Good morning Reader ! ☀️

How is the beginning of fall for you? :)

Here the leaves are very slowly starting to brown, and it's still so sunny and warm! A bit unexpected at this time of the year, but at least it's pleasant!

This week I have a ton of things to show you: because not only I kicked off my Inktober project, but I also completed a new illustration! And I also took the time to finally update my shop :D

Let's get started!

Inktober has finally started! 🏃

Oh boy it’s that time of the year again! I honestly didn’t see it coming, and up until the day before I had no idea what I was going to do exactly for this year’s Inktober.

In case you don’t know, Inktober is a popular (and at this point pretty old) internet challenge that consist of drawing something new with ink every day, following the official prompts published by the official account.

Over the years people have been a bit more loose with the rules: for example last year I decided to not follow the prompt and instead do the city tour that became the zine I mentioned earlier! You can read it all here :)

I’m super proud of my Inktober 2025 but I have to admit it was a bit intense: I was looking for something a bit lower stake and this time digital only, to make it easier on me.

But like I said, no idea about what to actually make; so I started digging around it: first the format. One of my absolute rule whenever I do something like this is to have something bigger at the end: I don’t want to work hard on 31 individual illustration and at the end not have anything to do with them.

So that’s how I landed on sticker stamp sheet, because I recently did some with my own illustrations, it’s pretty cute, and it would be amazing to have a big sticker sheet ready by the end of the month :)

But still, no idea about what exactly to put on those stamps.

So I started digging around it: I decided to limit myself to a specific color palette. They help me a lot in my regular illustrations, but here they would also make everything fit together nicely. Plus, constraints are very good for creativity!

Here is the one I picked, named Pollen8 :) I really love how it has good contrast while still being soft to the eye.

But still, no idea.

Hum, ok this is becoming a bit stressful now, because at this point of the story it’s the 30th of September and Inktober is starting the next day. I had a few ideas written down, but nothing concrete really…

Out of desperation, I put together a grid of stamps with various size, and I started doodling on top. And it turns out, it’s much easier to get ideas while doing rather than just thinking about doing it 😄

Doodle turned into recurring characters, and after a few tries, I finally found a subject for this inktober!

So here it is: this year we’ll be following the adventures of this little plant ducky and its weird friend with horns :)

Yes, it’s a bit random but I find it pretty fun and cute, and this goes right to what I was saying about my approach: this year I want something lower stake and where I can try ideas outside of what I usually do!

I don’t even have a prompt list for the whole month, I’ll keep improving and see where this leads us!

So here is the progress so far! I’ll keep you up to date as the month goes by and as I get more of those stamp done.

How Minecraft shaped my art

​Last week I showed you my progress on an illustrated version of Minecraft, and I’m happy to report back to say that it’s completely done :D

Here it is, fully colored and shaded!

I don’t often if ever draw fanarts, but here I wanted to make an exception because like I’m sure a lot of you this game has a very special place in my heart.

I got into it around early 2011, I was 11 at the time, when the beta version started getting popular; and I know this date because I remember looking up preview footage with my siblings for Beta 1.3 where the big new feature was… a bed! Our mind was completely blowned that we would not have to stay up all night in-game anymore.

​

Real video of the time! 😄

Anyway, nostalgia aside, I wanted to talk about it today because this game has contributed a lot to my art believe it or not!

It was at this age that I got introduce to drawing perspective: we had a family friend who showed me how to do it. When you’re learning perspective, putting things in volume, most of the exercises consist of joining dots together and make cubes float in space.

Well that was perfect for drawing my Minecraft world! Or at least try to :) This was not fine art at all, was pretty bad even, but it was one of my very early motivation to learn how to draw.

Years later, this game also helped me get into digital art!

I was watching Minecraft youtubers at the time, and one of them was doing speed drawing of various minecraft scenes and internet celebrities. Can’t remember his name now, but he had put together a long tutorial on how to draw digitally.

That’s were I learned to avoid using black for the shadow, and instead prefer a red layer in multiply mode; which I still default to to this day! :D

Anyway, crazy how all those random events came together years later! You can only connect the dots when looking backwards, it turns out.

So, thanks Minecraft I guess!

And thank you for listening to my rambling 😄 I still have one more sketch in this series of illustrated videogame screenshots, but that will be for next week!

Big update on my shop!

Yes, it’s been a good while since I had updated my shop and website. Almost none of the illustrations I did this year were listed!

So here it is: I went over my gallery and my art shop, and now my most recent illustrations are finally there and available to order :)

But it’s not all! Like I mentioned, recently I made sticker sheets out of my illustrations for the first time; and I decided to make the ones I have available to order!

I’ve never put stickers or sticker sheets for sales before, but I think it would be great as a more accessible option than my full size print. I know times are rough for a lot of people, so if you need a small help like free shipping or a smaller format don’t hesitate to message me.

Or you can print my art at home! And on this topic there is something else I almost forgot to mention! I also updated the coloring pages with my latest illustration :)

In case you were not aware, all newsletter members have access for free to a lot of ready to print coloring pages of my art; and now there is more of you for you to grab! For free!

(if you are subscribed to the newsletter simply click on the orange button at the bottom of the newsletter!)

And because I know some people don’t necessary want to subscribe but still want to order, the link also comes with your order as a little bonus!

So if you’ve been lurking and would want a bit of my art on your wall or sketchbook now is the time! If you’ve been enjoying what I draw and write, I would really appreciate the support :)

In the meantime I’ll try my best to stay on top of my various sites and update them sooner when I release a new illustration, sorry about it haha 😄

Alright, thank you for reading this week's issue of my art newsletter :)
I'll come back next week with 7 more doodles from inktober, and hopefully some more artworks and bonuses!

​Check out my shop if you'd like to get your art in your home (or as a gift!), and I'll see you next Tuesday!

Take care,
- Nighten

This email is part of my art Newsletter. Invite a friend to join the club:

​https://club.nighten.fr​