How It's Looking in Inktober
What's with me and doing recap before the end of the month?
Well, I don't know if I would have the energy in the weekend as closing report is always a pain in the ass, so might as well do it now.
As a restless person, I do writing jams, I do game jams, I do all sort of mixed media challenge-type-things, but Inktober has always been that one elusive thing because for the longest time I convinced myself I wasn't cut out for this. When I started drawing again this year, I told myself I should give it a try as I rebuild my doodling habit.
It hasn't been easy cramming in the time. I decided not to join yet another game jam and let myself breathe a bit, especially because I have a project to tend to. Didn't set a hard goal for myself either, just "draw more". Since I was teetering on burnout with the amount of game jams I entered this year, I decided not to use the daily prompts. All in all, I manage to average a drawing every three days so far. There are still a few days till the end of October, so if luck permits maybe I can end with an average of one every two days. I'll take that as a win.
My mark-making is still shoddy overall, but I've been having fun and I actually like the stuff I draw. Shocker. Ordered some brush pens last weekend and they arrived just yesterday. Really loving them so far for quick doodles along with alcohol markers. I have no patience for "polished pieces" so I've been doing A5 doodles I can finish in 30-40 minutes, which I think is a sweet spot for me.
Traditional media is daunting and freeing at the same time. I get the itch to press undo, to pinch and reposition parts of my drawing, if only I can get those shoulders smaller and the eyes closer to each other... Acrylic markers being opaque ease my mind a bit because I know if I really really really want to cover the mistakes I can do that, but I guess I get better at letting go? Leave some rustic charm on the paper? Ha.
Brush pens are just like fountain pens, they don't like being left alone for a long time, so to keep the ink flowing I just have to...draw more often. Talk about incentive.
I'm not good at celebrating myself, but honestly I've been really happy about this given the amount of time I spent telling myself Inktober was not for me. Drawing was not for me. I have no care to Inktober's festivities as a whole. I don't have social media presence so I don't see how others are doing. The friends around me who used to do Inktober every year have mostly moved on (or too busy in their lives). It's really just an excuse for me to get going.
Maybe one day I'll get good enough to do sprites or backgrounds for my games... or not, it's alright.