Art & Inspiration letters from NIGHTEͶ (Nathan Guilhot)
This is not just a newsletter — it's my personal magazine documenting my creative journey.
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Good morning Reader!
I’m happy to see you back here this week :)
As usual things are pretty intense here; I’m juggling daily Inktober on top of my work and the main illustration, so I’m sure you’ll understand!
I thought today will be shorter than usual, but I have a lot cool things to show you! I couldn't help myself, so please have fun and enjoy :D
And remember, since we are soon starting a new month, one of you will be chosen at random and will receive an extra email from me, and more importantly a free print delivered to their door!
So watch out next week, and thank you for following this journey! ❤️
Exploring East and back to the city - my Inktober project continues!
Despite everything, my inktober challenge of exploring a new location of my universe every day is still going strong :)
I now don’t really have a buffer anymore, and it has become my ritual when I finish work to grab my sketchbook and do my daily drawing - it can take an hour or sometimes more from start to finish, including writing the flavour text.
Nothing too hard, but it certainly is a test of endurance!
Before I continue, here are all the entries since my last email; enjoy!
DAY 22 The Amusement Park
But if you have children full of energy and are willing to take the car to go even further west, your perfect destination becomes AmazeLand™!
This is a fairly modest amusement park, mostly filled with fair rides and stalls, even though more is planned to be built. People tend to be divided about it, except the children, who are always excited to come back!
And if you climb into the Ferris wheel, you can even see the whole city!
Now that I think about it, having a one way road on a bridge is super dangerous; consider the road larger in canon 😄
DAY 23 The Highway
But if there is one thing people agree on hating, it’s the gigantic highway bridge you can see to the west horizon.
This project was made to connect all the bigger cities in the country, and the Blue Roof city was barely considered; in fact, it was almost not connected to the highway at all.
During its construction, the project was first blocked to protect the forest underneath, but they simply found a loophole and built this whole section above ground on massive bridges high in the sky.
The Blue Roof city evolves and tries its best to improve itself. Until the rest of the world changes as well, it can only strive to be an example of what could be.
By by sheer coincidence this illustration of mine will be exactly 2 years old this week :)
Taking Back 03 - November 1st 2023
DAY 24 The Shared Garden
Tucked into the south side of the residential district, halfway up the hill, the Shared Garden climbs the slope in neat green steps.
This is the favorite place for residents to spend their time, whether it’s to improve the garden, relax in the sun, or organize a barbecue!
Surprisingly, there is no attributed space for each household, no hard barriers between each neighbor. But thankfully, with good communication, it works out, allowing everyone to work on their personal corners, share tools and knowledge (or jokes), and sometimes build bigger projects together.
DAY 25 The 999AM frequency
If you spend some time with teenagers, or play around with your radio, you might have heard about the 999 AM radio.
Nobody claims to run any broadcast on this frequency, and yet if you tune in at random times of the day, you might hear something between long periods of silence. Sometimes it’s hardcore music, sometimes strange noise, but at other times you’ll hear the crazy ramble of a woman with an angry voice.
She calls herself “The Queen”, and if you’re lucky enough to hear her, she’ll either talk nonsense or complain about strange things like the trams, the tower, the fireworks… or whatever crosses her mind.
Teenagers especially love to laugh and invent urban legends about this character. Copycats and parodies even emerged over time, but none lasted very long, while the 999 AM radio remains a mystery.
DAY 26 The Soul Doctor
Few people know where it is. Few people even know it exists. But the Soul Doctor really exists, or at least it can be found on top of one of the roofs.
In a little brick cabin with plants on its roof, a curious character opened this secret place. It’s said that it can cure the soul of people who are troubled, lost, or tangled deep within.
Many believe it is just a legend or a charlatan; in any case, it’s not a tourist destination. But it is said that if you really need it, you will find a way to get there.
Had a lot of fun with this one! Yes even with the amount of jars haha
As I was saying, it really is a test of endurance to keep up with this challenge; not only for me but for my tools as well!
Here is an overview of what I’m using during this month for those daily drawings:
A 4-euro sketchbook
A kid’s pencil I bought in Lidl
An ink pen that I found on the ground in a train station in Kyoto (surprisingly good!)
And of course, the kids’ crayons that I stole in a restaurant in London; I already mentioned them in a previous newsletter!
But this month has been very intense for those crayons, and they all broke down one way or another :( And the ink pen, while very nice to use, is slowly getting low on ink.
But thankfully everything should hold up well enough for the last few days of the challenge!
All in all, remember that making art doesn’t have to be complicated :) You can just use whatever you have available!
The illustration is coming together!
I have trouble getting fully excited about an illustration before starting the light: before this, I can only imagine how it will look like without clear certainty.
The shading part is where everything is coming together, and I’m happy that I finally reached this stage with the illustration! Here is the current progress :)
Not ready yet; I have a lot of details to fill in and clean up, but it’s a huge milestone!
I’m hoping to have it finished and published by next week, especially since I will not have to grind Inktober anymore in just a few days! :))
My friend Shertigan sent me this awesome personal site with an insanely good aesthetic, and they even have multiple scans of magazines you can flip through!
Go check it out if you are on desktop (it’s not great on mobile), click around, explore; there is so much to see that I don’t want to spoil it for you :)
(I so wish my website was that great haha)
And that wraps it up for this week! :)
Next week you can expect the full wrap-up on this massive Inktober project, a look at the finished illustration (hopefully), and some surprises along the way ;)
Have a great rest of your week now, do things that make you happy, and as always,
Take care, - Nighten
This email is part of my art Newsletter. Invite a friend to join the club: https://club.nighten.fr
