Basic Trope: A child draws pictures of something very disturbing that either happened or is about to happen.
- Straight: Six year old Alice sees a monster one night and draws several pictures of it.
- Exaggerated: Two year old Alice’s room is full of drawings of demons and monsters. The floor can no longer be seen.
- Downplayed: Fourteen year old Alice is an aspiring artist who draws only one picture of the creature she saw.
- Justified:
- Alice is a victim of Demonic Possession.
- On a more mundane level, Alice just wanted to draw pictures of something creepy she saw, and doesn't really know why.
- Inverted:
- The monster draws pictures of Alice.
- A scary, mentally disturbed man draws nice, pretty pictures of a kitten, indicating he's not really so bad.
- Alice draws nice, pretty pictures of the monster.
- Subverted: After the monster leaves, Alice takes a piece of paper… and draws a bird sitting out her window.
- Double Subverted: She fills out the area around the bird with demons.
- Parodied: Alice draws monsters in embarrassing and degrading situations for her amusement.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice draws a picture of a horrifying monster. Unpleased with how it turned out, the erases it and draws a unicorn instead. She redoes the monster drawing later.
- Averted: Alice never drew a picture of the monster.
- Enforced: "We need to show that Alice is a Creepy Child. Let's have her draw scary pictures."
- Lampshaded: “That’s a very frightening imaginary friend she’s got there.”
- Invoked: Sir Hellfire sends one of his monsters to Alice’s house to scare her.
- Exploited: The heroes study Alice’s crude drawings to figure out the creature’s weakness.
- Defied: Alice reads a book to take her mind off the creature.
- Discussed: “I don’t think you understand the gravity of Alice seeing this creature. Next thing you know there’ll be drawings of the damned thing strewn all over her room!”
- Conversed: "Why do kids always draw creepy things?"
- Implied: Alice leads Bob away from the group to show him her drawings. Bob returns visibly shaken.
- Deconstructed: Alice’s parents take notice of the pictures she creates. As the pictures become more plentiful, the parents begin to fear their child, and eventually abandon her.
- Reconstructed: Alice’s parents take notice of the pictures and get her proper psychiatric help.
- Played For Laughs: While the team of heroes is visiting Alice’s house, the team’s resident Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant compliments Alice on her drawings, leading the rest of the group to say “Why are you encouraging her? Stop encouraging her.”
- Played For Drama: Alice’s tendency to draw bizarre creatures labels her as a Creepy Child and keeps her from being able to make friends.
- Played For Horror: This is the first sign that Alice is a victim of Demonic Possession, or is at least extremely traumatized by what happened.
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