Booburgh - A Town of Spooky Businesses

This started as a month-long drawing challenge. For the month of October I drew a new small business each day. How did I land on this concept? I made a few lists and rolled the dice. Honestly. It was a totally random outcome and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Below is the list of prompts for each day!

Before I started drawing, I did some research. I was inspired by some comics I was reading at the time, a few artists I follow on Instagram, and the Busytown books by Richard Scarry! I wanted to make a town that felt alive and in looking at the research, I realized I need to make sure I include the townsfolk as much as the storefronts.

Next I started sketching. Working quickly meant doing a sketch and immediately moving on to the next. I worked in ink so that I couldn't spend time erasing and tweaking. It's fast-paced and can be a lot of fun!

The reason I work so small is so that I can work quickly and make sure I like the overall shape of the shop. The silhouette of each building was important so that they didn't all look like the same rectangle and drawing small like this helped avoid that.

Above are the final small thumbnail sketches for each shop. I knew I wanted to make a poster at the end so I made sure the rough designs complimented that.

Then after the sketch I did a loose colour study. I wanted to work with a somewhat limited palette so I made sure that I planned out the general colours of each building before I started final artwork. I only had a day to do each illustration so I needed to work as efficiently as possible.

With the sketches and colour studies ready, I went straight to tight sketches and then directly to final artwork.

The rest of the month went by in a blur. Drawing and changing colours and doing it over again the next day. It was fun but I'm glad October only has 31 days.

Including people and trees and other little details were important to me. It's what made the shops feel real and the town feel alive. Below are most of the creatures and characters that appear around Booburgh. Elements like trees and trash cans repeated.

I was so proud with how Booburgh turned out that I collected it into a book that I can now share with others.

Personal projects are so important because they let you experiment, take risks, and have fun without the pressure of collaboration.