Letter No. 28 [creating an illustration prompt]
Dear Friend,
I wanted to take another little break from my studio series to talk about creating an illustration prompt. The idea is to share a prompt consistently once a week (or every day for a certain amount of time) for people to illustration. It’s usually shared on social media, and they’ve changed the way I illustrate.
Not only can participating in these prompts improve your skill and hone your style, but they expose you to other artists’ work and vise versa. So first, I wanted to share two examples.
Examples:
Inktober: Inktober is an illustrating challenge in October where a prompt list is provided, and thousands of people around the world create a piece every day based off of the same prompt. People have created their own Inktober prompt lists, but Jake Parker is the artists who started this, and all of the Inktober info is here.
Inktober 2019 was the first time I did the entire month, and my style and confidence grew so much by the end of it. My sisters, who did it for the first time, also felt the same way.
TransmundaneTuesdays: TransmundaneTuesdays is a hashtag the artist Carson Ellis created, and every Tuesday, she posts a prompt on Instagram that has three parts (here’s an example):
(click the photo to see her Instagram page)
Then people post illustrations under the specific hashtag she gives (like this prompt’s was #spikeysmilerinleaves).
here’s the illustration I made for that prompt.
I think I wanted to create my own prompt because I’ve had such a positive experience with these other prompts. My goal is grow an audience, build a community, and learn along the way. Creating your own prompt and sharing it consistently (at whatever pace you decide) can do the same for you as well. And it’s so comforting to have a tight-knit community, especially during this time.
My prompt:
wdykwednesdayprompt: This hashtag stands for what-do-you-know-wednesday-prompt, and every Wednesday, I’m posting a prompt on Instagram that is educational or inspiration to me (and hopefully to others, too). I’ve only been doing it three weeks, so I’m not expecting anyone to participate until some time later. I have to first build this hashtag and expose it to people, and I’m doing that by also participating in Inktober and TransmundaneTuesdays prompts.
I also created a page here on my website to archive each prompt and the behind-the-scenes sketches.
Your prompt could be about anything, but I do have a few tips:
-create a unique hashtag (check to see if it’s already a common hashtag first)
-create prompts around something you’re interested in
-don’t choose anything too time-consuming or intense, or you won’t want to keep doing it long-term!
-once you have your theme, brainstorm prompts and categories for the future
-share it and document it!
-oh, and don’t get discouraged if no one participates for a little bit. I’m learning that everything takes time to build in the art fields, and we create these prompts for the love of creating, and with the understanding that we do it for a principle and idea—the long-distance view
So if you’re in need of some inspiration, go check out these prompts and follow along, and if you want to start your own prompt, do that as well! The world is your oyster. :)
Your friend,
Tara