Inktober Day 9 – Heavy

I had a lot of fun with these guys. Will be drawing some more of them. I might even add some to my Etsy. What do you think? Would you like to have a hippo on your wall.

Rainy day and spent the day afternoon drawing. At least I am all caught up now with the prompts.

Inktober Day 8 – Reckless

Not reckless. Work in progress. Had fun on the hoop this morning. I am not reckless but I know my strengths and weaknesses.

It’s been a while since I drew Mr Fox in the air. Did you know I have a full collection off downloadable aerial fox prints on my Etsy? They actually have become one of my most favourite items.

And the finished drawing. Who is the reckless on here?

Inktober Day 7 – Starfish

Good morning world! What are you having for breakfast? Personally I stick with big black coffee and a banana.

Another seagull. Interesting fellas… If you missed the first one, here is yesterday’s seagull. Should I add a seagull print to my Etsy shop?

Have a wonderful day!

Inktober 2025 Melanie Franz

Do you like seagulls?

Inktober Day 6 – Pierce

Sticking to exploring different kinds of animals. Seagulls are weird though. We occasionally have huge seagulls sitting on our balcony. Looking at their beaks, I definitely wouldn’t want to get too close to them.

Day 2 – 100 Animals

So far so good. I made a Pinterest board where I keep adding pictures to.

Did a couple of quick sketches in coloured pencil. After about 15 of them I felt like going in with ink to give it some quick contours and shading…

Also dusted off those caran d’Ache coloured pencils just for the fun of it. It really has been a while…

INKtober warm-up

Summer came and went. I am trying once again to get out of hibernation with a step by step plan. I tidied up my desk and drawers. I realised that the most valuable possessions I have are a dozen ink bottles and the piles of watercolour paper that I accumulated over the years and never used. Let’s not mention the box of Caran d’Ache coloured pencils that I bought one by one…Just like books, buying art supplies is just too tempting wherever I am. Time to use them all!

So follow along for my September plan. Join in if you want!

  • draw 100 animals
  • dust off my pencils
  • take out my ink again
  • have fun with my sketch book
  • draw daily for at least 20 min

This will be my INKtober warm up. Last year was the first year after 7 continuous years of participating in Inktober that I skipped it. Will try to make up for it this year.

Are you planning to do Inktober?

Happy Easter!

I realized the last post has been a while. I was busy enjoying the sun in the Algarve in Portugal.

Despite the lack of updates on my blog, I have been busy with my Etsy designs and was working on my never ending book project. BUT the end is near and I can hopefully get started on the next adventure one soon!

In the meantime here is a little easter bunny for you.

Download, print, fold, cut and pass it on.

Last Minute Valentine’s Card

Are you in need of a last minute Valentine´s card or friendship card?

Then look no further. Here is your card to download. Print, fold, cut and voila!

Honey Badger – To my partner in crime

Blue footed booby – To my partner in crime

More you can find on my Etsy.

Let me know which one is your favourite.

Hyvää ystävänpäivää (Happy Friend’s day!) Thanks for following 🙂

Happy New Year!

A new year and new adventures… who knows what will happen this year?

For once I started it super motivated.
#1 – Draw a crab

#2 – Finish my Madame Woof Woof illustration project!

Number 1 is done and number 2 is in the works.
What are your new year resolutions?

Crab and herring ink drawing_Melanie Franz

When everything is up in the air…

Or something like that. It is Inktober and I haven’t found the time yet to get it started. Maybe I’ll try and play catch up at the weekend.

Are you doing Inktober?

Aerial Fox _Inktober _ Melanie Franz

Watching your back

That’s me, waddling out into the snow today. We are back to winter wonderland after 2 days of snowfall and no one who cleaned the roads…

Happy Sunday everyone!

311018-inktober-moon-Melanie Franz

New Capybaras coming your way!

My notebook of ideas is filling up. Since the beginning of the year I had a million creative ideas in addition to the ones that have been piling up for years. The only issue is lack of time. So I have been utilizing every free minute this past week to work on the current project but also start new ones… I really need to get better at focusing.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a warm up sketch today before getting started on my book illustrations, but then ended up doing capybaras, as I missed their entertaining pokerfaces. Here is a behind the scenes.

What situation would you like to see the capybara in?

Mood Today

After a week of rain and wind, the best attempts to stay motivated seem to fail… Tea, blanket, sketchbook and movie it is.

Capybara King_Melanie Franz

Art vs Artist II

For the beginning of the year I felt like putting another one of these together. More as motivation for myself than anything else. Just as reminder of what I did during the last year, beside travelling a lot and raising a tiny human.
I am excited about the coming months. Lots of creative plans are in the works. Now I just need to make the time to get started.
Happy New Creative Year to Everyone!

Art vs Artist

Another year is slowly coming to an end. I feel like I haven´t done much illustration wise, but going through my files it actually looks like I got more done than I thought I did.

I tried lots of new things – media and styles – started on my own book projects (more about that soon) and I am looking forward to see where this journey will take me next year!
How about you? Did you try anything new this year?

Art vs Artist 2023_Melanie Franz Illustration