Prompt O’ Ween 2023 was super fun! It was also really tough and I hate having to say that I sort of didn’t finish. I only got to day 20 this year because this whole year has been kicking my butt and October was no exception. What to do??
It was October 31 and a Tuesday, so I had a select few hours outside of work and trick-or-treating to get 11 pieces done. The way I saw it, there were three options:
Do 11 fast sketches. Like, really fast.
Don’t finish.
Use AI.
The problem with quick sketches is that when my brain wants to finish a piece, the piece gets finished. It won’t matter if it takes a few minutes or a few hours, which is part of how I end up so behind on art challenges. Giving up on the whole thing didn’t feel like a great option either. Quitting? Ew.
AI-Flavored Prompt O’ Ween 2023
So that left only one option. I used AI! There’s an app called StarryAI (this isn’t a promo, it’s just what I used) that lets you train the AI on your own style. I hadn’t opened the app in a super long time because the whole topic using AI to make art is pretty dicey. But it took 50 credits to train it on my own art style and I just happened to have enough credits to train the AI and get my 11 Prompt O’ Ween drawings.
You can add up to 30 images so I quickly scrolled through my phone for 30 finished pieces (including the 20 I had done for Prompt O’ Ween 2023) and dumped them in. One by one, I entered the prompts for days 21 through 31, getting four images back for each one.
The results were interesting. They didn’t totally hit the prompts and weren’t what I would have done, but that’s mostly because I entered only the prompt and no additional information. What was really cool was that it sort of hit my art style. Most of it looked like stuff I would do. Some of it was better than what I might have done, which is a total mind job. It was also oddly inspiring and gave me some ideas on things I might want to try.
What’s the Inktober alternative? Prompt O’Ween! I originally was calling it Promptober, but accidentally put Prompt O’ Ween on the first prompt list and here we are… still randomly generated with *slight* editing to make sure there are no duplicates. The 2023 list is here to smash all of your spookiest creative blocks. So let’s art!
Ohh and one more thing… my list needs updating! What are some of the Halloweeniest words you can think of? Let me know in the comments!
Day 19. That’s as far as I made it through Prompt O’ Ween 2022. Booooooo!
Normally I would just power through and finish up that last little but late, but this year was just too dang busy. Honestly overall it’s been hard to keep up with regular stuff. Throwing a daily challenge on top of it all *might* not have been the best idea…
These were the Prompt O’ Ween 2022 prompts:
Out of the 19 I got done (plus one that my son did <3), I think most of them turned out pretty good! There were a couple of clunkers, but definitely a few that pretty much *have* to be prints.
Art. Deco. Prompts. When the idea hit me I thought it was brilliant! Then I asked myself what kind of masochist I really am… but that’s how it is with prompts. My poor little brain rides a rollercoaster every single time. In the end it was the perfect solution to the lack of a project I had for Art Deco month.
What is Art Deco?
I don’t think I touched on what Art Deco is enough when I wrote about Tamara de Lempicka earlier this month. She was an Art Deco painter, but Art Deco was mainly an architectural and decorative movement, and here we are making digital Art Deco. For the sake of making sure there’s a real definition this time, here’s a blurb from Britannica:
“Art Deco is a popular design style of the 1920s and ’30s characterized especially by sleek geometric or stylized forms and by the use of man-made materials.”
The Britannica link there has a good overview of the style. Now let’s move on to the thing I did…
What Are Prompts?
If you haven’t seen one of my streams where we do prompts, I have a handy little command that grabs a random adjective, noun, and verb and posts it to chat. Whatever comes up, I have to draw. Sometimes the verb requires another prompt, like grabbing. What is the subject of the prompt grabbing? So we run the command again and things start getting weird(er).
Usually I don’t keep track of the prompts after they’re done. It’s fun to see what viewers think they are and to go back to the old ones and try to remember what I was supposed to draw. There are some that I really have no idea what they were supposed to be!
This prompt is different because it has a record. But this is the only time and place I’m going to put what it was.
skinny clown thinking, strong house mowing
At least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was…
The Project
I knew I wanted to work with black and gold lines for the background. If you do an image search for Art Deco you’ll see gold with either black or dark blue quite a bit. So after a quick sketch I started laying down lines, starting with a diamond in the center to frame the prompts that would be put on top. From there it was all intuitive – I just kept placing gold lines where I thought they looked good. It was sooooo relaxing. Seriously, try it. It’s so zen!
Then came the clown, house, and mowers. At first I wasn’t going to shade them, but they really needed it. If you look at vintage Art Deco advertisements, the figures generally are lightly shaded, so that’s what I did. It was very love-hate toward the end there, but looking at it now I’m really happy with how it turned out! What do you think?
Success! We did it! Every drawing done on the day! Not one missed! Considering past years where I’ve ended up several days behind (or the one year where I dumped over a week of drawings at once), let’s just call this year a big win.
I also took the opportunity to try some different techniques for lining, coloring, and adding effects. The colorize feature in Clip Studio Paint was a quick and dirty way to get a drawing done when time was short. When used in grayscale it contrasted really nicely with a pop of color.
There was also the a-ha moment where I finally accepted that I can’t draw digitally the same way I draw traditionally. The first few drawings I tried to “stay true” to the traditional versions of the Inktober challenge – sketch it, use the ink brush, don’t erase because you can’t erase ink. Well that was dumb, because all it did was make the art take longer! By the end of the month I circled back to some sketchy, inky drawings and they went much quicker and still had the same style. Again, success! I’m better at what I do now! 🙂
I’m debating whether to make the prompts a little simpler next year. The challenge of making things that don’t go together work is fun, but maybe not 31 days in a row. There’s a whole year to think about it though, so let’s have a look at all 31 drawings together! (If you want to see the time lapse videos of them, they’re all on TikTok!)
The season is upon us! It’s time for the best drawing challenges of the entire year and I’m 100% on the bandwagon. Not only am I putting a full list out ahead of time this year (last year I posted the prompt each day), but I made it all kinds of FANCY!
So why is it Prompt O’Ween and not Promptober this year? WELL… when I was making the graphic that’s just what I put on there. Seriously. I completely forgot it was Promptober last year. Anyhoo, I like them both, so I’ll post it with all the tags!
The one thing I haven’t decided yet is if I want to do these traditional or digital. Last year I think I said I was going full digital this year, but I truly love scribbling away at these in black ink. This is the time of year to finish off those old microns and bring on the fresh ones! Sling. That. Ink.
We’re less than two weeks away – What are you gonna draw??
The lists are out!! That’s right kids, Inktober (and Drawlloween) are less than a week away! Last year I combined the *official* Inktober list with Mab Grave’s Drawlloween list to make a double-whammy drawing each day. Some combos worked out better than others (and you can pretty much tell which days were “catch up” days), but all in all I was looking forward to doing it again this year.
Was.
The thing is, I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome years ago. I had some handy dandy steroid injections and things were good for a few years – until those pesky symptoms started coming back. The past six months have been *really* bad and the pain in numbness has been getting rapidly worse. It took a very short appointment for Doc to recommend surgery and guess when it is… Right smack in the middle of Inktober!
So I’m left with a choice. Cheat, and get it all done with ahead of time (with a wonky hand), or try to do the second half left-handed. After perusing the lists, I really want to do it justice and take the opportunity to get it all done ahead of time.
There’s another little hang up I have with this year, too. The Inktober and Drawlloween lists match up in a really sucky way. Like I don’t even want to combine them! I know I should see it as a challenge and blah, blah, blah, but we all know that if we force it that much the art is just going to be bad.
So what do??
Did you know there’s ANOTHER Drawlloween list? Camilla d’Errico also does a list (I wish I knew sooner!) and it is THE ONE! Not that the other two aren’t good, but the Camilla list just speaks to me. It has more prompts that I haven’t done and fewer duplicates from last year.
Soooooo, I’ve decided to just do this list:
I might pick and choose a few days from Mab Graves’ list… maybe… if there’s enough time in the day, which there rarely is. But given all that’s going on, it’s probably best to keep things simple this year.
UNFORTUNATELY I’m really bad at keeping things simple… Wanna hear the rest of the plan/decision/ramble?? The Inktober list is still in play, just not in combination with the Drawlloween list. You see, I’m going to be out of commission for at least two weeks post-surgery, and there’s no way I’m not making some kind of art!
Why not do the Inktober list left-handed? The prompts are more open to interpretation (and gorked-out terribleness), so it’s the perfect opportunity to push myself in a different direction… or something… right? It’s more abstract and it will be funny, right? RIGHT?!?
Ultimately it’s going to depend on how much of my other stuff I get done, the planetary alignment, and my list of potential excuses on any given day. But for super serials, I’m getting that Drawlloween list done and it’s going to be amazing! (No pressure)
Thanks for reading! Please check back to see the drawings if you have sec or catch them on Insta. <3. Until next time!
Over on my YouTube channel I posted a review video of some knock-off Body Kun figures and later another for the most recent run of Figma Archetype figures. Someone commented on one of them asking if there were any other figures out there similar to Body Kun that have more manga-style proportions. The Figmas are great, but they have more superhero builds and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If you want manga proportions from Figma, you either need to track down an earlier run of figures, which will be more expensive, or wait and see what the next run will look like.
All that aside, I responded to that user’s question with what amounted to a shrug. I really haven’t seen anything else comparable, but I also haven’t been looking that hard. I’m happy with my Figma Archetypes!
About a week after I received that comment, I coincidentally came across some art reference models on Dick Blick. Pretty sweet, right? I really wanted them to be good because I get most of my supplies from Blick and I include affiliate links (at no cost to you) whenever I list materials. Unfortunately, the figures look… wacky. The proportions are wacky, the joints are wacky, and counting all the wacky things about them won’t make the wackiness go away. They’re so wacky that I’m almost willing to waste some money to get them. Almost. 🙂
Did I Mention Wacky?
One set is called the Manga Manikins and it looks like they are no longer made (bummer!). The product page is still live on Dick Blick if you want to read about them and here’s a screenshot to check out if you don’t. They were kind enough to include two versions of the female model with different sized boobs, because I guess that’s a thing that some people needed.
If ever can find these (for some sort of reasonable price) I’ll get one in a heartbeat. Please, please give me a heads up if you see one. If Hollywood is using them (like the description says), there must be something great about them!
Now for the ones you can get. These are the Art S. Buck Anatomical Models that are described as “anatomically proportional one-sixth scale models have over 30 points of articulation”. These figures are wacky, too. They have wacky joints and big wacky heads, but are they $35 each wacky? I might grab one if I catch it on sale, because judging these things from afar really isn’t fair, right?
Good News, Everyone!
Pretty soon I’ll have a new one to review because, *GASP*, I found a REAL Body Kun for a decent price ($38)! More specifically it’s a black Body Chan (the female model) and I’m 95% it’s legit. If it’s not, you can expect a pretty awesome rant where I swear I’ll never make the mistake again (i.e. a THIRD time), but eventually I will and you can all laugh at me.
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
UPDATE!!!
The review video is live and the figure is real! Aaaaaaand there’s a special guest! Pop on over to my YouTube channel to check it out or watch here:
Yupo paper is pretty amazing. It’s a synthetic (read: not made from trees), waterproof, recyclable paper that comes in white and translucent finishes. Because of that, you can’t treat Yupo paper like regular paper. I sort of knew this before I tried it, but rather than read all about the do’s and don’ts I jumped in straight away with a Micron and some markers.
**I have a few affiliate links in this post. A quick click helps me out at no cost to you. Thanks for stopping by!**
I started out with a sketch of the little cutie Pino from Ergo Proxy. It’s a pretty simple line drawing – perfect for tracing a bunch of times and experimenting!
So cute!
I used a .01 Micron to trace the line drawing onto computer paper. Normally, I draw lots of sketchy lines when I use pens. This time I went for long, smooth lines and regretted it about half way through. I grip the pen too hard, my hand shakes – it’s not me and it shows. So I switched to a .005 Micron and used shorter strokes on some cheapo marker paper and the Yupo paper.
I did another drawing on computer paper, but didn’t color that one. The bottom left is marker paper and the bottom right is the Yupo paper.
One thing I did read about Yupo paper was that you could use watercolor on it, pretty much wash it off after, and the paper would be fine. Knowing this, I tried (SO HARD) not to drag my hand through the ink or touch it at all. Knowing this, I used a super-secret technique to strategically place archival fingerprints all over the drawing.
I used Prismacolor, Copic, and Winsor & Newton (W&N) brush markers to color the line drawings. Keep an eye on the big art supply websites and every once in a while you can catch a good deal on a set! For the computer paper drawing I used a #2 cool gray W&N marker to map out the shadows, then colored it in.
I love gray tones though…
I liked the effect of doing it this way, but for some reason the W&N marker didn’t play nice with the other two brands. It created a strange edge, even after giving the first layer plenty of time to dry. I also noticed that the W&N markers don’t flow as well as the Prismacolor or Copics.
The brown was too dark and I messed up the pink on the bottom. Sssssh, don’t tell!
For the marker paper I used a lighter gray because I thought the other one was a little dark. As it turns out the W&N #1 cool gray was too light, but the effect was still nice.
When it came to the Yupo paper I had a decision to make between the lighter and the darker gray. Since the permanent, archival Micron smeared so much already, I figured the lighter gray would be better. Let’s be real, I had no delusions that the markers would blend on the Yupo paper. But I really wanted to see how this would work. Spoiler alert: it was a mess.
I need a little practice. 🙂
Not only did the colors not blend at all, but they picked up the permanent, archival Micron ink and smeared it all over! I wasn’t super surprised by this, since drawing on this stuff is kind of like drawing on plastic. The paper is not absorbent at all, so layering isn’t really an option.
Yupo paper is pricey, but the good news is that you can play with it and wipe it pretty much clean if you don’t like the result. Obviously some media and colors will stain, but that just adds character, right? The flip side of that is if you want to preserve your masterpiece it will need to fixed properly – both to protect the work and to keep the paper from yellowing.
I’m super excited to keep playing around with Yupo paper. If there’s something you want me to try, let me know in the comments.
Like I said last week, October went by fast. That’s partly because it was a busy month, but also because of our beloved Inktober and Drawlloween events! Last year was a cluster because I blindly ran through both lists without much care or concern – and it shows. When I fell behind it was double the drawing and all I cared about was doing something, anything, to get it done. That was kind of the point for me last year anyway. I just wanted to see if I could do it. Obviously I did (poorly), so let’s move on to this year.
Some of the last few days of Inktober/Drawlloween!
It was better! Mostly because I combined the two lists. It made some days fun, some days less-than-fun, some days challenging, and some days two out of the three. So that kept me to one drawing per day – much more manageable for the times I when I inevitably fell behind by a couple of days. I also stuck to black ink only so I could focus on the subject and not get all distracted by bright flashy colors. You’d think that being an artist means you’re amazing with color palettes, but that’s simply not the case with all of us. I’m a limited palette type of gal and I’ve learned to accept that!
This is what my Insta doesn’t show… what a waste of space!
One thing that I said I would do this year that I didn’t do last year and still didn’t do this year was do all of my sketches in my designated Inktober/Drawlloween sketchbook. I didn’t want to have all the sterile white space in between my drawings. Well, it pretty much happened anyway, but not as bad.
If I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to draw or how it should look, I did some sketches in my dreaded “If I Die, Burn This Sketchbook without Ever Looking in it” sketchbook. You know, the one I started posting pics from on my sketchbook page? I also had a little sketchbook I carried around to try ideas in when life had me waiting in places like the doctor’s office. So some of the “final” Inktober drawings have previous sketches and some don’t, but I did make an effort to use up as much of the page as possible.
I feel like that got really boring right there. Did that get boring right there? It’s the fourth paragraph and I’m only now getting to my point. Sorry!
Please enjoy this unicorn doing the apology dance.
If there’s one thing that combining the Inktober and Drawlloween lists did, it’s that it forced me to think about what I was drawing more carefully. I didn’t want to be too obvious (although on some days I think I was), but I didn’t want to have to explain what the drawing was beyond simply stating the prompts. There was a little research involved on some of these and I learned some pretty cool random facts!
Day one’s prompts were poisonous and witch. I wanted the witch to be holding some sort of poisonous creature, but I wanted it to be more mythical-looking than real. So I started to wonder what makes something look poisonous? Bright colors was the first thing that came to mind, but what else?
Then the good old internet taught me the difference between poisonous and venomous. Yes, both types will poison you, but the difference is in the delivery of the toxin. Venomous animals bite, scratch, or sting – it’s an active method of delivery. Poisonous animals (like dart frogs) have a passive delivery – you have to touch them to be poisoned. There’s more to it than that, but we don’t have all day here! I tried making up my own creature, failed miserably, and drew a plant.
No touchies!
Day three was roasted and cryptid. There are more types of cryptids than you can shake a stick at! And if even a couple of them turned out to be real, you probably wouldn’t want to stand there and shake a stick at them. I went with a Cuchivilu, which has the front half of a pig and the back half of a serpent and lives in the water. In Chile, the Cuchivilu would destroy fisherman’s nets, eat their catch, then curse the water so no more fish would be caught there. Turns out that Cuchivilu are elephants seals. Neat! What I really wanted to draw was a Dobhar-chú, which is this giant Irish dog-otter creature, but I couldn’t bring myself to draw it roasted.
Can I take him home? PLEASE!?!?!? (Credit http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Dobhar-chu)
I also learned about different types of Yokai, baby owls are alarmingly cute, frogs are way more popular than toads, and that I’m not the only kid that was a little bit scarred by the Secret of NIMH. I’m sad it’s over, but I’m glad to go back to my own stuff. There’s only a little time to art every day and my kid commissioned a drawing of One Punch Man. I have to get to work!
Thanks for reading! All of my sketches and drawings from this year’s Inktober and Drawlloween can be found here. (Under construction – check back soon!) Until next time!
