31 Days of Halloween Drawing!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed I posted a Halloween-themed drawing every day in October! (Well, almost every day).

It was all part of the "Drawlloween" challenge, where there was a different theme for every day in October that you had to draw out.. It was my first time attempting something like this before, but I'm fairly pleased with all of the results. I loved it because it forced me to try new things, and I was able to get a better idea of what works for me, and what doesn't, as well as what I need to improve on, and so on. So forgive me for bragging, but I'm just proud of myself for making it through!  Honestly, I was expecting to give up in the first week - but I stuck with it. And I'm glad I did.

One of my most popular submissions ended up being the one in the picture above, my little jack-o-lantern girl.

Oh yes, and I was originally going to try the "Inktober" challenge, (before I discovered Drawlloween), but since there were no ongoing themes/suggestions for Inktober, I kind of fizzled out on it. But here's one I did that I like a lot:

Obviously, none of the things I posted are perfect, or even 100% "done" - (because doing a creative piece in one day/sitting, is a bit hard!), so this was also a challenge in being brave enough to actually show off my work! I was super nervous and inwardly cringing at the thought of having these be seen by the world, (and by more accomplished artists), but I did it.. and I survived the experience.

All big steps, here.

So, what now? I'd like to re-visit some of my favorites and improve them. Maybe remove some things, or try new media with them.. who knows. But I have a lot to keep me busy :)

Can't wait until NEXT October!!!

Artist Trading Card Swap

I've been playing around with new ways to showcase my drawing/art, and recently, I found out about Artist Trading Cards. They can act sort of like "business" cards that show off your work, but the idea is that you make them yourself, entirely by hand, (in other words, no digital/printing stuff), using whatever medium you're currently into, be it drawing, painting, collaging, or literally anything. They are usually 2.5 x 3.5 inches, (the size of a standard playing or baseball trading card), and you write your contact (or whatever info you want) on the back. Oh, and the best part is you can then 'trade' them with other artists!

The IGGPPC recently hosted an ATC Swap that I signed up for. Here are the cards I designed/made:

I came up with two designs for a series I'm naming the "Tea Party Series". They are hand drawn ink figures that I cut out and pasted on top of scrap paper and cardstock. The other one is plain sketchbook paper with a hand drawn illustration of a girl with a napping kitty on her head (!). It shall be the first of a series I'm going to call the "Cat-cessories Series":

And here are the ones I received from my swap partner, Grace:

Aren't they amazing?!

I'm so in love with them! And in love with ATC's in general... I definitely want to continue to make more, and make different designs for these two series, as well as other series.

My swap partner Grace blogs over at PinkJellyFishDesigns. Please check out her work! I couldn't have gotten matched up with a cooler artist!



Until next time,

G.