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AuGhost drawing challenge

There are so many month long illustration prompt lists out there these days everyone can find something that interests them. Inktober is probably the biggest and most well known. If you haven’t heard of it then it takes place in October, and each day people create ink illustrations / drawings based on a one word prompt. After Inktober became popular lots more prompt based challenges sprung up. The AuGhost drawing challenge is a similar event that happens in August each year and instead of everyone using ink, everyone loosely bases their illustrations on the theme of ghosts.

2023 AuGhost prompt list

I dip in and out of drawing challenges from time to time but rarely do them all the way through. This is because I usually miss the start and by the time I realise it’s happening it’s already too stressful to catch up. This August I knew about the AuGhost drawing challenge in advance and decided to approach it with a super simple set up (iPad procreate with a single brush and just black, white and cream) and a relaxed attitude (super important). The other thing I never realised about these drawing challenges is that people plan in advance; they have the prompt list and make all the art at least a few days in advance to give themselves a buffer. I was always trying to create each illustration on the day of each prompt! No wonder I found it hard 🙂 So this time I created them in batches once or twice a week. That worked much better. It also helped to get into the flow doing a few at once.

simple black and white illustration of a ghost looking at us through a doorway
doorway
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with swirly eyes starting at a phone
transfix
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a fair isle bobble hat
winter
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with a flower in his hair
spring
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a big floppy sun hat and sun glasses
summer
simple black and white illustration of a ghost in a pile of leaves
fall
simple black and white illustration of a ghost flying out of a gift wrapped box
gift
simple black and white illustration of a ghost building a sandcastle
build
simple black and white illustration of a ghost spinning out of a blender
turbulent
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with a unicorn horn
myth
simple black and white illustration of a ghost dressed as a duck
quack
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a crown and standing on a round table
camelot
simple black and white illustration of a ghost dressed as a caveman
prehistoric
simple black and white illustration of a ghost in a pacman maze
maze
simple black and white illustration of a ghost being thrown in the bin
ditch
simple black and white illustration of a ghost and a spider
crawl
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with sad eyes and a missing heart
sacrifice
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a daisy chain
chain
simple black and white illustration of a ghost trapped in a spider web
web
simple black and white illustration of a ghost dancing
sound
simple black and white illustration of a ghost asleep wearing headphones
silence
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with fangs and little bat wings
vampire
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a witches hat with a black cat peeping in
witch
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with stitches and neck bolts
Frankenstein
simple black and white illustration of a furry ghost in front of a large moon
werewolf
simple black and white illustration of a dotted line of a ghost
invisible
simple black and white illustration of a ghost with an umbrella standing in the rain
drop
simple black and white illustration of a ghost looking in a mirror
mirror
simple black and white illustration of a ghost in the This Is Fine meme
crackle
simple black and white illustration of a ghost looking at a magic swoosh of stars
magic

Some of my favourite creations this year are:

simple black and white illustration of a ghost spinning out of a blender
turbulent: a happy little dizzy smoothie ghost
simple black and white illustration of a ghost wearing a crown and standing on a round table
camelot: a ghost king on a round table
simple black and white illustration of a ghost in the This Is Fine meme
crackle: This is Fine.
simple black and white illustration of a ghost looking at a magic swoosh of stars
magic: This was the final prompt. I just love his amazed expression 🙂

Some observant people might have noticed that there are only 30 images above and 31 days in August. The prompt for day 3 was flicker and I decided to create a little animation:

flicker

The best thing about drawing challenges is that lots of people are posting similar (but interestingly different!) images all together each day. There is always such a lovely community around them.

The downside of AuGhost is that after reading and writing the hashtag #AuGhost all month, my brain now freezes every time I try and type August. Thankfully it’s already September so after I’m done with this post then I probably won’t need to do that again until next year 🙂

Are there any illustration challenges you love and think I should know about?

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Robin 3 September 2023 Reply

    I love all of your images. So cute and imaginative!

    1. Nicola Schofield 3 September 2023 Reply

      Thank you so much!
      It’s nice how even something simple can be really effective.

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