What’s next?

I have been in a drawing mood lately and thought it is about time to add some new prints to my Etsy shop.

But what should I add?

Let me know in the poll below.

Inktober 2025 Melanie Franz

Here is a best off (at least my favourites) of Inktober so far. There are a few more to come.

Inktober Day 17 – Ornate

Good morning beautiful people! Who’s a pretty boy?

Maybe I should draw more llamas. Here is the first one in case you missed it.

Want a llama staring at you? Check out this downloadable print.

Llama Ornate Inktober 2025 Melanie Franz

And the sketch.

Inktober Day 16 – Blunder

I was rather stuck with this one and had no idea what to draw….
How is your Inktober going?

After a couple of days feeling low I had a drawing spree last night where I caught up with all the prompts and I am now quite happy again with the latest outcomes. This one not quite sure…

Meanwhile I am also pondering what new drawings to make for my Etsy shop. Any suggestions?

Elephant umbrella blunder_Inktober 2025 Melanie Franz

Inktober Day 13 – Drink

I realised I have been may more drawings than I thought, as for some days I have been drawing 2 instead of one picture.
Not sure what this little lady has in her glass…. I have my coffee. Black.

Inktober Day 12 – Shredded

Was busy living the last week and forgot to post. Now playing catch up at the weekend.
I guess all my plans of drawing daily got shredded…

Come fly with me

Took my toddler flying with me today and she loved it. What about you?

Just added this brand-new print to my Etsy shop! You can check out the full lineup of aerial fox posters right here. And don’t worry — I haven’t abandoned Inktober! I just might have forgotten to take photos of my latest drawings… update coming soon!

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.

Day 8 – 100 Animals

Half way through…and first storm of the season! Winter has officially arrived. Perfect time to stay in an be creative. It’s the first time that I am having fun with a sketchbook and trying out different things. Are you keeping a sketch book?

Day 7 – 100 Animals

Alight more dogs, but I am trying to mix it up again with. Sausage dogs are the weirdest creatures. And it’s been a long time since I drew a capybara. Here is the whole collection, in case you missed them. You can also find the odd Capybara in my Etsy shop.

I love ink. And yes it can get messy…

Day 6 – 100 Animal

I am still a dog person. I just love drawing dogs.

Adding some colour to the black and white… good to dust off those watercolours as well.

What is your favourite medium?

Day 5 – 100 Animals

The journey continues….

Secretary bird. I had to look up if he actually exists, with all those AI images I wasn’t sure. And he exists indeed, this cool looking dude.

The secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is a unique, large raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, known for its impressive snake-hunting abilities and distinctive appearance.
He stands about 1.2 to 1.4 meters (approximately 4 to 4.5 feet) tall, making it one of the tallest birds of prey. It has a wingspan of over 2 meters (6.6 feet).

ink animal drawings _Melanie Franz 2025

Day 4 – 100 Animals and Pinterest

The first 10-15 animal took definitely some effort. Effort to sit down, and effort to sketch. Now I am at the point where I am starting to have fun.

I have been using Pinterest a lot to look up reference images and create boards. I only now discovered that Pinterest is drowning under a flood of AI-generated junk. What once was a useful platform for photographs, has turned info an AI dump which is flooded with ads. I didn’t notice it at first because I hadn’t been on Pinterest in months, but it became especially apparent when looking up images of birds and suddenly I was faced with only AI generated non-existent bird species. Beside the creepy look of AI generated imagery, they look like the same same garbage the more you look at them.

ink animal drawings _Melanie Franz 2025

I have been listening to a lot of illustrator and artist podcast and the discussion with the issue of anything AI generated. While there are the fast-fashion consumers that don’t see anything wrong with anything AI generated, there are the traditional artists. Art lives through its imperfections. No human generated art, being it music, painting, sculpture will ever be 100% perfect. They might be close but not perfect. And it is this imperfections that gives the artwork its soul and life.

ink animal drawings _Melanie Franz 2025

Have you been noticing that Pinterest is collapsing under the weight of AI-generated garbage?