Thank you, Mike! For a really encouraging and inspiring (and actionable) class. I'll gush more in the offish review. 

Anyhoo, I'm so glad I attempted and completed the project. The prompts intimidated me, but I used the mesmeration of watching Mike draw so confidently as inspiration to practice. Here's my work for each prompty:

Well this is just my opening page. I wanted to see if my poscas had any life left in them, and copied Mike to draw a portrait and some other stuff. Mike and I both seem to like bats and dinosaurs and adding teeth to animals, so I let myself just follow along with him as an on ramp to starting. In the past this has been hard for me (following along), as I've pressured myself to think of my own unique idea before I can start, and then I never start, because ideas come in the doing not beforehand. 

B L O B   M O N S T E R S : This was a nice warm up as I tested out different pens and got used to coloring with the poscas. My go-to is the Pentel brush pen, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone and go for the more precise Tombow Fudenosuke for the remainging prompts.

T A T T O O S (left) : Immediately intimidated but so glad I went for it! Definitely had to pencil it out first.

I C O N S (right) : I love to cook so I chose cooking as my icon muse. I was surprised at how easy it was to come up with what to draw just by thinking of what I use most in our kitchen, like I didn't need to google "kitchen gadgets." I found it easiest to star the items on my list that were bigger, like the cutting board, cast iron, food processor, rice cooker, and dutch oven, so I could draw those first, then I filled in the spaces with smaller icons until it was done. I definitely had to look up a reference for the can-opener (and love how it turned out!). 

S O M E T H I N G   F L Y I N G : We had a bat in our attic when we moved into our home and I named him Mel and fell deeply in love with him. Well the wildlife place said they had to get Mel and his 30 (!!) buddies out of there for everyone's benefit but I still think about him. Here he is off to try this very class. Posca tip: maybe it's obvious but I used two sizes of black posca pen to color the background. A small one for all the corners, and a fat one for the bigger areas. I like. 

I M A G I N A R Y   T R E E H O U S E (left) : I'm proud of seeing this prompt through as it really stretched me! I did pencil it out, which was crucial, yet I got impatient and didn't resolve two "issues" that stayed issues to this day: the branch going right in front of the middle of the treehouse, and the placement of the flag in that same area (oh you didn't see a flag? case in point.) I am happy though with the details on the treehouse (windows and slight perspective), the gal reading in the tree, the owl and sleeping cat, and how I kept the coloring minimal. Actually there's lots of little stuff I'm proud of! And I'm happy to learn my lesson from forging ahead with the distracting branch instead of continuing to work out the pencil sketch. 

W E I R D   A N I M A L S (right) : def wanted to back out, def glad I didn't. 

B U G   P A R T Y (left) : I did not pencil it out and it shows! Still some cuties here who deserve their party but a great lesson in how helpful it is for me to work things out before inking or coloring. 

S O M E T H I N G   H A I R Y (right) : I learned my lesson quick and took time to pencil this guy out and I think it really shows, while still being playful and fun. I love his little vacuum and his big feet. I didn't know I could even draw something like this just from my head, but Mike helped by showing how he adds deft texture to his own creatures. 

T A K E A W A Y S :

• consistent practice always wins
• pencil it out first! there's no shame! and using an eraser is actually kind of fun
• be yourself and explore what you like
• leave your comfort zone and also return to your favorites
• two poscas are better than one (a thin and a fat)

Thank you for checking out my project 🥰