OCTOBER

For some reason, the month of October has become THE month to do drawing and painting challenges. First there was Inktober (an ink drawing every day for 31 days), and then everyone else in the world piled on—the watercolorists, the gouache guys, now even the portrait people have decided it might be fun to do a drawing a day.

I have never been a fan of just ink, because I'm all about the color. So this year I have decided to follow not one, not two, but FOUR different prompt lists, jumping between them as I find one more appealing than the rest! Nate and Salli at theydraw.com have decided to furnish three of their own—one for travel, one for food, and one for gardening—to go with their triple-themed website of illustrators' works. And Olga Furman and Sktchy are both doing 31 days of portrait sketches. Just what I like—variety!

Here is the first prompt from #theydrawtober, in the food category. I have a feeling I may be doing quite a few of these, since I love illustrating food and recipes and can think of creative things to do with them. The travel one is kind of daunting, selecting an entire island for each day's prompt, and while you can whittle down Cuba, for example, to a few iconic and symbolic scribbles, it's harder with islands with which you aren't familiar—where the heck are the Whitsunday Islands, and for what are they renowned?! The third list, 31 flowers in 31 days, may also prompt some fun sketches, and when I get tired of all this, it's back to portraits.

Speaking of Cuba...I decided to try a quick and messy one from 31 Islands, 'cause I love all the old American gas guzzler cars they still drive—not good for air quality, but you can't beat them for personality.

Whatever the list, I'm going to try for a piece of work every day in October. Because that, after all, is what the challenge is about!