Monster Mania

Flight is for the flying.

© Kevan Atteberry

If you’re lucky enough to be a Facebook friend of illustrator Kevan Atteberry, you’ve experienced a monstrously fun month of freshly-created creatures.

Yep, we’re talking Monster-a-Day…

And trust me, they are like chocolate vitamins – only better!

Kevan had the idea for this project in the fall of 2011 when he was looking for a challenge. He wanted to do some kind of exercise in self-discipline – something that would force him to do one creative thing a day.

Then on October 1^st it hit him in a beastly sort of way –

“I’m going to draw a monster a day for the month of October,” he said…

And did.

He found the process thrilling and maybe a little scary – there were days when he was sure the well of beasts had run dry…

But somehow, when he looked deep down inside…

he always found one more monster.

Which is pretty amazing considering that he is a really nice guy.

On some days he used news events. Like when he heard that Steve Jobs had died on October 5^th, he altered his illustration to reflect that. He also created a monster birthday tribute to John Lennon on the 8^th.  

Of course, the whole thing was a big success! People loved it, and some were lucky enough to win autographed prints in a contest he held at the end. Woohoooo! Did I tell you he was a nice guy?

You can check out that first Monster Album through Facebook here.

And this year Kevan and his monsters are back as brilliant and beastly as ever. See what he’s done so far here.

It’s the coolest form of self-discipline I’ve ever seen. And you know…

“With self-discipline most anything is possible.”

~Theodore Roosevelt

I’m thinking Teddy was just a tad tentative here because he obviously didn’t have monsters…

Everybody knows that with self-discipline and monsters, EVERYTHING is possible.

Everything.

Thanks, Kevan, for the inspiration!

PROMPT: Give yourself 30 days of discipline. We’ve already talked about NaNoWriMo for writers, but what about all you rock stars of the visual arts? November is a great month for turkeys (okay, maybe not so great for them, but you know what I mean), wombats, badgers, pugs, or Roosevelt teddy bears. Pick your own particular monster and GO!

For further inspiration, order up a couple of Kevan’s books – Boogie Monster and Tickle Monster (both written by Josie Bissett). Also, check out his website here – his bio is hysterical.