10 Years of the 10th Month

It’s that time of year again. Tomorrow, the official prompt list for Inktober will drop. If you don’t know, Inktober is an annual drawing challenge with fairly simple rules.

31 drawings in 31 days.

Everything else is just how much of a challenge you want to make for yourself. The original idea came from a long-time digital artist to get out of his comfort zone and go back to working with ink and paper. While going as analog as possible is the arguably true spirit of the challenge, it can also be a very good way to quickly learn a new tool. For example, if you’re a longtime traditional artist and want to learn a digital program like Procreate, Clip Studio, or Affinity, the drawing prompts can work just as well for you and give you a project or framework to work within.

I’ve been participating in Inktober since 2016. Some years I work on two lists at once, doubling the total illustrations, sometimes consolidating them. I’ve used digital, I’ve used ink, I’ve used a mixed media approach, and I’ve even done some 3D modeling (though that year was a little bit lackluster on reflection). There was one year when I had to cut it short because I had one of my cats put down and needed a mental health break. The end results are posted to Instagram because I think that’s the best platform for the spontaneity of the challenge, and it seems to be a place where a lot of first-timers gravitate towards, so you get to see some interesting results. At the end of the month, they all go in one single project upload to Artstation and Behance.

As for my approach this year, not much has changed except that I’ll be using fountain pens. If I need a big fill of black, I’ll break out my Sharpies, but the linework will all be in pen, black ink on some nice square mixed media paper I’ve been saving (fountain pen inks and Sharpies can get pretty rough with lesser paper). I’ve got some pens from Pilot and a pair of Kawecos, all in different nib sizes for different line thicknesses. We’ll see which one ends up being my favorite/go-to by the end of the challenge.

While the spontaneity is one of the more appealing aspects of Inktober, I do a fair bit of prep work, hence talking about this a full month before the challenge proper begins in October. I’ve whipped up a spreadsheet to help me keep track of which days' prompts are done and which are still in development. In the case of the latter, my rule is that I can start making rough sketches and brainstorming as soon as the prompt list drops. When it comes to uploading the finished pieces in October, the earliest I can start on that is the weekend before the 1st. That way, I’m not scrambling on the first day. The majority of my work ends up getting done on weekends, and in no particular order. Some years I’ll have the very last drawing done by the first day. It’s all rather frantic-sounding, but that’s the state of my creativity. It’s like what often happens in writing; some days you’ll be lucky if you can get a full sentence out that you’re happy with, and other days you’ll have multiple chapters in the bag, leaving you in a fugue state with barely half the cognitive capacity needed to wonder where all the time went and why all the coffee-flavored ice cream is gone.

One last rule that I make for myself is that I’m allowed a cheat day. If a prompt just isn’t working out or a drawing just isn’t coming together, I’ll try another medium. To make up for this, I’ll sometimes take a piece and then make a self-contained spin-off of sorts. This can involve simply coloring in the monochrome drawing, or remaking it altogether. This will get posted to my DeviantART page.

So, here we go. ten years of 31+ drawings in the month of October. 

My Open Letter of Protest to DeviantART

My primary objection to the recent overhaul known as Eclipse is the sheer ineptitude by the staff and owners to produce a unique user experience distinct from similar platforms. Not only is the site a pale imitation of ArtStation, but the months' worth of troubleshooting, delayed updates, and bug hunts both leading up to and following the launch further demonstrate a disconnect between DeviantART and its users. These technical issues are to be expected with any website that goes through a major update, but the scale and duration in this case, coupled with the development team essentially working from a cheat sheet, is unacceptable. This is not the site I signed up for all these years ago, and I have invested too much of my time and effort into it to abandon it completely over this matter. Many users are proposing a halt to using the site for the first 3 days of May to make their voices heard. I applaud this effort, as well as the numerous petitions seeking to get fundamental changes and fixes made. I may or may not participate in the upcoming boycott, and I have certainly signed a number of petitions, but I will offer my own mission statement moving forward in terms of my use of the site.

Put simply, I refuse to pay for something that has failed to imitate another site under the false premise of innovation.

• I will not renew my Core Membership, nor will I be gifting any to others.
• I will not be using the new Wix integration to make a portfolio. 
• I will not participate in any contests, events, giveaways, or promotions.
• I will not seek badges of any kind, and all llama badge trading is halted.
• I will not make any direct purchase from the platform, including prints.
• I will not use any media sharing options that will direct traffic to the site.

You will have to rely on advertising revenue exclusively to receive any cooperation and participation from me. Lest we forget, Patreon nearly imploded due to a policy change nobody asked for, which punished patrons for supporting multiple creators at once while pretending to be for the benefit of the creators when it only hindered their efforts to grow and prosper. Voices were raised, words were heeded, and Patreon reversed the decision. Please take note of this.

To any users reading this, I invite you to follow my example and/or those of others airing their grievances. 

Goodnight, and good luck. 

Inktober 2018 recap

Boy, this one post a month no matter what model is slipping through my fingers like the finest sand that's ever been sanded. My Wordpress page is a little better, but not by much. It's not for a lack of trying; there's no shortage of drafts and notes for entries. It's also not any sort of vanity issue; my perfectionism is firmly in check, along with any self doubt. It's simply been a matter of, "Eh, why bother?" combined with, "I don't really miss it." 

Anyway, Inktober was a runaway success compared to last year, though I think I misjudged the best platform. Last year, Instagram seemed to be the hoppin' and happenin' place to be in terms of where all the coolest stuff was going up. Instead, my favourites gallery on DeviantART got nice and full along with my watchlist. As for my Instagram posts, which got a fair response on par with last year, I'm happy to report I did not miss a single post. I was far more efficient about it than last year on top of doing two prompt lists at once. In fact, I made more than the 62 total drawings, though that's because the prompts "prick and prickly" which fell on the same day are essentially four panels of a comic. 

On the whole, the biggest hiccup or obstacle to overcome was my 53 Pencil sort of giving up the ghost and refusing to work with Paper. The tip finally wore out, and all of the replacements were so stiff I had to basically trick the tablet into connecting, and that was just so I could use the smudge tool. In the end, I decided to give in to the Apple ecosystem and buy their Pencil. I'm a little grumpy, but not compared to when a stylus I back on Kickstarter finally arrived and demonstrated to me in no uncertain terms that product designers should not do their own technical support. At least now I can say I have a crowdfunding horror story with my name on it; the other didn't reach its goal and the first worked out like gangbusters. 

In the grand scheme of things, whatever stylus works for you is the one that works for you. Thus far, I'll admit the Pencil has grown on me, but I am going to recommend getting a sleeve for it, namely one from Griffin. It's got a cap that effectively turns the butt of your Pencil into an eraser depending on how you set up the various drawing apps. 

Per last year, every Inktober post was uploaded to Artstation in a portfolio. 

Has kind of a nice "The New Yorker" vibe to it. Oh, but I can dream.