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Draw This In Your Style Challenge

September 12, 2021 August 2nd, 2022

Hey Hey Creatives!

Recently I decided to make my first “draw this in your style” (a.k.a. DTIYS) challenge celebrating 5K followers on Instagram! For those who don’t know what is it about let me shortly explain. The artist hosting the challenge chooses one of his/her original works and encourages other artists to take it and interpret on their own. There are no restrictions, imagination is the limit and all the mediums are welcomed. It can be a really interesting and fun experience connecting many different artists sharing their visions.

I couldn’t decide which artwork to choose, since both “Myshka” and “Enchanted” are so close to my heart. I let the community vote. Surprisingly enough my audience had the same issue as me since the voting ended up 50/50! I decided to leave it like this and keep the choice open for each participating artist 🙂

The rules were very simple. After completing their own versions, artists had to post it on their profile mentioning the DTIYS and myself, so I could see it and reshare in my stories. That’s it! After the challenge is complete there would be official voting among my community. The winner of the challenge would receive a fine art print or a mug of choice. Additionally, all participants get a 20% discount for all products in my store.

  • Enchanted
  • Myshka

The challenge was running through July and August. Every time I saw an artist posting their version of “Myshka” or “Enchanted” my heart grew and I couldn’t stop smiling! Really it’s such a bizarre and exciting feeling… Seeing your own drawing through the eyes of others. I was intrigued especially by the color versions. I usually see things in monochrome and I’ve been wondering so many times how my artworks would look in color? Now I have answers 🙂 Some versions really surprised me and opened new possibilities and concepts to think of.

All the participants made such a great job, very unique and special. Curious enough each used different materials! So there are versions with color pencils, charcoal, acrylics, graphite and white chalk, gouache, digital… I am really excited about that. It shows so many potentials where one idea could go!

Without further ado let me introduce you to wonderful participants and share few words they have to say about the challenge and their own versions of my drawings 🙂 Be sure to go to the end, where the winner awaits!

Inma Gasco @i_gasco_illustration on Instagram

I participate in Marta’s DTIYS because I discovered her Instagram account a few months ago and I fell in love with the drawings. I used to draw also traditionally, normally with a pencil but in January I bought my first IPad because I wanted to learn how to draw in digital. And when I saw this DTIYS I thought it would be funny to see it in colors and more as an illustration. So I tried it and I had so much fun. Well keep on your work, Marta, it’s amazing. Thank you so much, Inma

Szymon Fronia @fro_pl on instagram

Ever since I saw Marta’s work, I immediately fell in love with her delicate technique. I tried to include in my drawing at least a part of the charm of her works. For this purpose, I used 0.5 and 0.3 mechanical pencils and black colored pencil on regular eco paper. It was a small success – I didn’t torment myself with striving for perfection, but just had a nice time, and love the result! This is also an important drawing for me – it marked the first anniversary of my decision to start learning to draw! Thanks for the opportunity to participate!

Hana Nekrep @hanii666 on Instagram

I don’t often participate in dtiys events because I see other artist’s work as their own and it feels like intruding in their world to remake them. However, Marta’s Mishka drawing made me imagine a whole story as if it was a book or a movie. It was inviting to visit the graphite girl and her rats. I create with emotion and went into drawing in a storm-like head-space. I felt very alone and sad, missing a person who passed. So as result in my version, the girl just has one rat friend with her and does not even notice it. She is vulnerable and alone, aching. Most of my pretty minimalist drawing is graphite, for cheeks, hair, and shirt I used watercolor pencils some I used with water and the cheek one is raw, dry. As sadness lasts so long the cheeks have dried. I like the end result even when it portrays a feeling of loneliness and the dtiys pushed me to share it. Most work I share is happy and connecting and this one is very raw. Thank you for inspiring dtiys Marta!

Ela Jankowska @art.elajankowska on Instagram

Some time ago I bought round painting support for testing. When I saw Marta’s challenge, I immediately knew what I would use this unusual format for. Time was short, but that was probably what worked best. When I have too much of it, I postpone tasks for indefinite “later” 🙂 so on the same day, a sketch and a color concept were created. By choosing the colors for this performance, I wanted to bring out as much magic as possible. I love purples, pinks, and pomegranates and for me, they fit perfectly here.
Thank you Marto for the opportunity to interpret your work, it was a pure pleasure 🙂

Danny Gilman @danny.arts.stuff on Instagram

A little nudge of words from Marta; “Danny, you might try one for the challenge?” Those words got me thinking that maybe, just maybe I could do “Enchanted” in my style, and not create something Marta would be offended by, and using her “Enchanted” as inspiration. I sent a message to Marta as soon as I posted DRAW IT IN YOUR STYLE of “Enchanted”, that I will remove it if she was offended with my style of her artwork. Marta replied that I had captured the essence of her artwork, and she liked it! Marta’s words have reduced my self-doubts, and have left me more confident that maybe, someday in the future, I will reach the level of artworks Marta is at. My preference for a medium for colors is Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils. I have a disability — a cervical spinal cord injury — (broken neck) and this injury left my fingers paralyzed.  My speed when doing artwork– is SLOW. Slow as a turtle! The colored pencils allow for me to take my time, make some mistakes, and pencils do not take much space in my teeny-tiny “pandemic’ art studio that is about 2 feet wide, and 2 feet in depth. Thus far- Colored Ink pens are my perfect medium, but one misplaced line, stipple, or hatching can ruin 20 plus hours of work.

Pia Emmerling @rayoneko on Instagram

Both of the pieces that were up for the challenge were intriguing, having a somewhat mystical, tranquil, and slightly eerie feeling about them. At first, Enchanted, containing many fluid shapes, seemed to be just right for playing around with the watercolors that I usually use. But somehow Myshka stuck with me, imagining how nice deep black mice shapes might stand out against a delicate ink lineart. Did I say ink? Oh yes, I had a pretty clear vision of that on my mind. But in the end, the charcoal got the better of me, itching to be put to use. Forcing an artwork to become something it doesn’t want to be simply doesn’t work out for me. So whyever it had to be like that, I chose a technique I hadn’t used in years, giving the drawing a roughness that was never planned and contradicting the neat look it was supposed to have. Still, it does fit quite well, doesn’t it? And for certain it was lots of fun to work differently from usual.

Celine Laven @celinelavenart on Instagram

The concept of the foxes flowing out of her hair made me immediately think of a warrior who has her fox spirits to guide her in battle. I wanted to portray her in a sort of relaxed, after-battle pose with her spirits guarding her. To protect her while being vulnerable, although she is still on edge with her knife in hand, should an enemy try to approach them. 
Creating this piece gave me a lot of inspiration for future works, exploring the world of guiding spirits along with their warriors. Marta manages to create such amazing, whimsical pieces that always spark my imagination, so I feel very honored to be able to recreate her concept in my own style. 

And the winner with the biggest amounts of votes is…

Meritxell Via Rodriguez! @meri.via.art on Instagram

I’ve been in love with Myshka since I first saw it in Marta’s feed. It’s one of my favorite drawings of her and I actually wanted to make my own version since forever so when I saw she was hosting a DTYS it made me so happy and I started making sketches of it. The idea of the mask-face and the mouses coming out of inside her head was there from the beginning and it was so fun to bring it to reality. The process was so cool because I actually have a print of Marta’s Myshka in my studio so every time I needed to see the drawing I just had to turn my head around to see it hanging on my wall. She is actually one of my biggest inspirations, so I didn’t feel strange at all looking at her. I don’t think I decided on the medium, but the medium decided me. I think I still am more of a pencil artist, but when I have an idea it comes to me in color or other times in black and white, and last year color has been invading my head and I’m really enjoying the use of gouache. I was a bit hesitant at the beginning about what colors I should use because I wanted to make it like in Marta’s head, but then I realized it was so silly. DTIYS are about transforming and enjoying the process in your own way, so I let myself go and started going with the colors I liked. I think the original photo Marta used for reference also influenced me with the colors because I loved that orange-reddish hair. The whole process has been so inspiring, honestly.

Thank you so much to all who participated and congratulations to Meri! It was really fun. I’ve learned something from every person and I feel inspired to try something new! Pushing my works towards the color maybe? 😉 The challenge also showed me once again that we should not compare or compete with each other. We all see the world around us with different eyes and have different ways of expression. Even if the subject is the same, the end result is very unique and special for each individual. I’m sure I will do more events like that in the future and I hope to see you there:)

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Marta Witkiewicz

Marta Witkiewicz

Bringing magic into life.

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Marta Witkiewicz

I invite you to take a walk through parts of my world. I hope you will take a spark of magic with you 😉

E: hello@martawitkiewicz.com