Tropical Island Vibes – The 52-Week Art Project 2026

Welcome to this week’s 52-Week Art Project! It was week 29 of the year, so our creations were inspired by Tropical Island Vibes. I’ll be sharing my art for this prompt below, as well as adding it to the gallery. Feel free to hop in anytime if you’d like to join me on this creative adventure.

Project Overview

• A creative project or those of us who can’t create daily, for whatever reason.
• There is 1 prompt per week to ​interpret in any way & take your time with.
• Use any medium (collage, clay, paint, photography, baking, knitting, lego, fabric, etc)
• Share your creations to the gallery & be inspired by others creations. (optional)
• You can skip a prompt anytime if needed, your wellbeing comes first. No stress here.
• No social media accounts required, but if you share online, please use #CH52art

Visit this page for more details.

Wk29 Prompt: Tropical Island Vibes

This week was difficult for me. I wasn’t doing too well with the heatwave, but then I’d also had my shower a few days ago so my body was still recovering. I really struggled to muster the energy or desire to do anything at all when feeling so hot and fatigued. But this morning was finally a bit cooler and I felt better than I had in a few days, so I got my paints out and did some art. Ended up making 2 pieces before breakfast!

We lived in a tropical climate where I grew up in Africa, so this week’s prompt was fun for me. I got to draw and paint some plants that reminded me of that incredible time of my life.

Bird Of Paradise, Strelizia – Gouache

I’ve really been enjoying these flowers lately. I saw some at the garden centre earlier this year on one of my rare outings, and I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it.

My gran used to have some growing in her garden in South Africa. We lost her at the end of last year. So they are linked to some lovely childhood memories and lots of feelings at the moment.

I got so lost in the painting process first thing this morning, that I forgot to take progress pictures until most of it was done.

Looking at it now, I think it should have 2 stems if it has 2 blooms, but anyway. I still like how it looks. The lighting was not doing the photos any favours though. It’s more vibrant in person.

It was looking a bit infinished on the white page, so I painted the background a contrasting, warmer shade of green. Leaving a thin white border all around the plant. The leaves also got a few more layers of colour.

I also did this entire piece without cleaning my brush in a jar of water, like I usually would. I was reclined on the sofa with my art journal on my lap and an aquabrush in my hand. Those brushes which have a barrel that holds water. So that’s how I wet my paints and how the colours got nicely blended for the flower. And even for the next piece I painted!

Although this piece doesn’t have any black in it, unlike most of my art these days, I still really like how it turned out and don’t think it needs it. For now I feel like there is enough contrast and definition with the various colours used.

If I get my hands on a juicy white paint pen or some white ink, I will likely enhance the white outline though.

Tropical Silhouettes – Gouache & Brush Pen

This is the second piece I worked on this morning. I had already drawn the grid last week, I tend to draw things like this some days and then just leave them till I one day think of something to do with them. I had a few gridded pages to choose from this morning.

It started with a loosely drawn grid. I then rounded all the corners and filled in the borders with black ink. Then I left it in my journal for a week, before picking it back up to add colour and tropical silhouettes this morning.

I first used my aquabrush to colour each space with bright gouache washes. Some have just one colour while others have a bit of a blend between two colours. I was inspired by the sunrises and sunsets of Africa and some of the lovely colours on my pallette.

I then used my new favourite pen for drawing the silhouettes of tropical plants. I love this black brush pen! I’ve had it for years and only recently fell in love with it. Didn’t care for it much before.

I decided to draw each plant twice within the grid. The drawings are not identical, but each plant features in 2 different compositions. Each one was done freehand with the brush pen.

This method of drawing is new to me, I’ve only been doing it this month since launching this project. So I’m learning as I go, how the pen behaves, how to hold or move it so the flexible tip does what I need it to. Also learning to play with light and dark, leaving some negative space for details and highlights. It’s a fun process.

I really enjoy the way the flexible brush tip creates a bit of variety in line weight. Varying line widths gives the illusion of movement and shadows. It’s makes such a difference compared to the uniform lines that fineliners make. I do use both often though.

Here you can see how I draw the designs with the brush pen, then essentially paint them black, leaving some negative (unpainted) areas to add interest and details to the plants. Else they’d just be black blobs.

In the end I drew a couple of different palm trees, monstera leaves, pothos vines, palm leaves of various types, colocasia leaves, as well as strelizia and hibiscus flowers. A bit of a tropical jungle.

Would You Like To Participate?

If you’d like to join us, you can hop in (and out) anytime you like. It’s a low stress project, so you can go at your own pace. Being chronically ill means sometimes I can make 3 pieces of art in a week and other times I will struggle to make one. There’s no pressure here. Life happens.

You can even go back and do the previous prompts too, if you feel fomo. I know some people don’t like the feeling of having missed something in a series like this. It’s all good.

We are only 3 prompts in at this point.

The 52-Week Art Project is just a fun way to:

• stay motivated – with a weekly schedule
• have some direction – with prompts
• have freedom – with which mediums to use and how to interpret the prompts
• enjoy community and accountability – with the sharing online aspect

So, I hope you’ll join us in this creative adventure!

Let me know what you think of my creations for this week, and click the gallery button below to see all the creations so far or to upload your own to the gallery. Happy creating!

Next Prompt: Garden Tea Party

Hmm, what comes to mind when you see “Garden Tea Party”?

I’d love to see how everyone interprets the prompt this week.

You can upload an image of your creations to the gallery, or just browse others here:

Link-up: Senior Salon Pit Stop | Monday Morning Blog Club