It Came On The Wind...

The first Montana SPARKS prompt of 2025!

Hello friends!

For those who don’t know, I am the Illustrator Coordinator of SCBWI-Montana and I have organized a monthly prompt/ co working session for my region with my friend Megan Emmot. Megan writes a new prompt every month and then we make art and stories inspired by that prompt. You can read more about Sparks here.

The prompt for May was “It came on the wind…” and I wanted to share what I came up with for the prompt!

This one generated some really interesting ideas in my brainstorming notebook:

The interesting part was defining what “It” was. I wanted something that would feel life changing once it appeared, because the prompt felt like it was the precursor to something big. So I started to think about things that would be out of place or would make a ripple through a characters life. For some reason, I was reminded of an article I read some time ago (it is pay-walled otherwise I’d link it) about the displacement of a flamingo after a hurricane to Cape Cod and this article about the changing climate having an impact on flamingos.

I think my favorite part of art is probably contrast. My favorite images are generally those with high contrast, either dark v. light or hard v soft or warm v cool. Whats more contrasting than a tropical flamingo in a cool place?

Out popped this sketch:

I drew the lines in Clip Studio Paint with some delicious fountain pen brushes I found but I wanted to play with the Fresco watercolor brushes so I moved over to Fresco. You can watch this silent time lapse here:

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed seeing my process! What contrasts in life tickle your brain? How would you have interpreted this prompt? If you use the prompt, please make sure to let me know so I can share it with our group!

Adios til next time!