Thirty-one days. One drawing a day. An entire coastline.
This October, we’re inviting you to draw India’s seas with us. Not the ocean of stock photos, but the one we actually live beside. The dolphin that swims past a city of twenty million. A fish market at five in the morning. The crab that climbs coconut palms on an island most of us have never visited. Boats tied up and waiting for the sea to calm down.
Every prompt on this list comes from somewhere real, from Kutch to the Sundarbans to Lakshadweep. Some you’ll recognise instantly. Others you’ll have to go looking for, and that’s the point.
Any medium. Any skill level. Ink, pencil, paint, digital, whatever you have.
To take part: post your drawing on the day of its prompt and tag @marinelifeofmumbai. We’ll be sharing our favourites all month.
Save this list. Start on the 1st. Let’s see what our coast looks like through thirty-one pairs of eyes.
Prompt list for October 2026
| Day | Prompt | What is it? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Humpback dolphins | The shy coastal dolphins of India’s shallow nearshore waters |
| 2 | Sea fort | Island forts like Sindhudurg and Murud-Janjira in Maharashtra that once guarded the Konkan coast |
| 3 | Mudskipper | The fish that walks on land, found in mangrove mudflats along both coasts |
| 4 | Atoll | Lakshadweep holds India’s only coral atolls |
| 5 | Fisherwoman | Koli fisherwomen are a symbol of India’s fish markets, doing much of the selling and processing of the catch across India |
| 6 | Horseshoe crab | A “living fossil” that comes ashore on the beaches of Odisha and West Bengal |
| 7 | Orcas | The largest member of the Delphinidae (dolphin) family, and a rare but thrilling sighting in Indian waters, especially along the west coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands |
| 8 | Bombay duck | Neither a duck nor from anywhere but the sea, dried on bamboo racks along the Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts |
| 9 | Low-tide Harvest | When the tide goes out, people walk out onto rocky shores and mudflats to gather clams, oysters and crabs by hand |
| 10 | Coconut crab | The world’s largest land arthropod, found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which begins life as larvae at sea |
| 11 | Sand dunes | Not the ones in the desert; coastal dunes held together by creeping beach plants act as natural barriers against waves and storms, and ghost crabs dig their burrows there |
| 12 | Sea snake | Venomous reptiles that live their whole lives at sea and often turn up in fishers’ nets |
| 13 | Eyes on the bow | The painted eyes that watch over traditional fishing boats on many Indian coasts |
| 14 | Bombay dorid | A sea slug that carries the city’s name, first described from Bombay in 1946; barely 30 mm long, with purple spots and an orange band scattered across a translucent white mantle |
| 15 | Mangrove creek | Tangled roots and tidal channels, from the Sundarbans to Mumbai’s own creeks |
| 16 | Dugong | The gentle grazer of seagrass meadows in Gujarat, Andaman and Palk Bay – home to India’s first dugong conservation reserve |
| 17 | Dhow | Wooden trading ships still built by hand at Mandvi in Kutch |
| 18 | Flying fish | Gliders of the open ocean; one species is even named after the Coromandel coast |
| 19 | Flamingos in flight | A familiar sight in many places on the west coast but most famous for turning the Thane Creek in Maharashtra pink, every year |
| 20 | Blue whale | The largest mammal on Earth swims in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal; its calls have been recorded in Indian waters, and strandings have been reported along the west coast |
| 21 | Sun-dried catch | Fish-drying racks and yards, a familiar sight in fishing villages along every Indian coast |
| 22 | Giant clam | The colourful, reef-dwelling bivalves of Lakshadweep and the Andamans |
| 23 | Basalt columns | The hexagonal volcanic rock formations of St. Mary’s Islands off Udupi |
| 24 | Saltwater crocodile | The estuarine giant of Bhitarkanika, the Sundarbans and the Andamans |
| 25 | Cowries | These glossy shells were once traded from the Maldives and used as money in eastern India, and are still used extensively in textiles and decorations |
| 26 | Blue button | Not a jellyfish but a floating hydrozoan colony that washes up on west coast beaches; it’s also our logo! |
| 27 | Lagoon | Brackish coastal waters like Chilika, home to Irrawaddy dolphins, and Pulicat |
| 28 | Olive ridley | The mass nesting at Gahirmatha and Rushikulya, and the community-led turtle festival at Velas |
| 29 | Boats at rest | During the monsoon, boats are tied up or pulled ashore and fishing is stopped giving fish time to breed |
| 30 | Finless porpoise | India’s small coastal cetacean with no dorsal fin, which makes it a nice challenge to draw |
| 31 | Pomfret | Called paplet in Mumbai and a staple in coastal kitchens; the silver pomfret was declared Maharashtra’s state fish in 2023 |
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