Dinovember (2017)
Sitting down to try and write this project up, I find myself staring at a blank document going “why DID I decide to do a dinosaur drawing prompt?”. Especially straight after doing Inktober, and while simultaenously doing NaNoWriMo at the same time. But I forget that 2017 was the year that many of the designers at my day job could see the writing on the wall; The ongoing game of business cat-and-mouse was about to come an end, and it was not in our favour. Many others had made their strategic exits already, and giving pointers to skill sets that would be beneficial outside of the niche work that we had been doing. One of the key points of feedback was learning to draw Vector images – an illusive skillset I’d been meaning to try and work on for years, but always defaulted back to the safety net of my raster-based programs.
I cannot actually remember where I encountered the prompt list, but given that the local NaNoWriMo region were opting for an alternate theme of dinosaurs, everything lined up to tackle the dinovember challenge and give vector illustrations another shot.
It wasn’t going to be my first attempt though. Throughout 2017 I’d completed several practice vector works, including a lettering piece (as a response to the design team’s drawing challenge prompt ‘hero’), and an illustration based on musician Flume’s “Tiny Cities” (the final track off his 2016 album, Skin, featuring Beck).
Hero – “So I won’t give up” (2017)
Tiny Cities (2018)
"All these tiny cities that you're holding in your little hand Glittering like diamond lights that blow away in desert sand It was never perfect and was never meant to last"
Challenge Accepted
So hot on the heels of Inktober 2017, it was time to dive in head first into dinovember.
Dinovember 2017 Prompt List
Colour Pallet Challenge by Justanotheraotfan
I forgot I pursued an extra challenge of using the colour palette challenge by justanotheraotfan, for 28 of the 30 dinos.
01 Syntarsus
02 Coelophysis
03 Euskelosaurus
04 Saltopus
05 Pisanosaurus
06 Chindesaurus
07 Lycorhinus
08 Procompsognathus
09 Staurikosaurus
10 Camelotia
11 Podokesaurus
12 Huayangosaurus
13 Dilophosaurus
14 Yandusaurus
15 Agilisaurus
16 Proceratosaurus
17 Emausaurus
18 Mamenchisaurus
19 Ammosaurus
20 Archaeopteryx
21 Styracosaurus
22 Microraptor
23 Alvarezsaurus
24 Lambeosaurus
25 Mapusaurus
26 Confuciusornis
27 Lamaceratops
28 Becklespinax
29 Caudipteryx
30 Rebbachisaurus
Extension – Marchandise
A range of dinos merchandise was made available for purchase via RedBubble for several years (2018-2025) before being removed as I closed down my account. This included individual stickers, prints, and journals, as well as new rainbow artwork incorporating many of the dinos for other products such as laptop sleeves, laptop cases, phone cases, mugs, journals, notebooks, throw pillows and tote bags. As of 2025 this print-on-demand service has been discontinued.
Dinovember Mug
Dinovember Phone Case
Dinovember Laptop Skin
Conclusion
Unlike later challenges where I’ve gone back to basics, this predominantly made use of the Adobe Illustrator pencil tool, rather than the pen tool. But a starting point is still a starting point. Not everything turned out fantastic, there’s some gems in the mix and there’s some absolute duds. Every little project helps in it’s own way.