Peachtober ‘23 Tips

🎶 It’s that wonderful time of the yeeeeaaarr 🎶

If you’re wondering what is Peachtober, it’s a creative prompt list hosted by @furrylittlepeach! During the month of October, there is a daily prompt where you can create stuff inspired by each of the prompts in whatever medium you like. You can draw, paint, create digital art of any kind, textile art, 3D work, pottery, animation, make-up looks, photography, poetry, short stories— whatever you want.

It’s a time to play and share your work with whoever’s joining the challenge and you’re able to also discover and connect with new artists.

Here’s this year’s prompt list:

Following along with a daily challenge can be quite… well… challenging! So, I gathered some ideas that I’m using to help make following this challenge a bit easier. Enjoy!

1.) Pick your medium

Before anything, I wanted to pick what medium I was going stick with during the challenge. This helped me also check that I had all of the materials I needed, and replenish anything that was missing ahead of time.

I’m going with a mixture of Holbien Acrylic Goauche, Liquitex Acrylic Ink, Holbien Colored Pencils and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Wax Pastels (aka crayons). I’ll be painting on Arches Watercolor Coldpressed 300gr paper and have cut the sheets into size A6 ahead of the challenge.

I tend to draw digitally, but I’m in an exploration mood lately and want to try to push and explore my style in a more tactile medium! This is super scary for me, but I want to try to push and test my style on more tactile mediums.

2.) Set up your space

Reorganize and assign an area in your workspace in a way that allows you to take on this daily challenge in an easy and sustainable way. And, if you’re planning on filming your content, try to have your space near natural light or a window, or near some lights that will help you record everything easily.

Since I’ll be painting and that tends to be quite messy, I created a designated area to be able to paint and draw freely away from my day-to-day working area and right in front of a window. I’ve also set up all my materials in my trolley have them easily accessible.

Having everything ready to go and prepped in advanced makes it easier for me to take on this challenge.

3.) Prep your digital folders/files

Try creating designated folders with all of your prompts ahead of time, so you can drop your final arts there immediately and have everything more organized.

If you’re sketching digitally, make sure you have enough space on your iPad for all of the drawings.

If you’ll be creating content and filming as you draw, clear up your camera storage for all the footage and photographs. Also, try creating designated folders with all of your prompts ahead of time, this way you can drop your footage or photographs after you’re done drawing, and have them easily accessible to edit on your video editing or photo editing app.

4.) Brainstorm + sketch the prompts before the challenge

If you’re like me and get stressed out when you’re feeling too under pressure, plan ahead! Try sketching out the prompts ahead of time, that way you already have the idea sketched out and on the day you’re doing the challenge, all you have to do is execute the idea, rather than completely start from zero every time. You can also try sketching out the prompts in whatever order the ideas pop up for you rather than in order.

*Pro-tip: If you have some time, sketch out the final arts onto your final medium ahead of time. You can have the final sketch on your piece of paper for every day of the challenge ahead of time, and on the day of the daily challenge all you’ll need to do is paint or color it in.

5.) Set up the challenge in a way that works for you

By this I mean, try to find a balance between pushing yourself to explore characters, ideas and style during the challenge and also keeping some things comfortable for yourself.

You could decide to do all 31 days, or just 15 days. Decide to explore a new medium, but keep your drawing style and characters as you always make them. Start with a tactile medium and switch to digital. Set up the challenge in a way that works for you.

It is a 31 day drawing challenge, but at it’s true core, you should try to have fun along the way so be kind and flexible with yourself along the way.

6.) Start the challenge ahead of time

Try starting the challenge in September and have some pieces already made, in case if theres a moment during October where you need a day off or a break from the challenge, you have some room to play with.

I’ve already started creating some of the pieces, here’s a sneak peek!

I hope these tips are helpful for you. And remember, be kind to yourself and don’t stress! If you feel overwhelmed keeping up with the challenge, you are allowed to stop!! I’ve never been able to complete one of these challenges, but I will keep trying!! You can even try taking on the challenge at another point during the year if that feels better for you.

Be sure to check out Sha’an’s video “Peachtober Cheat Sheet” on Youtube for more tips!

Thanks for reading :·)

With love and until next time,