Folktober

Folktober 2021

Folktober, illustration

Every October I try my hand at a daily drawing challenge. I usually am also working full time and I’m always surprised at how tough it is to make time for this kind of thing. Usually I end up skipping a few days. (I think I only managed to “complete” the challenge 1 year).

Day 1 Greenman – First Folktober illustration and first water colour drawing in ages

This year I did Blackthorn Border Morris’s Folktober, where each daily prompt is a different creature from European folklore. It was EXTREMELY fun reading about obscure creatures and myths.

Day 4 – Jenny Greenteeth was easily my favourite creature to read about and where some water colour techniques started paying off.

I wanted to use it to improve with water colours and only use traditional media. I found this process VERY frustrating at times. During my Erl King I got impatient and rushed a few steps. Consequently it didn’t come out as planned which was frustrating because I had spent hours on it. Unlike digital media there is no going back and it’s hard to change anything if you aren’t really with it.

Day 7 – Sheela-na-gig. Around a week in something kind of clicked into place. I kind of remembered that appeal can just come from simple shapes and producing work I was happy with started to be much easier.

So my early process was:

  • Thumbnail drawing – I would do a few quick sketches on a post it note)
  • Draft 1 – Draw a bigger version on an A4 piece.
  • Draft 2 – Flip the card and using a lightbox, draw it again, adjusting anything I wasn’t happy with.
  • Water colour and ink
  • Then I’m done!
Day 13th – Blackthorn. The end of water colour experimenting.

The time it took to do these steps was a luxury. Eventually I went from freelancing back to full time work again. I was determined not to stop so I had to rush or ditch the water colour step.

Folktober 14th – I agonised over this one but got a lot of nice comments about it. I should have just chilled out.

Then I started packing to move house. And I had to cut out doing multiple drafts and doing much research. I just google image searched the word and drew what I saw.

Day 19 – Sin Eater

Finally, once I had moved, I managed to cut it ALL steps by not knowing which box I had packed my art supplies in. Also I was finishing a freelance job and working full time. Eventually I set up my office and managed to get one more drawing out.

Folktober 31st – some kinda fairy thing?

I managed to complete 21 illustrations and do about 3 others of very QUESTIONABLE quality. I learned a few things over the month:

  • It’s cool to have a little record of the month and see the quality jump around.
  • People often say drawing is a like a muscle and to get better you should do it every day. This is true.
  • It’s fine to draw trash. Nobody cares.
  • Time and patience can make your work way better.
  • Spending all of Sunday prepping your meals it the best way to free up a LOT of time.

I’m using the momentum from Folktober to complete some other more ambitious illustrations from earlier in the year. If you want to see the drawing that didn’t make it into this post you’ll have to check my Instagram.