Mutation March 2023

Welcome to the fifth year of Mutation March! This year’s prompt list features a decent variety of animals. I’ve officially decided each year will feature one extinct animal as a prompt. I also tried a new prompt type to keep things more open-ended—I couldn’t decide between adding kiwi, ratite, or dodo bird, and so: “a flightless bird.”

For the first time, there is official supplementary material to go with the main prompt list. There are the four “Challenge Modes” of different ways to approach Mutation March. And if you need ideas of how to make these animals weird, I’ve compiled a list of 50 “Mutation Ideas” for your consideration.

February 2024 - It’s weird looking back at my illustrations from this run. March 2023 wound up being a really strange time. I had kicked off the month with a house-sit-turned art retreat thanks to my friends, Alex and Christine. A few days into it, however, I got news that my dad was hospitalized. Things quickly started looking grim, and I wound up trekking back to my hometown for a couple weeks to spend many long days in the hospital with my dad.

I was determined to stick with my art project, though I did need to let go of checking out all the other artists creating wonderfully weirdo animals in the spirit of Mutation March. I counted over 40 different artists at one point! Eventually life caught up, and I started falling behind on the days, though I made a mad dash for the finish to have everything done on April 1 (I was committed to making my “day 32” joke on time). There were three prompts where I fell short, only managing two concepts each—lynx, tuatara, and brittle star. I was going to circle back at a later time to do them justice, but I learned to let that go. I have already created more than enough to be proud.