Brock's Journey

Hi friends! We are approaching the busiest time of the year! Lots of markets on the agenda and some work happening! But I didn't want to miss out on sharing the experience of participating in the Peachtober challenge. For those who don't know, this is a challenge that was created 7 years ago by furrylittlepeach, in which we have a theme for each day of October and, with whatever technique we want, we develop and illustrate this theme, sharing it daily on our profile. Last year I had already wanted to participate, but given the dedication it required, it was not possible for me. This year I dove in head first and decided to put myself to the test and accepted the challenge.

What made me participate?

The challenge itself. Illustrate 31 themes in 31 days.

The fact that I had to share daily, posting every day, it would be interesting to see how the Instagram metric would work.

I started working as soon as the themes for each day were published. The idea came to me to create a story for a character, because you know, I always like to “complicate”, the truth is that I always like to add meaning. This is how the story of Brock, the badger, was born. And now a curiosity, I chose this name because Brock, meaning “badger,” was usually used as a last name in medieval England and as a form of address in stories, for a badger.

I decided to do it in postcard format, to make it easier to execute and allow me to sell it later. At first it worked very well, I did it calmly, along with other work. But, as it progressed, the challenge was already happening and I soon ran out of work and started painting practically daily to post that day. This generated some anxiety, due to the fact that things might not work out so well. This happened roughly in the middle of the challenge. As I said, at a certain point I felt like I went on autopilot to finish the challenge and the charm was lost, only recovered on the last day with the end. I was proud of myself, if it had been today I would have prepared more in advance, the result would certainly be different, but it is a very enriching challenge, I learned a lot. If you want to read the all story make sure you go to my Instagram and see all of the posts.

And I'm curious if anyone here has already participated?

Be sure to give me your testimonial, please!

• I am enjoying watching the youtube videos of itsvalerielin because she always managed to talk about life moments, struggles, and challenges, while painting beautiful pieces of art.

• If you have some projects on standby, take advantage of the free bits to move forward. I finished a piece in arraiolos (embroidered technique) that had been sitting idle for over a year, from a workshop I did, and I'm finishing a scarf that's over two years old. Sometimes we just have to change our mindset and go back to small projects and finish them, surely in the end you will have a sense of duty accomplished, you will like the result and you will be proud!

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I’ve launched my Christmas Postcards Collection in my shop, make sure you grab one, or more, to wish someone special a Merry Christmas. Besides the double meaning phrases, the details in gold and silver on the background and on the character are hand painted, making this postcard unique and original.

Thank you so much, i hope i hear from you!

Stay well and enjoy life and nature,

Sandra 💚