July 2026 Art Challenge – An Imaginary Friend

[sooz]

Hello Krita Artists!

This month’s challenge was created by @Paint4Thought. K-A members voted @Elixiah’s images into 1st and 2nd place and she graciously passed the winner’s prize of designing the next challenge to @Paint4Thought.

An Imaginery Friend

The mood can be happy, sad, melancholic, goofy, etc.

Optional Challenge

Place the character(s) in a well-developed context. In other words, make the environment contribute to the story you’re trying to tell.

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Please post only artworks and discussion related to submitted artwork in this thread. There is a WIP thread for each monthly art challenge in which you can ask questions and post your works in progress (WIPs).

WIP thread for questions and sharing progress

Rules

• The composition must be created from scratch and should be your own and not an exact copy from someone or somewhere else. If you are using a reference photo taken by anyone other than yourself, please ensure the license allows for its use and include a credit to the photographer with your submission. No paint-over or tracing allowed.
• Photobashing is allowed only when explicitly specified in the topic.
• Artwork should be at least 90% Krita. Example: 3D bases made in Blender (or other non-AI app) are allowed as long as you made the 3D scene yourself.
• The theme changes every month. Your submission should be somehow related to the theme. If possible, please add a few lines explaining your idea and image.
• No AI-generated images are allowed, not even partial use of AI for composition ideas or paint over. It is unfair for those who are drawing from scratch.
• You can post a maximum of 3 entries and also edit the entries until the deadline.
• In order to have the image featured, the entries need to be safe for work so please avoid any NSFW or controversial content. The moderators can use their discretion to disqualify the image from the contest with prior notice. Of course, the artist will be given the chance to submit an alternate image or change it up until the deadline.
• Please do not post your submissions in any other category on Krita-Artists until voting has closed and the winner has been declared.

How to Enter

Post each submission as a reply in this thread – one image per post.
Submissions will be accepted until 2026-07-26T18:00:00Z, at which time the topic will automatically close. You can check how much time is left at the bottom of the thread.

Voting

We will hold a poll at the end of the challenge period. Each submission will be voted on individually. The artwork with the highest percentage of votes will be the winner.

Prize

The winner will be featured on this website in the featured artwork row and will have the privilege to set the next topic of their liking. If the winner is not available or reachable, then the 1st runner up will be asked to provide the topic and challenge. The winner will also be awarded the Monthly Art Contest Winner badge.

Please spread the word about this art challenge by posting your artwork on various social media websites with the hashtag #KritaChallenge. If possible, include a link to the forum post.

I hope we will enjoy this exercise so let us begin!

P.S. Note we can change the rules based on the feedback on this contest and modify the format. Any suggestions are welcome. To submit feedback, please create a new topic in the Site Feedback category.

[steve.improvthis]

My first entry for the month:

Flying With Teddy

[Salvantus]

Here’s my entry for this month, I chose to go with a mythical fantasy theme.

Aethel

[WaffleToby5]

Nyx is my OC, she’s half human, half Dweller…You’d get the context if you know what the Panascais DWELLERS Minecraft mod is.

[Brushmaniac]

My entry is called, “The girl with the dragon stone”, drawn from scratch in three layers and using shape tools, freeform lasso and my favorite, the magic wand tool. A popular imaginary creature I would guess. I was going to experiment with different color combos for the dragon but then decided to call it done. The dragon stone was a last-minute thought and I think it helps to tell the store behind this mirror image.

[Pixalisk]

“The Mentor”

Aspiring heroes need to start somewhere, so finding a lost cat seems like a good beginning. And if you don’t have a real-life mentor, an imaginary one is at least good to bounce off ideas.

Because I tend to use a rather flat and uninteresting perspective, this time I used “Informal Subdivision”, following “Creative Illustration” by Andrew Loomis, a compositional process of dividing canvas space unequally and somewhat randomly to create interesting forms and composition.

Then used Krita’s Assistant Tool to set two vanishing points, and created the architecture based on that.

[CatMonk]

Here is a portrait of my imaginary friend… it took the shape of the robot body of an AI

[Pixalisk]

“Just Go For It!”

There are situations in life where all you need is a little friendly push. This is definitely one of them, and he did not want any of his real friends to know about this, in case it went all wrong, so an imaginary one had to do. In this case, a protagonist from his favourite anime series, she’s never afraid to speak her mind!

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The scene is supposed to take place in a school or university setting, therefore the patterned stone floor, and the small standing-tables. It takes place at dusk, colourful red and yellow light filtering through the windows, illuminating the characters. The region between the windows is dark, a symbol of the fear the protagonist has to conquer. The protagonist has two displaced clone-layer copies with reduced opacity, emphasising doubt and hesitation. The imaginary friend is coloured completely flat, and does not cast a shadow, showing her incorporeal nature.

[vanya]

The Silent Companion

makes no demands - it simply stays by your side when you need it most

[kuroneko25]

Dreamy Friend for a Lonely Cat. For every kitty that has to stay home alone

[KingJBloxx]

W art guys- let’s cook

[MisterOutcast]

Have you ever wanted to make your own imaginary friend? Well, now you can with the ImagiPal Creator. With a vast, colorful section of body parts to choose from, you’ll have loads of fun with an infinite amount of wacky combinations.

ImagiPal Creator - Available now for Windows XP computers.

[sooz]

That is super creative.

[steve.improvthis]

Here’s my second entry for this month. There’s more about this in the discussion…

Celebration With Teddy

[KeriVKennedy]

This is my entry for the month.
The Very Hairy, not so scary monster under my bed.
This is actually my imaginary friend from when I was little.
I believed in small - very furry monsters that lived under my bed. they protected me from the closet monsters. I have a full story around them - but I won’t share because If I ever got around to it, I would try to publish it as a children’s book.

You can see that they are very small monsters normally, but when there is a closet monster (you see it peeking out of the closet) they grow quite large.

I should upload another non - entry (or maybe entry?) that shows my many, many tries to get this monster looking even close to how I wanted. It’s still not right for what I have in my head. but my skill level doesn’t allow for that.

[KeriVKennedy]

Decided to throw in a second entry that is a collection of most of my attempts this month at getting my friend to look right. This doesn’t even include the dozens of times over the years I’ve tried to draw them. Or the few this year that I drew - got 90% done with and realized it was horrible - you can all sympathize with how “yeah, it looks great, it looks great. Aww man - that is horrible!” arrghh

So here is
The council of very hairy, not so scary monsters under the bed.

[Elixiah]

My entry for Imaginary Friend. I kept thinking of Bastion and his Luck Dragon in “Never Ending Story” so put together this piece along that theme.

Time Lapse:

Imaginary Friend 2

[KeriVKennedy]

oh boy, you used my very, very, absolute favorite movie.
you win. contest over.

[Elixiah]

I loved that movie. No… the contest isn’t over! Lots of great entries this month.