A week ago, I participated in the Folktale Week Instagram challenge for the first time. Every day during this week, illustrators, and other artists from all around the world share stunning illustrations inspired by folktales. You can use existing stories, or compose your own story inspired by the seven prompts selected by the hosts of the challenge.
You can follow the challenge with the hashtags #folktaleweek and #folktaleweek2023. The prompts will be revealed by the end of October. So you have three weeks to prepare. I've been following the Instagram challenge for several years now, and each time I've been captivated by the illustrations. That's why I decided to take part this year. If you wish to participate the entire week, you have to submit an announcement along with seven illustrations. I decided to go down this route. As I was very inspired by the prompts, I wrote a short story myself. These are the prompts of 2023: lost - ink - sea -sleep - underground - illusion - found.
My story:
One day I found myself lost into the heart of a dense forest. It was then that I heard a haunting caw, echoing through the trees.
An ink black raven seemed to be waiting, as if it had been expecting me. It spread its ebony wings and took flight, leading me even deeper into the forest.
The trees gave way to a breathtaking sea of flowers, their colors more vivid than any I had ever seen before.
The serenity of the place was enchanting, and my eyes grew heavy. I lay down on the ground, the sweet aroma of the flowers lulling me into a deep, peaceful sleep.
When I awoke, I found myself in a strange, warm underground place.
I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been transported to a different world, one where reality and dreams intermingled. Confusion washed over me, and I asked myself, "Was this all an illusion?
It was then that I realized that I had never truly lost myself; instead, I had found a part of me I never knew existed. I had discovered a world within myself, a world where the beauty of nature and the magic of dreams converged.
Now that the challenge is over, how did I personally experience it?
There is a big difference between creating a single illustration and creating a series of illustrations that belong together and where you need to be consistent in colours and characters. It can be difficult to keep the same colours in a series of illustrations, especially if you are painting everything. I found it a good exercise to do within a limited time frame. But of course, that's also the downside of the challenge. You have to produce a huge amount of work, write a text, sketch, paint, scan and post the content in a short space of time. It all takes longer than you could have imagined. This sometimes led to me being in a bit of a hurry and paying less attention to finishing the illustrations than I would have liked. As a result, I was sometimes not entirely satisfied with the result. On the other hand, I am glad that I kept up with the whole challenge and was able to post every day. Planning ahead and creating a few illustrations beforehand is recommended. If you have little time, it might be better to choose one or a limited number of prompts and thus make fewer illustrations.
Although the challenge is very large with many participants and you get somewhat lost in the sea of illustrations, you still get a bit of a group feeling, and I received nice responses.
Would you consider participating? I do think I will participate again next year. Be sure to follow it on Instagram.