How October drawing challenges helped me get hired for a book

illoguild #28

Hi everyone!

This month the

illoguild

is sharing some tips we’ve learned from our creative journeys. I’m writing about how drawing challenges helped me land a job illustrating a kids book. I’ve learned to be intentional with these types of challenges, and doing so has led to getting hired for projects.

Setting goals before starting the challenge

So how did these Instagram challenges teach me this? Well, October is possibly the biggest month for drawing challenges. All the art coming out of Peachtober, Artober, Inktober, etc… has been such a treat! I joined the challenges last year, and now I’m working on a project that I was able to be hired for because of it.

Here’s some of the work I created:

I got to join thousands of other artists and get inspired by a whole month of creative momentum, but rather than just creating art to join a challenge, I spent time thinking about my goals.

Last October I had two goals:

1. Learn how to create with traditional materials.

2. Create dog and cat icons to build a portfolio with this subject matter.

I made intentional choices with materials and subject matter that aligned with my goals. A year later, I’m finishing up a book created with traditional materials, and I did a character sample for a book about dogs (fingers crossed!)

Wow, it feels good to reflect on the growth! Did I meet my goals?

• Goal 1: Learn how to create with traditional materials

  • Check! I’m still learning and probably always will be, but I’m now confident using these materials. I’m even illustrating a book with them!

• Goal 2: Create dog and cat icons to build a portfolio with this subject matter.

  • Check! I created dogs and cats that led to me getting selected for a character sample for a book about four dogs. And the book I’m finishing up has five dogs in it. I have to imagine that having tons of dogs in my portfolio helped me get hired for that book.

The key takeaway that shaped how I work

So what did I learn? That being intentional is one of the most important choices I can make as a freelance artist. My time is limited, and I can only create so much art. So if I align drawing challenges with my goals, I get to join them (which is fun) while also working toward my goals.

No one is giving me prompts or telling me what to create or when to make it. I have to make those decisions on my own (and I love being in charge of all of this!) But that means I need to often take a step back, look at the big picture, and ask myself, “What are my goals? How will this challenge/art/assignment help me reach that goal?”

And if I can align the task to my goals, it’s worth doing!

I aligned the October drawing challenges with the work that I wanted to be hired for, and now I get to do that work. It’s all the small steps that add up and lead to accomplishing goals, so I’ll continue setting goals before diving into future challenges.

Because I was intentional, I was able to show potential clients examples of my work with traditional material and images of dogs. I was able to build my portfolio by being intentional about what I spent time creating, and that led to work.

Here’s another example that shows how this works well!

Over the summer, I joined the 3 Materials Drawing Challenge with a similar goal: Continue to learn and practice with traditional materials. (I wrote about my process in these posts)

Here’s some of the art from the challenge:

Practice from the 3 Materials Drawing Challenge. My goal was to continue practicing with traditional materials.

Again, I had a goal in mind with this challenge, and being intentional with that goal led to growth. I discovered two materials that I absolutely love using: watercolor colored pencils and pan pastel. Now I get to use both of those materials in the book I’m illustrating. I’m comfortable with those materials since I joined low stakes practice for 5 weeks to create over 30 pieces of messy art.

If I was joining October challenges this year, my goal would be to align the challenges with a personal project I’ve been working on. I hope I get to join! But first, the final art for the book in traditional materials is due October 18, so maybe after that date I’ll be able to join for the second half of the challenges.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear what challenges you’re joining and follow along! Let me know in the comments and share links to your posts🎃👻✏️

See you next week,

Katie

Prompts from Peachtober + Artober: Citrus & Sunflowers