#ChildhoodWeek is an event created by Beatrice Blue that takes place two times a year (one in summer and one in winter) on Instagram. This was my first time joining.

This time the event consisted of seven prompts, they were: Animal, Dare, Far Away, Shiny, Wild, Fort and Winter. 

First, I made this illustration to announce on instagram that I'd be joining. I wanted to take part in this event because I always find that my art style and skills are refined when I challenge myself to join these types of events. I also wanted to have some fun and meet new artists! 

I sketched all my ideas for the prompts on my sketchbook. I've recently acquired the habit of sketching and brainstorming ideas on paper, instead of doing it digitally. I find that I can sketch faster on paper so it's better when I'm making simple thumbnails and brainstorming ideas like what I did here. After I sketched most of the prompts, I moved to my Ipad to start working on them.

This is the digital/refined sketch and the final result of the first prompt: animal. I had a funny story from when I was young with some zebras at the Zoo so I decided to draw my interpretation of it. I wanted this piece to have a cosy feeling so I choose mainly soft and warm colours. 

This is the digital/refined sketch (+ a colour block) and the final result of the second prompt: dare. 

Since I had seven drawings to post in a row I decided to alternate them between a light background and a dark background, so this is the one with the dark background.

This is the digital/refined sketch (+ colour palette) and the final result of the third prompt: far away. I wanted to draw a bird with a letter that has been in all cornes of the world, so I drew stamps from different countries and from imaginary places (such as Atlantis). 

I wanted the letter and the stamps to have a very classic/vintage look so I decided to stick with a very classic colour palette: dark blue, red and white. 

This is the digital sketch for the fourth prompt: shiny. I wanted to draw a white deer with a very shiny unicorn horn. I choose a dark background and a slightly muted colour palette - you can see the swatches on the left side of this sketch. 

This is the illustration before adding all the lighting details. For this piece I really wanted to convey a magical feeling with the light - since it was the most important part of this drawing - so I took time and experimented a lot with it. At the end I decided to create the light by adding multiple small brush strokes in layers with different blend modes. This way the light would be very textured and it reminded me of some illustrations from child books I used to read as a child. 

This is the finished result. I enjoyed how textured it looks!

This is the digital sketch and the final result of the fifth prompt: wild. I drew my interpretation of a waterfall in a forest near my house that I used to visit as a child. Again, I tried sticking with warmer and softer colours. Since the water occupied such a big portion of this drawing - and I wanted the overall feeling to be warm and not very contrasting - I ended picking a slightly desaturated blue. 

For the water, in order to create texture and movement in a simplified way,  I used a similar technique to the one I used to make the light on the previous drawing. 

This is the sketch + colour block of the sixth prompt: fort. I wanted to draw a cosy tent with some animal friends. 

Just like the fourth prompt, the light was very important in this drawing. This is the drawing before adding the light. It doesn't look as cosy as the finished piece. 

This is the finished result! The warm and textured light helps give the cosy and calming feeling I was aiming for with this illustration. 

And finally, this is the digital sketch and the finished result of the last prompt: winter. Again, I tried sticking with warmer colours and with the cream background I used some of the other illustrations. This way the seven illustrations would look cohesive together!

And this is how all of them looked together on my instagram: