner and eventually progress to the strip's cartoony style. Her parents praise the latter as evidence that her skills are getting better.

* Probably Opus, from ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty''. In one strip, where he was working as a cartoonist for ''The Bloom Beacon'', Milo rejected his strip after he fails to meet his deadline, and replaces it with an ad for a Hoover vacuum cleaner. None of the readers can tell the difference.

** But they're ''nothing'' compared to brother Strong Mad's crude doodles. One time, he drew a picture of an egg-shaped thing with oval-shaped eyes, a mouth, and stick arms and legs and labeled it "BABBY ALIEN" - it was ''supposed'' to be a drawing of Strong Bad when he was little.

* A few WebAnimation/BrainPOP episodes (mostly the older ones) have terrible drawings done with crayons.
** ADHD: http://www.sparktop.org/explore/brainpop/bpadhd.html
** Point of View: http://www.angelfire.com/ego/mr.f/clips/english/1pointofview.swf

** Taken UpToEleven when [=undyingUmbrage=] sends Dirk a drawing he did of them. Dirk calls it the worst drawing possible. He's not exaggerating - uu's art is [[http://homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/scraps/DIRKTHISISuS.gif completely indecipherable]], when even Terezi or Karkat's horrible art could be identified as a picture and not a bunch of lines.
*** He is, however, improving - [[http://www.homestuck.com/images/storyfiles/hs2/scraps/JANETHISISYOU.gif he's managed something vaguely recognizable as a circle]]. Or rather, an on-average-perfect circle [[AchievementsInIgnorance somehow assembled from a bunch of noisy jagged lines.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'': Danny O'Farrell is actually a pretty good artist - specifically, a photographer - but when he decides to start sketching impressions of the perp in "The Shreds Fell Like Snowflakes", things do not go well. His first is compared to Tiger Woods on a ''really'' bad morning; his second is [[PlayingPictionary an oyster without its shell]].

** Played with with Squidward, who isn't that bad of an artist and even has quite a bit of technical skill in multiple artstyles and media-- but, as WebVideo/SolarSands points out, other characters find his works unpalatable because they're all tributes to his [[{{Narcissist}} narcissistic]] [[ItsAllAboutMe ego]].

* Choco and Ando of ''Manga/ChocoMimi'' are both terrible artists, to the point of Choco's bad artistry skills being a minor RunningGag.

** [[DisabilitySuperpower Toph]] [[DisabledSnarker enjoys mentioning]] [[StealthInsult how similar to the subject his drawings look to her.]] (She's blind.)

* In ''Anime/ZoidsWild'', Arashi's drawing skills are pretty pathetic. By comparison, Battalia has a wide range of artistic talents while Analog draws in a cutesy manga style. [[spoiler:Drake is [[NotSoDifferent also terrible]] at drawing, but keeps his stuff hidden more out of maintaining his tough guy facade than embarrasment at his ability.]]