And so the day came. I didn’t feel ready but I decided to give #theimaginedbookcover2023 * challenge a go anyway.
✍🏻An Instagram Illustration challenge* had been on my list for this year’s things to do... And I had been hiding from it all year: so this challenge was really timely - not least in its rescuing me from the horror of a list fail.
🕯️I wanted to use the challenge as a way of experimenting and playing with the tools and brushes in Procreate. I anticipated that this 7-day long challenge would force me out of my comfort zone and shut me outside it for a bit, and YOWZERs it did exactly that. The thing I had decided that definitely would not do (only insanely disorganised cortisol junkies do this thing) was leave the challenges to draw on the day of posting. That would be 7 deadlines in a row. Madness.
In the weeks leading up to the challenge, I had strained my hands wrist and shoulder so was not able to draw for long stints. Immediately after that, the old uninvited guest Covid came to camp on my chest and sinuses. And then it was time.
And so the first challenge day came and I wasn’t ready. I had been nervously hashing, re-hashing, faffing and fiddling with the first drawing for hours over the preceding weekend. At 11pm, on the Monday of the challenge it was time to post. I felt sick and anxious about the flawed nature of my offering. I put it up online and feeling like a guilty little fraud, went to bed. Here’s what my first entry looked like:
Day one title ‘One Lemon Too Many’
I imagined the storyline to be something about ludicrously kitschy, oppulent banquets and burgeoning tables… And an inadequately small head-bowl and the consequences of not being able to fit ALL the lemons into the bowl… If only there hadn’t been that one lemon too many, this whole angry-emperor crisis could have been averted…
The morning after, emotionally hungover, downhearted and shy about participating in this foolhardy challenge (whatever possessed me?) I checked in on my post. And people liked it and the challenge hosts had commented. Thoughtful, specific stuff. That little bit of cheering on really mattered. It made a world of difference in fact. To my surprise and joy, all was not lost. Maybe these rubbish little hands can draw after all!
So putting together this offering for day 2 of the challenge, I suddenly felt confident Confidence begets commitment - have you noticed that too? Having told myself I might only complete 4 of seven drawings and could walk away from this debacle with my head held high, I now realised I was in for the full seven.
Day 2 ‘Monster Parade’ 5th December 2023
I wrote: This was FUN! Today’s title for the imagined book cover challenge is ‘Monster Parade’
✍🏻A title that coincides nicely with St Nicholas eve tonight: and who accompanies St Nick on his decision making task (deciding if you’ve been naughty or nice - or at least one more than the other - happens tonight)?
🐐That’s right, friends: Krampus or Cêrt, the goat legged chiller follows Santa on his rounds.
🌲There are lots of animals and unearthly beasts in old, folky stories and traditions of Christmas. Today’s front cover is inspired by Norse Boars, Yule goats, a smidgeon of Hieronymus Bosch and of course Yule cat (can you see him grumpily peeping?)
On Day 3: ‘The Bucket Full Of Tears’#imaginedbookcoverchallenge2023c
This one. Took an unexpected turn…
🪣 Or at least, it got drawn out and then stripped back, engaging the ole ‘less is more’ approach to remove the extraneous monkey (not visible here).
👀I felt quite intimidated by this title for whatever reason: In the end I opted to think about the idea of sadness and the complexity of it… And how do you articulate that?
🌚And the title - which I decided would be interesting if fencing the little figure in and kind of lumpen and unsympathetic like a really uncomfortable sofa or bed in a cell (Procrustean bed maybe?)
✏️ Enjoyed working in this sparse way today. Really loving the community spirit happening in this challenge. Thanks to the brilliant hosts for setting this all up!
Day 4: Big Tony’s Amusement Park #theimaginedbookcover2023d
🐜This was FUN!
Just who is big Tony: is he a yeti? Or a budgerigar? Maybe he’s an Ant (Ant-Tony, geddit)
🦍No silly! Tony is a Gorilla with a penchant for building tiny furniture.
✍🏻Lots to play with in this title. Scale being a bit of a focus today. I tested the idea of Tony having a very small friend, a budgie playing on the tiny amusement park… But I couldn’t squeeze his little friend in. Soz Tony, you’re on your own mate.
📖 I am learning lots and really getting a feel for the things I need to work on to become a better illustrator. Thanks to the marvellous hosts listed below. There’s some really beautiful, imaginative and skilful illustration happening for this challenge. I beseech you non participants: check out the hashtags! #theimaginedbookcover2023
Day 5 On Top of Mango Hill…
✍🏻 A LOT of backing and forthing. 19 layers of ideas and possibles and then this.
🦅 I think this would be a story about making a journey to somewhere very particular (Mango Hill) in the hopes of sighting a particular bird… (Which may or may not be carrying signage)…
🐕 Pleased I managed to get more than one character into the image today. Please excuse the slightly non-sharp image quality. Some tech issues this evening…Happy Friday everyone!
I was frustrated to post this one. Of them all, this is the one that feels most rough. I like the concept and composition but I would really like a second go and to re-hash and edit this one down. But, that learning definitely fed into my approach for the next titles.
The Hoopsnake Of Gully Valley #theimaginedbookcover2023g
🧠 Live action replay of my thought process for this one:
Hula hooping snake. Snake-acrobat. Flexible like a snake-pretzel. Yogic snake? Pilates Snakes? Competitive meditation snakes. Yogi-snake.
Exercise charts.
Eye charts.
Patchwork narrativey kind of layouts.
All green, I wonder if I could do it all in green. What’s the story though?
A child journalist? Could the cover be as if it is the little girl-journalist’s hand drawn newspaper? And the story is about her finding a secret society of something like wild animals doing exercise classes led by the hoopsnake.
And then the seventh title. Which I thought was in the bag. I had a whole free day for this one (all the others had been put together before and after my regular pay-check 5, sometimes 6 days a week work as teacher of post 16s at two Colleges and cleaner of two houses)
‘The Midnight Elephant’ it turned out was an exercise in the repeated murdering of darlings, trust in the process and the power of the edit.
🌑 An elephant who is the midnight shadow… Was the idea from the start.
🌙 A giant celestial pachyderm slowly circumnavigates the earth, casting its shadow every 12 hours or so… And that is why we have day and night… It does fly in the face of science - but good fuel for the imagination.
📙I think this one would have the feel of an alternative Just So Story (Ooh best belov-ed).
In the making of the drawing I grappled hard with an elephant balancing on the earth - like a circus elephant on a ball, and various permutations of the moon being a clock face. But it was just too complicated and cluttered. I’m really pleased with the final cover. I think it’s my best one!
🖤BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG Thanks
to the marvellous hosts listed below. This was a fantastic and stretching full week of challenge. LOTS to reflect on and feed back into my creative practice. I am mega-grateful to the hosts (All gifted Illustrators, who have been really generous with feedback and engendering a true sense of community for this challenge) for instigating this adventure in drawing. And a BIG Bravo to fellow participants too. It was really good to meet and share our work during this transformative week, I don’t think I have ever felt such a whopping sense of community anywhere else online.
*About #theimaginedbookcover2023
The challenge hosts this year were:
@mosokje @marinahenina @gemmakoomen @the.nelly.edwards @mark_timmins77 @josephine_birch @ella.hob @mollymccammon_ @aquejours @hannahbessross @sudden.strangeness
I used the following hashtags during the week: check them out if you’re an Instagram person, lots of really wonderful drawing work out there. ##theimaginedbookcover2023 #illustrationdrawing #procreateillustration #procreate #illustration #bookillustration #instagramillustration
There are lots of Illustration challenges on Instagram - which run all year in the form of weekly/monthly/100day/365 day stretches and whose format is for example: a list of prompts are released and two or three weeks after that participants post their drawings in response to the prompts, daily. Hashtags make it easy for participants to find each other and like/follow/comment. Over the week of the challenge a sense of community arises amongst participants as they find new friends and collectively share. Anyone can participate in these challenges. On an individual and personal level, I believe they are a great way to stretch as well as being a fantastic tool for enabling recognition of the areas you need to brush up on. As part of an online community they are a great way to get feedback, to give support to other creatives and to find online friends in your field.
Happy Solstice friends!
Thanks for reading.
Susannah x
One Last Thing