Drawtober 2020

L.Alune
Dec 28, 2020
4 min read

Updated: Jan 27, 2021

Now a second year, I needed to start really putting myself outthere and finding / planning an intership for my third year. This then lead me to think about what my current skills could offer and I decided that I still have a lot to improve on. Natually, with october comming, I challenged myself to try to mature my work by working on something new everyday by sirioulsy commiting to intober this year.

(Here you can find a summery of my total drawtober progress across the years - https://www.instagram.com/p/CHS4UaNlTcQ/ )

Here is my journey through Drawtober:

Pre-October - This year I wanted to try to meet more quantity of prompts, as all of the previous times I've been inconsistant, so I planned ahead and try to start sketching out ideas for the prompts. I chose Drawtober prompts specifically as Cinderella was my first instinct when looking at all of the prompts combined (carving, midnight feast) and the host for this year is my favrourite Artist Vonnart, but also because having just one prompt per week means that I would feel less presure to post every single day and could add in more care and detail. To help prepare I set up moodboards for each promt, did some researching and even pencil drafted a few out.

October week 1: CARVING

My first thought for this promt was actually mutilation for some reason, but I switched having heads to watermelons for more aesthetic purposes...

After painting this (left) I realised it does give off Fruit Ninja vibes but that was unintentional. He's supposed to be carving a watermelon.

Trapped Jack and his Turnip (right)~ I took the prompt a lot more litural this time and worked closely with the origional folk tale story. In its origins, the Jack O Lanterns were carved from Turnips or Beets, not pumkins, and were used not as decoration but a deterant to repel unwanted spirits. The folklore originates from Ancient Irish where a man nick named Stingy Jack, who was a greater trickster to even the Devil himself, dies and leaves the underworlds in a conumdrum. Wilh neither an acceptance into Heaven or Hell he is instead cursed to an enternal night with nothing but a burning coal within the head of a carved-out turnip to light his way. My interpretation of this is that the Jack O Lantern has nohting to do with being evil but infact helps navigate through it. Despite the fack that Jack is in punishment he still has one helper who doesn't give up on him.

Galaxy Girl ~ a dancer who liturally dances with the stars as a star.

This was an attempt at trying out art competitions for the first time, I found a space themed one that inspired me to think creativly of how I could incorporate a galaxy with something.

October week 2: WICKED APOTHECARY

Out of all of the promts this was th eone that I was most excited to create for.

Typical apprentice. This is why they shouldn't be left unattended in a Wicked Apothecary...

Something's brewing - witch ink doodle.

This was the most upsetting to share on instagram as this one was just a quick simple illustartion that I didn't even put any thought into and yet this recived the most feedback/attention? Comparing this result to previous stuff I've shared, Instagram seems to have a bias towards pretty female portraits...

No survivors - witchhunter burning the wicked (week2:Wicked Apothecary). My mum is very anti-witch/Halloween due to her faith so here's something to clense her soul.

This was in the wake of the above theory where I tried to do the opposite and ink something that I find interesting and creatives which predicably resulted in little favour...

Sister's secrets - tried to be a bit more ambitious with ink this time but I guess the messy ink kinda adds to the potion theme :/

I actually started with this one but it didn't turn out right so that's why I did that simple witch one. In the end I decided to share it anyway as I'm doing this challenge for me and not to meet perfection. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGDdJW1FoLG/

October week 3: Midnight Feast

What time is it Mr. Wolf? - Doodling some ideas.

ok so with this promtp I did dip into the "what would meet the algorythm" female portaits and minimal lineart trends.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGM6PnRFryx/

The comforts of Cinderella - As a poor yet resourceful girl, who owns nothing but rags, I always thought it odd that she wouldn't use everything out of that pumkin as she could. Also, she has bird friends so why didn't she send them back for her forgotten shoe? It's not like they couldn't handle it, they helped with her pink dress and the shoe is made of magic glass so surely it wouldn't be heavy.

I also tried digital colouring this one, then went back to it when I found out about a spooky contest EscapeMotions was doing.