Author | Lightnews

April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 11h

Today’s illustration is a scary one. 😱 The prompt was “maze.”

#scbwiartober2025 #maze #theshining

A digital recreation of a scene the “The Shining,” showing Jack Nicholson’s character stumbling through the frozen hedge in the dark.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 1d

Today’s “Artober” prompt is “attic.”

#scbwiartober2025 #attic #micr

A drawing of two mice playing cards in the attic, using a box of matches as a table. One sitting on an alphabet block, and the other on full of thread.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 2d

I’m so inspired by @kristinsorra.bsky.social ‘s squirrel. (It was for the SCBWI Artober “rustle” prompt). I couldn’t find brushes on procreate to get me anywhere close. But I learned how to draw squirrels a bit better.

#scbwiArtober2025

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 3d

Had fun with this one. Today’s prompt is “strange.” 😉

#scbwiArtober2025 #surrealism #Halloween

In homage to Salvador Dali’s surreal painting “The Persistence of Memory,” this digital painting depicts pumpkins melting instead of clocks, and a ghost on the ground instead of the usual distorted face.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 3d

Wow. This was so similar to my take. 😀 (ack— I didn’t have time to fix that hand!)

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 4d

Drawing leaves? A joy. (Hands, faces, feet, tables, buildings, vehicles, everything else— ack!)

#scbwiArtober2025 #autumn #illustration “leaves

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 4d

My life feels tangled sometimes…

#scbwiArtober2025

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 4d

That’s adorable!

April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 5d

Today’s prompt is “mushroom.”

#scbwiArtober2025

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 7d

SCBWI prompt today is “calico.”

#scbwiArtober2025

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 8d

My son keeps telling me not to use layers so much in my digital art. I’ve argued that it gives me more control. But today, I did this mostly without layers. I liked the whole process a lot better. Interesting…
SCBWI prompt was “harvest.”

#scbwiArtober2025
#harvest #illustration #autumn #cornucopia

A digital drawing of cornucopia with apples, squash, corn, grapes, and flowers, and a large pumpkin in the background.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 9d

AND … I am appreciating that doing this every day is helping me learn to be faster, to learn things about how the app works, to learn better how to draw in perspective, how hard hands and faces still are to draw, about what brushes do what things. Etc…

April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 9d

Every day, I make myself post these pieces before they feel finished. I really am not able to spend the amount of time I would like to to make them feel like work I especially want to share. I sometimes cringe at my pieces.

April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 9d

Here’s another sketch in response to the SCBWI “Artober” prompts. Today’s prompt was “mask.”
#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #scarycute #mask #halloween #devil #anime

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 10d

Today’s prompt is “perspective.” I’ll admit that I didn’t realize that learning to draw better would involve so much mathematical/geometric skill. (Duh!).

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west
#spider #spiderweb #perspective

A cartoon drawing of a porch in the evening as viewed from the perspective of a spiderweb.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 11d

Today’s prompt is “stalk”… Watch out for the predators in your home ! 😜

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #stalk #cat #sleeping #illustration

A cartoon drawing of a cat stocking someone’s feet under the covers while I sleep

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 12d

Today’s SCBWI prompt is “scarecrow.” This morning, I took the time to sketch out some perspective lines to see if that improved the quality of my design. I think it did.

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #scarecrow #ifionlyhadabrain #commute #dailysketches #procreate

A cartoon drawing of scarecrow standing up on a train. There are two people seated behind the scarecrow on the seats, one is a man reading a newspaper. The other is a youth and a hoodie dozing.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 13d

“Charm”

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 13d

So lovely!

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 14d

Today’s SCBWI Artober prompt is “burnt.” Again, a quick sketch before going to work at my real job. 😜

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #zombie #halloween #campfire #illustration #illustrator

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 15d

And today, the SCBWI Artober prompt is …”rustle.”

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west
#cat #rustle #autumnleaves #illustration

A cartoon drawing of a gray cat sitting in colorful autumn leaves. Lines indicate rustling in the leaves. The cat has her paw raised, ready to pounce.

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 16d

It’s fun to see other artists respond to the same prompts. I’m delighting in how wildly unique an different each work is. Plus, I’m a big studio Ghibli fan, and I don’t know the movie reference. I’m gonna have to check that out!

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 17d

Today’s prompt is “kettle.” I really enjoyed drawing this antique cook stove.

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #kettle #antique #illustration

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 18d

Today’s prompt for Artober is “twist.”

#scbwiArtober2025 #scbwiArtober2025west #twist #monsters #dance #illustration

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April Castoldi @aprilcastoldi.bsky.social · 19d

I had the same take on this prompt!

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