In October, instead of doing the usual Inktober challenge, I decided to try something else instead. In the months leading up to October, I found this cool witch prompts, in the sense where you would take a word and create a witch symbolizing that word. Instead of creating original characters, I thought it would be more fun to create portraits of people I knew. The overall theme being, there is magic in every single one of us and that we all have something special that can change the world around us for the better.
Overall it was a solid idea until it was time to do the heavy lifting. Did I know 31 people I was comfortable with asking to stand in as my witches? Also, at the start of the project, my confidence in drawing portraits, in general, was significantly low. So it felt weird to ask people to participate in this project when I wasn’t even confident with how the end project was going to look. Nonetheless, I pushed forward, and people said yes.
I started by sketching out the faces of everyone participating in the project and, around them, I drew rough sketches of the elements related to the prompt they chose. Looking back on it now, if I had to do it again, I would have spent more time brainstorming and properly sketching out the elements in the rough sketch phase because when I started to work on the digital versions, the sketches I pushed back were the ones that weren’t 100% thought through. That became one of the reasons why things got a little off schedule.
As usual, I pushed through and got all 31 illustrations (and then some) done. The result met my expectations and exceeded them! Not only did I gain confidence in drawing out portraits, but also drawing digital illustration in general. It was amazing to go back to projects I found a little daunting in the past with this new-found knowledge and technique. Getting them done now didn’t seem like an issue anymore. However, the most valuable thing I got from this experience was the excitement, joy, and encouragement people had when they saw their portrait posted and when they recognized people they knew. For some people, it was a fun “guess-who” game. While some people were just excited to see what the next prompt was.
Looking back on the experience, I probably could have gotten away without a theme because everyone’s excitement became more than enough for me.
That being said, I feel everyone should see themselves as a witch if it means they can come to appreciate the gifts only they can offer. The world around us is beautiful because of the magic we leave behind.
Until next time!