How to Participate in Illustration Friday

If you are looking for a weekly creative prompt and a way to share your sketches, doodles or digital experiments, Illustration Friday is the place to check out. It's completely free to participate, you aren't competing with anyone and it's not a job audition. What it is, is a fun way to be creative, keep yourself drawing and even get some feedback from other artists of all types. Here is how to participate.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet access
• Art supplies of choice
• Scanner or digital camera
• Photo editing software
• Blog or photostream account

1. Go to the Illustration Friday website (see Resources below) to find the week's topic. A new one is posted every Friday.
2. Make some sketches; let your mind wander and elaborate on the theme. Some topics are pretty cut-and-dry, whereas others automatically open up more possibilities. Either way, it's up to you to interpret the theme and execute your illustration.
3. Settle on your choice and draw, paint, collage or whatever else you can think of. Any and all mediums are encouraged as long as they illustrate your take on the week's theme.
4. Scan or photograph your illustration, unless it's digital art to begin with. Crop the image to its best advantage and do any necessary touch ups on the computer. Using the “Save for Web” option will minimize size and load time once it's online.
5. Upload your illustration to a blog or photostream which will display it on a static page (per the I-Friday guidelines). Using these sorts of services also means that you could get comments and feedback from other artists as opposed to a bare folder.
6. Create a thumbnail of your illustration. The easiest way I've found to do this is to open a new document that is 50 pixels wide and tall (per the Illustration Friday guidelines) and copy the larger illustration into this document. Resize and move the image around until an interesting portion shows through the 50-pixel window and save it. The thumbnail is optional, but can get you more views and comments.
7. Submit your link on the Illustration Friday website sometime before the end of Thursday night. Choose the category(s) your illustration fits into and upload your thumbnail image. Once you've done that, you'll see the list of other contributors. If you have a moment, click on any that interest you and leave some feedback.

Tips & Warnings

• You can sign up to have the weekly topics sent directly to your mailbox instead of having to check them on the website.
• Do not use a photo service that requires logging in before anyone can see the pictures. People will be less likely to look at your illustration if they have to jump through an extra hoop.