#KidLitilloWeek Challenge & Monthly Illustration club for KidLit Creators
What is #KidLitilloWeek?
It’s a brand new challenge, designed to get me - and you - to start and maintain creative habits in our lives. I came up with this challenge/monthly prompt club to give myself accountability to get back into drawing every week in 2026. I chose weekly and monthly goals because I don’t think realistically I’ll have time to draw every day of the year, but a weekly goal with monthly prompts for inspiration is doable (right!?).
If you get busy, but have been craving creative time, then join me on this challenge to make room for creativity in your life.
This challenge is for you if you:
● Want to build a picture book portfolio
● Want to build creative habits
● Want routines
● Want to break out of a creative slump
● Want to track your progress
● Want to create more work
● Want content for social media
● Want to stay inspired
● Want to connect with the KidLit community
If you want to receive monthly prompts and encouragement in your email inboxes, or want to plan ahead and receive all the prompts for the year up front, then you can sign up at:
The monthly prompt sheet will look like this.
I’ve chosen all the prompts (no AI) to be characters, themes, and situations that are relevant to trends in picture books, so that the work that you create will be appropriate and appealing for the market. Every month has 5 types of prompts to spark your imagination and to offer a variety of directions to move into, depending on what you want to personally work on.
How to Use the Monthly Prompts & Join In
1. Figure out what you want to work on for each month and how often you plan to draw. (For example, characters, background elements, full illustrations, and daily/ weekly/ monthly) Note those down for yourself on the sheet below or in a notebook.
2. Mix and match prompts from each category for inspiration. If you wanted to work on more complicated illustrations for your portfolio, you could even decide to work on parts of an illustration each week (Ex. week 1 -a character, week 2- a prop- a tree or a chair for example, week 3- a background element and week 4- putting all the elements together for a bigger nicer illustration).
3. Note: The animal prompts can be used as inspiration for characters, not just to draw literally. Ex. what would a mousy mailman look like? You can also choose to ignore the animal prompts.
4. Post process photos and finished work on social media with #KidLitilloWeek. You can post process photos, videos, sketches and final pieces as content. You can get as creative with it as you want. The main platforms I’ll be using are Bluesky, Instagram and Pinterest.
5. Search the hashtag (#KidLitilloweek) for inspiration when you are feeling a struggle to get anything done. Take a moment to cheer others on their journey. Go out for a walk. Draw a blob and then make it into something. Getting out of your head and thinking of other things will help you move forward.
6. Life is full of ups and downs, and unexpected events. Remember that this challenge is about building a habit that will last beyond the year. If the choice is between scrolling on the phone or drawing, choose drawing at least one day of the week, even to finish a tiniest illustration, and celebrate that you finished.
What if I’m an author?
You can join in too. The monthly prompts can just as well be used for creative writing and generating new ideas for stories. Don’t feel obligated to share your stories online, but if one ever gets published, I’d love to hear about your success story.
Need More Info?
I’ve created a separate page for #KidLitilloWeek on my website with the signup button to receive prompts and additional info. If you have friends who you want to invite to this challenge, feel free to share the page with them.
I look forward to seeing your illustrations online under #KidLitilloWeek!
