Artober 2025 Review

Welcome November!
2025

   Hello my darling digital snail mail pals! I hope you have a nice big cup of a warm drink and you’re feeling cozy.
   October has come and gone! In Tennessee this time of year is when the color is at its peak, and I’m looking out my window at a brilliant yellow maple as I type this. I have pumpkins on my front porch and hot tea in my mug. And a blanket over my shoulders and a heating pad under my butt, because old houses with beautiful big windows are not very warm when the temperature goes below 60F. As much as I look forward to walks in the silent, leafless woods in the coming weeks, I do dread the endless chill. But each season has its perks, and the awesome thing about this time of year is I sleep GREAT. I could sleep from sunset to well after sunrise. After a summer of restless tossing in our warm drafty house (75F is not an ideal sleeping temperature) I am a baby bug in a rug. Snug. Under 5 blankets.
   I made a lot of little doodles this month! As I said in my last newsletter, I decided I’d do another drawing prompt list challenge. I didn’t try and do every single day, and I skipped quite a few towards the end because I was busy with commissions. It was fun! I made some pieces I really enjoyed, and I feel like it was good practice with the medium that is Procreate. I found some new ways to approach how I make my digital art. Practice is like… really helpful?
   So here it is, the full collection of Artober drawings!

I now have a whole section in my website dedicated to artober art! Click the button to go browse!

Artober

 To any of my artsy pen pals who did not do artober in any way or did a couple and then got overwhelmed and feel disappointed or ashamed: please be kind to yourself. In fact, if you were feeling overwhelmed or disinterested or stressed and you listened and you backed off and let go and did the pressing things instead, you should be so proud of yourself. Learning to listen to your body and know when something is too much is a valuable skill. Sometimes just doing the adulting and resting is all you can do. It’s really okay if you didn’t have the energy to draw every day. I didn’t either. Even I felt a little ashamed of myself seeing the artists who actually made a real paper and paint painting EVERY SINGLE DAY, but that’s when I pull out the old phrase “nobody ever grew or healed from shame” and focused instead on what I DID manage to do. Like the laundry and the dishes and my job.
   I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to The Glaze Project. Because of Glaze I could post my work without feeling sick about it. What is Glaze? It’s a program that applies an invisible filter to your artwork. What we see isn’t changed, but what AI sees ends up like tv static.
   It means my work can’t be ground up and spat out and recreated without my consent by AI. It’s completely free, too! There are people out there fighting the good fight, friends. Don’t lose hope.
   I also had the chance to make a LOT of pet portraits! THANK YOU for your commission purchases! I adore all of your pets. I know I say this every time but I just LOVE painting pet portraits. And if you want one for a gift, I’ve got openings and there’s still time! I can even do digital and Animal Crossing style portraits. (On that note, who else is feeling a resurgence of Animal Crossing yearning with the announcement of the update???)
   I can FINALLY share with you that a project I did last year is available in print! I illustrated a book for a client, and it’s now out on Barnes & Noble. This was my first ever full picture book client, and it was a blast to work on. How could a Halloween themed book not be fun?

Night of the Creepers

   Happy highlights of the month: Tybalt falling out of the cat tree because he was having Too Much Fun. Twice. (unharmed). Tybalt bringing me the BIGGEST praying mantis I have ever seen (also unharmed). Mimsy getting very demanding for snuggles because of her tiny chilly toe beans. Lots of small gratitude for sunshine and blue skies and good friends, and therapy. Rewatching the BBC Narnia series that I watched probably a million times as a child but hadn’t seen in 20+ years. WHAT A HOOT.
   Big highlight: I got an immense amount of smug satisfaction out of canceling my Spotify subscribtion. Mwahahaha. The app I switched to is called Qobuz, and I have zero complaints! They pay their musicians, they have great streaming quality, everything I listen to is there, and the subscription price was actually cheaper than Spotify. And the CEO is not currently a… well, you know. There’s even a feature in the app where you can pay $5 one time and it transfers over all your playlists and liked songs for you. THE POWER. You actually don’t have to give money to monsters.
   I know that the days are not only getting shorter and darker literally, but also feel that way emotionally too. It’s really hard to have the right words to say about it. And I do want to keep my newsletter a bright relief from the relentless negativity and fear out there. So I’ll say just this:
   Consider doing something very small and very local if you are feeling icky but able. Something like a food donation or even $10 to a local food bank. I've seen my local community doing a lot of this kind of thing and it makes me hopeful. It can be a text to a friend. Maybe host a dinner party. Ask for help, and be willing to accept it. We build community both by giving AND accepting help. If we always refuse to take help, we isolate and alienate. Nobody needs that right now. Tell your friends you love them and see how they’re doing. You might not be able to hold the whole world together, but you can definitely help hold up those closest to you. That’s HUGE.
   What’s your library up to? When’s the last time you went and took some things off the shelves? Fun fact, they get funding based on use, and use counts as: they had to put a book back on the shelf for you (so just take random books down and put them in the return cart), you used the wifi (you can bring your laptop and do your homework or scroll through tumblr), you reserved a room (for free) and had a club meeting (for book club, silent reading, a craft day, a parallel play date, a writing group critique, D&D, etc), you took out a book and took it home and returned it (even if you didn’t read it), you rented a movie or a game or a tv show, you used their services to get an audio book. Did I mention it’s all free?
   Pretty small stuff with a huge impact. Not overwhelming, no need to strap a sword to your belt and rush out into the fray. Small deeds are really great, actually. So if you’re able and doing them, thank you. You’re my hero.
Until next time, hoping you are well and warm,
Lara Jean