Heyo, glad ya stopped by✦⭑ How's the autumn gone so far? Darkness gettin' real cozy 'round these parts; sun sure ain't heatin' my apartment anymore. Nor glarin' into my monitor!
But hey, ya might've heard of Inktober? What 'bout Linktober..? October art challenge with daily prompts, but with the theme of the Legend of Zelda game franchise? This year's my second time doin' that! Puttin' all my Linktober 2025 art up on Newgrounds if ya wanna take a peek.
Not gonna lie, was bit worried 'bout the workload – it's 31 illustrations (+ 1 additional cover art) we talkin' here... So this year I challenged myself to squeeze my artin' time much as possible, without quality takin' a hit! It put me gears turnin', to figure out where I could do sum time shavin'.
Thought I'd share 'em here, kinda as tips that might help ya speed up yer artin' time.
1. Draftin' phase
Plannin', it's the most time-consumin part. Posin', camera anglin', composition... They take time for a reason. When the base's stellar, the rest's easy to build upon it.
So what if I got rid of it altogether..? Make one base, build all illustrations upon that! Get to inkin' right away! That's at best half the time shaven off right there.
2. Inks phase
Inkin' time, it correlates with the size of shot 'n' 'mount of subjects. The less the subject shows, 'n' the less there're subjects, the less there's to ink. That's why all my pieces're face closeups of single characters. Not only that, but half of a face too, which's even less lines to ink!
3. Colors phase
Colorin', I didn't need to change that much. So long I didn't go too ambitious with the backgrounds, I'd be golden.
4. Frame it more
Linktober prompts, they frame me thinkin' well. Then 2 prompts, they frame it even better! Since I was workin' with faces, I pulled out a list of emotions I've lyin' 'bout, 'n' slapped 'em beside the prompts. Now they like:
Flames + distraction
Undead + interest
Statue + aggression
Real interestin' combos! More framin' to grasp on quicker!
5. Serial production
I usually got multiple artworks goin' at different production phases. One's at a draftin' phase, one's in inks phase, so on.
With Linktober 2025 pieces tho, I did 'em all in parallel. Run all works thru the 1st inkin' phase, then 2nd phase, then foreground colors, lastly background colors. Workin' in modes like that, I didn't need to switch my headspace all the time. Ride a wave to its fullest so to say.
Result? Quality art pieces that'd make a quality artbook, done in less than an hour each! Effective! Burnout averted! More time for other artin'!
Yes, they all done already. Way less stressful than drawin' day by day, hopin' I can manage an hour of artin' each day.
Now me mind all free, I'm already ponderin' if next year I oughta try a single large piece with all 31 prompts in one, hahaa...
Have it good there! ♡