Create This Book 2: Episode 8

In this episode of my Create This Book 2 series, I let the prompts decide what I made, and they took me in some really fun directions. I created a colorful page inspired by Oaxacan alebrijes, made a to-do list for one of my coding passion projects, turned The Incredibles into a comic strip, and painted a glowing bioluminescent beach for the prompt “Create a Miracle.”

This was such a fun mix of personal storytelling, bright colors, character design, web development, and art techniques I’ve learned from past videos. Some pages were quick and playful, while others were much more detailed, especially the comic strip. Overall, this episode reminded me why I love working through art prompt books: you never know exactly where the next page will take you.

Create a Colorful Page: Alebrije Family Spirit Animals

For the Create a Colorful Page prompt, I was inspired by an episode of Dora that featured alebrijes. Alebrijes are brightly colored Mexican folk art creatures that often combine traits from different real and mythical animals. They are usually covered in bold patterns, dots, stripes, and geometric details, which made them perfect for a colorful sketchbook page.

I decided to create alebrije-inspired spirit animals for my family. For my youngest daughter, Evie, I made a deer with wolf ears. She is still little, but she is sweet, delicate, curious, and adventurous, so the deer and wolf combination felt perfect for her. Her main color was green because she is still growing, and green reminds me of spring and new flowers blooming.

For my oldest daughter, Mira, I created a dragon with bunny-inspired traits. Mira is caring, artistic, smart, sensitive, and feisty, so the dragon represented her bold and powerful side, while the bunny represented her softness and sensitivity. I chose vibrant red for her because it felt full of energy and artistic passion.

For my husband, I made an owl with butterfly wings. The owl represented his thoughtful, analytical, grounded side, while the butterfly wings represented how nurturing and caring he is as a father. His alebrije ended up being one of the brightest designs on the page.

Finally, I made my own alebrije as a bunny with bear traits. I chose a bunny because of creativity and a bear because I am definitely a momma bear. Since pink is my favorite color, I used it as the main color and added lots of bright, saturated details. After gluing the characters into the book, I added a glowing outline effect with white highlights, which made the page feel even more magical.

This page was such a colorful character design exercise, and I loved turning each person in my family into a bright hybrid creature with its own personality and meaning.

Create a To-Do List: Building My MeeMeow Tracker Website

For the Create a To-Do List prompt, I decided to share a little bit about my other creative passion: coding. My day job is software engineering, and because I write code professionally, I also enjoy making websites for my personal projects.

One of those projects is a MeeMeow tracker website. I collect MeeMeows, and I have so many that I needed a better way to keep track of them. So I created a website where I could list the MeeMeows, organize information about them, and eventually let other collectors track their own collections too.

For the to-do list page, I broke the project down into steps: create a list of MeeMeows, build an Apps Script to share the data, set up the basic website, add a contact form, create search features, style the site with colors and fonts, add login functionality, buy a domain, and finally share the finished website.

This page was a fun way to connect two different parts of my life: art and coding. I also added a screenshot from the MeeMeow tracker website into the book, which made the prompt feel more personal and scrapbook-like. It was a simple page visually, but it documented a real project that I am proud of.

Visit the MeemeowTracker.com website!

Create a Comic Strip: The Incredibles in 9 Panels

For the Create a Comic Strip prompt, I decided to tell the story of The Incredibles in nine panels. This was the page from the thumbnail, and it ended up being one of the biggest and most detailed prompts in the video.

I started with Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl falling in love back when superheroes were still celebrated. Then I moved into the part of the story where superheroes are forced into hiding and have to live normal lives. Bob struggles with his boring desk job and misses his old life, while Helen tries to adjust to family life and keep everyone safe.

The next panels focused on their kids. Dash has super speed but has to hold back so no one discovers his powers, and Violet can turn invisible, which fits her shy and insecure personality. I also included the business card that pulls Bob back into secret superhero work, his confrontation with Syndrome, and Edna Mode designing new suits for the family.

The final panels show the family working together, the kids learning to use their powers, and Jack-Jack suddenly revealing that he has powers too. This page was so much fun because it challenged me to simplify a whole movie into a few tiny scenes while still keeping the story recognizable.

I used bright colors, bold outlines, and comic-style paneling to make the page feel energetic and full. There is a lot to look at in every little box, and this prompt made me want to possibly do a deeper tutorial on creating a comic strip style in the future.

Finish the To-Do List

After finishing the comic strip, I went back to the to-do list prompt to complete the page. Since I wanted to use alcohol markers on the comic strip page, I waited before gluing anything onto the to-do list side. Once the marker-heavy page was done, I added the MeeMeow tracker screenshot and finished writing out the website details.

This small finishing step helped the spread feel complete. I liked that the to-do list was not just imaginary — it represented an actual project I built and shared. It also gave the episode a nice balance between hands-on drawing, storytelling, and behind-the-scenes creative work.

Create a Miracle: Bioluminescent Beach

For the Create a Miracle prompt, I researched different natural wonders before deciding on a bioluminescent beach. I learned about several amazing natural miracles, including green sand beaches in Hawaii and a blue volcano in Indonesia, but glowing ocean water felt like the perfect subject for this page.

A bioluminescent beach happens when tiny light-producing plankton glow blue-green when they are moved by waves or motion in the water. The best time to see this kind of glow is usually a few hours after sunset during a new moon, when the sky is darkest.

For the art, I started with alcohol marker base layers and created a dark ocean scene with glowing blue-green water. I added a blended night sky, white Posca clouds, a dotted starry sky, and a dark mountain shape in the background. Since the light source was coming from behind the mountain, I kept that part mostly black and simple.

To make the water look like it was glowing, I brought back the glitter coloring technique I had learned in a previous video. I layered darker blue-green dots over the water, then added white highlights to make the glow feel sparkly and alive. Looking back, I wish I had extended the glitter effect more into the waves, but I still love how the page turned out. It was a fun way to reuse a technique from another project and apply it to a completely different subject.

Final Thoughts

This Create This Book 2 episode had such a fun variety of prompts. I created a colorful alebrije-inspired family page, documented my MeeMeow tracker website as a to-do list, turned The Incredibles into a comic strip, and painted a glowing bioluminescent beach for “Create a Miracle.”

The comic strip was probably the most detailed page of the day, while the alebrije page felt the most personal and colorful. The to-do list let me share a little bit of my software engineering side, and the miracle page gave me a chance to bring back the glitter and glow techniques I had learned before.

Overall, this was such a creative mix of art, storytelling, coding, and nature-inspired painting. I love when an art prompt book pushes me into ideas I never would have planned on my own, and this episode definitely did that.