Julycanthropy – Wolves and Werewolves
New month, new art challenges. And here’s an art challenge dedicated solely to drawing werewolves – Julycanthropy!
With Julycanthropy, you can discover some interesting things about wolves and the creatures from fantasy – werewolves, including the legends surrounding them. Also, do I have to add that it’s an ideal challenge to practice drawing fur?
If that sounds interesting, keep reading to find out the rest!
What is Julycanthropy?
Julycanthropy is an art challenge dedicated to drawing werewolves. It takes place in July, and its goal is to create one illustration each day centered around werewolves and related things. Artists follow a prompt list that has a specific keyword for each day, serving as inspiration for their illustrations. There are also weekly prompt lists, with just one prompt assigned for the entire week.
The name “Julycanthropy” is a combination of two words – July (the month) and Lycanthropy.
Lycanthropy is the mythological ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into an animal like state, such as a werewolf.
There are no rules regarding this challenge, the main theme is werewolves so anything related to them counts. Some artists decide to focus of portraying the legends about werewolves, whereas others are happy to have some fun in creating new OC fursonas.
There are no official prompt lists. It means, that there’s not one main prompt list that all artists follow. The artists create prompt lists themselves, and publish them on social media – you can pick which one you would like to follow, or you can create your own one.
hashtags: #Julycanthropy
* add hashtags included in the prompt list you are following. It makes easier for the artist that created them to discover your artwork.
Julycanthropy Prompt Lists
As I mentioned previously, there are no official prompt lists. The artists create their own prompt lists and publish them on social media for others to follow. Usually, there’s one or a few lists that get very popular and shared across platforms, that sort of become the “main” list for a certain year that most artists follow.
One of the most popular Julycanthropy’s prompt lists (that it’s still being used) was created by Anderson Carman and published in 2021:
Prompt list by @andersoncarman
Another popular list was created by Oricami, published on reddit.
The rest of the prompt list is in this reddit post: Julycanthropy 2022! Join us in this art challenge celebrating werewolves all month long!
Who created Julycanthropy?
The first time that Julycanthropy was mentioned was on 24 May 2016 by Tiffany Turrill as a suggestion for a new art challenge.
A few sketches were posted. However, I can’t find any prompt lists created in 2016. Looks like the idea was picked up by a different artist and popularized in 2017. The artist that popularized this art challenge and possibly created the first prompt list is Maria Nynfa:
Julycanthropy 2017 Prompt List @Maria Nynfa
Julycanthropy Artworks
Here are some examples of artworks created for the Julycathropy challenge. This is the part I enjoy writing the most, as art challenges are my favorite way to discover new amazing artists. If you like their artworks, please visit their social pages for more! I hope they will inspire you to join the challenge 🙂
Useful materials
This is a section of other websites I stumbled upon while doing research on Julycanthropy, and I find useful/ think are generally a great addition to this article.
Figurosit.com – American Werewolf drawing reference: 3d werewolf model in different poses. You can rotate the models.
westportlibrary.libguides.com/werewolves: detailed description of werewolves and legends related to them.
*historicmysteries.com/werewolf-legends isn’t a good source. Wilkołak, Vukodlak, vlkodlak and other similar Slavic names of werewolf (from other Slavic countries) mean ONLY the werewolf, and can NOT be used to refer a vampire.
