This month’s art challenge set by the OCA Visual Communications Discord server was to draw something from a prompt in your own style. We each suggested prompts, and the one chosen at random was ‘talisman’.
I began by brainstorming and trying to generate ideas for this prompt. It was quite difficult for me to find something I wanted to draw. I tried out several ideas, such as an altar containing candles and crystals, a girl floating through space clutching her necklace, and simply just a ring on a table, before deciding to put some space between me and the challenge. I had started developing one of the ideas – the girl floating through space – and was really dissatisfied with it. I hoped that time away from the project would help me consider different possibilities.
Thankfully, whilst thinking about the prompt and what ‘talisman’ could mean, I had an idea that I’m so excited about and happy I was able to produce. A rabbit’s foot is often considered lucky and used as a talisman, so I thought: ‘what if rabbits carried human hands?’.
I really wanted a simple pastel colour scheme for this illustration to emphasise the childlike, cutesy nature that rabbits have. I envisioned a little rabbit world all in pastel where they lived just like humans do. I’m not super happy with the outcome, honestly – this is not my favourite piece of work. The concept is great, but something about the finished piece doesn’t sit well with me, although I can’t quite figure out what. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a ton of experience working with these colours, maybe it’s the textures I chose, I don’t know. It seemed to be received well though!
I definitely felt quite stuck with this challenge. ‘Talisman’ was a hard prompt for me to work from, and I found myself frustrated with my finished piece no matter what I did. It’s the sort of illustration I would go back to later and redraw when I maybe have a stronger sense of my own style, I think. Right now I feel like I’m bouncing around different techniques and styles, trying to see what feels most comfortable and like ‘my art’. These challenges are a great way to experiment with this, though, and are a fun outlet to put what I’ve learned from this unit to use!
Learning Log 