Letter No. 16 [#kidstricksweek challenge]
Dear Friend,
I’m always on the search for a good challenge. I like the time crunch and community feel, and I love seeing each artist’s take on the same prompt list. So I stumbled across this challenge: #kidstricksweek. It was created by seven artists (I’ll include their handles at the bottom) for the week of May 11-17, and I illustrated a version of the prompt list:
I didn’t initially start with a theme, but as I continued each day, the boy and mermaid grew on me, so I let them show me a little of their worlds each day.
Day 1. // Imaginary Friend
The boy hadn’t expected to see a mermaid, although he came to the rocks frequently because he had seem glimmers and shimmers below the water, and felt it was a magical place.
Day 2. // Magic Box
The mermaid gave the boy a glowing, green box, draped in seaweed and still dripping with salt water that sparkled.
Day 3. // Super Power
After opening the box, the boy found he could breathe under water. He followed the mermaid down along the purple rock and into the green-blue expanse. He had never felt more alive.
Day 4. // Secret Place
After returning to shore, the boy had a secret place he wanted to show the mermaid. He had discovered it in his exploration, and no other human knew of it.
Day 5. // Bedside Monster
The boy and mermaid curled up warmly in the fur of the forest monster and slept soundly, the boy dreaming of the magical things he had seen.
Day 6. // Miracle Shop
When they awoke, the mermaid took the boy to a cave. Inside were many glowing, magical boxes and chests full of sea treasures, and the ceiling glowed with constellations.
Day 7. // Forest Treasures
Finally, before bidding farewell, the mermaid and boy wandered through the kelp forests that surrounded the constellation cave, where sunlight streamed in around the giant, waving stalks and where otters dove and played.
I finished the challenge using my gouache watercolor paint—it just arrived in the mail and I was impatient to use it!
Here are the artists who organized it:
And if you go to the hashtag #kidstricksweek on Instagram, you can see all the different styles and responses to each prompt. It was one of my favorite challenges because the prompts were so fun to respond to, and were more specific than most prompts. I’m looking forward to next year!
Tara