Reflections on Peachtober 2025
I reflect on my experience participating in this year's Peachtober drawing challenge.
This October, I gave my best crack at Peachtober — a daily art challenge in the month of October run by Sha’an d’Anthes (Furrylittlepeach). In the past, I would make grand plans to attempt this drawing challenge. But somewhere along the way, I would lose the nerve or rhythm. Life happened, and time would fly out the window.
Due to a work conference and prep for other art events, I arguably had even less time compared to past years to dedicate to this challenge. But I was determined to give it a try. By the end, I managed to complete 25 out of 31 days. Was it exhausting? Yes. Am I still recovering? For sure. But along the way, I learned a lot about myself and my drawing process. So here’s a recap of Peachtober 2025.
Preparing for Peachtober
Every September, the Peachtober prompts are released in advance to help creatives plan and prepare for the challenge. (Sha’an shares her process putting together the Peachtober prompt list in this video, if you’re curious!) I was still on the fence about whether to participate this year, but after seeing the prompt list, I fell in love with the prompts immediately.
For the challenge, I decided to create digital illustrations in Procreate. (In the future, I would love to experiment with other media too!)
I spent a couple of days in September brainstorming and sketching ideas for all 31 prompts. And when I say sketch, I mean something like this:
When October arrived, I would transform each day’s sketch into the final piece. There were a few times when I changed directions completely, but overall, sketching the designs in advance helped me narrow down the concept, which I could continue to marinate on throughout the month.
What I learned along the way
1. Constraints led me to make bold decisions quickly. One of the main constraints in a drawing challenge is time. When I draw, I often spend a long time tinkering over particular elements or color choices. But to complete an illustration in a day, I knew I would have to make decisions quickly. Over the course of the challenge, I noticed I was using color more boldly to create contrast and lighting — aspects that I’ve been wanting to improve on in my work.
2. I could discover the essence of a piece along the way. When I draw, I usually try to unearth all the details of a piece in the sketch phase — creating layers upon layers and versions upon versions of sketches until the piece is refined and ready to take to final. For a fun challenge like Peachtober, however, I realized I didn’t need to figure out everything in advance; the painting process itself became an act of exploration and discovery. I figured out most of the backgrounds and details along the way, asking myself, “What would a slug eat at a picnic?” “What other creatures can I add to this tree stump to make the scene more interesting?” and “Where would spectators watch the snail race?”
3. Practice creates fluidity. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how far I would get in Peachtober — especially in the beginning, when pieces would take me 5+ hours to finish. I began approaching my days differently, harnessing pockets of time in the mornings, during lunch breaks, and evenings to make progress. (And limiting my time doom scrolling on the internet.) The repetition of drawing daily also meant that I became faster in moving through my drawing process. By the end of the challenge, I had cut my drawing time in half, and my fastest time working on a piece was 1.5 hours from start to finish. While speed is not everything, doing Peachtober helped me gain more fluidity in my drawing process.
4. Sometimes, intensity can create breakthroughs. This year, I felt stagnation with my digital art. I knew I needed to try something new and different, so I enjoyed exploring other media such as watercolor and printmaking. By the time Peachtober rolled around, I knew I wanted to use digital art as my medium of choice. Doing a daily art challenge for the month brought a level of intensity and pressure that changed my approach to drawing digitally. It was energizing and motivating, and helped me push through my mental block. Even if I wasn’t fully happy with a piece by the end of the day, I could try again the next day.
Procreate corner
Before closing out, I wanted to share some of my favorite Procreate tools, since I received some questions during the challenge. Hopefully this is helpful, and I would love to hear your tips and tricks too!
All the brushes I use come with Procreate — I have not used or downloaded any custom brushes yet. My go-to brushes are Tinderbox and Gouache, and I use Soft Brush for spotlights. Lately, I’ve enjoyed using Narinder pencil for sketching and small textured details. During Peachtober, I experimented with other painting brushes such as Dry Brush, Oriental Brush, Turpentine, and Old Brush.
Other tools I use often include:
Smudge tool to achieve gradient effects, big or small
Alphalock to paint on a particular layer
Transparency effects to explore dynamic coloring and lighting
Gradient map to help with initial color choices
In conclusion…
I’m so glad I attempted this year’s Peachtober. It injected my art practice with new energy and inspiration. I learned to draw subjects that I haven’t drawn before, such as slugs, snails, and ghosts. I drew funky things, such as a person wearing an aquarium hat and a toad playing the drums. Seeing my work progress day by day was fulfilling and fun, and I hope to take these lessons forward and further explore some of the concepts that came out of this challenge.
As a final drawing, the featured illustration on this post is a combination of two days I missed — Ring (day 6) and Bark (day 12). And with that, I am officially done with Peachtober 2025.
See you in the next!
Inspiration corner
The New England Graphic Medicine Summit took place in Boston on October 24, and it was an inspiring event about the intersection of science, healthcare, and comics! If interested, I created a recap of the Summit here.
I finished reading the graphic novel Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag by Michael Anthony, who I met at the New England Graphic Medicine Summit!
Last weekend, I went to the Harvard Art Museums, which is free to the public. I enjoyed their special exhibition titled “Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black.”