Inktober2023: Proactive Procrastination

 OR:

Pick It Up and Phone It In

I've been dealing with some motivation problems of late, evidenced in part by my absence from this blog. I participated in a drawing challenge early last year and I really liked how it went... until I didn't. Inktober of that year was rather anemic. I was only doing a few drawings, mostly leftovers from other projects or miscellaneous challenges that were only Inktober-adjacent. Overall, though, my motivation was shot. I just about got through the winter in terms of making my annual holiday card, but I felt totally spent after that. 

It's not because of the onset of AI-based art programs like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion, though it certainly doesn't help. DeviantART has become a bit of a minefield. I'll think I've discovered a new artist and fervently peruse their catalog only to find they're using AI on basically their entire portfolio. That can be very disheartening. 

Fast forward to the first of September when the Inktober 2023 official prompt list drops. Leading up to the day, I was thinking about how I would explain to everyone that I wasn't going to participate in the event this year, that I really needed some time away to think about things. Seeing the list at first didn't inspire anything in me. Actually, that's a lie. It inspired despair. My motivation issues got put on full blast when I saw that list and felt absolutely no drive of any sort to make anything of it. I'd been making some vector pieces off and on in the months before, mostly text-based pieces, puns and turns of phrase, things like that. About 2 weeks later, I took a look at the list again and focused on a single word from the dead center of the list, halfway through the month. 

I got an idea. 

It was the word "demon." I was looking at the shape of the letters and got an idea to write out the word but with a pitchfork taking the place of the "m." I'd been watching some tutorials for Inkscape and all the various text-based effects one can do with a little pre-planning and some basic tools. So, on a lunch break from work, I opened Inkscape, and made my little bit of word art, Demon with both the "m" and the "n" being replaced by barbed pitchforks. 

3 days later, I had all 31 prompts done. 

Actually, it was more like 4 because I took a break after the second day. Some were straightforward, some were a little more elaborate, but all 31 were effectively in the can. I had even thought of going back a few days later and sprucing up a few, but I decided against it. I was pretty damn impressed with myself though I do say so my... self. There was no pre-planning, no juggling of work and play throughout the month of October. My only real responsibility would be posting the illustrations on a schedule. 

In years past, my rule was that I could come up with ideas and sketches the moment the prompt list dropped. I could start actual work on the illustration as soon as the weekend before the 1st, so I'd have something to post that morning at the very least. This year, I threw that workflow completely out the window and more or less by complete accident. I even thought to take it a step further and try to automate the posting process. 

Instagram has an option available to all its users to toggle between a personal account and a professional account. There's no cost or anything, and you can cancel at any time. One of the biggest perks is the ability to schedule posts up to 75 days in advance, descriptions and tags and all. I thought I had it all figured out... until I didn't. When I post to Instagram, I'll also have it post to Facebook, where most of my family spends their social media time. Many of my relatives look forward to my Inktober posts, so I was more than a little disappointed when I found that scheduling an Instagram post did not include the option to mirror the post on Facebook. 

So, I'm still posting the images on the day, though some may end up getting scheduled anyway depending on how busy I may get on a given day, if I have a rushed morning or something like that. Like I said, it's disappointing, but hardly the worst thing in the world. The first full week of Inktober is done as I write this, and the response has been so-so compared to years past. I'm not bothered by this. I expected it in a way; word art doesn't exactly set the world on fire. It may get a good chuckle here and there, but it's just visual metaphors through text, like concrete poetry. 

And that is how I told myself no, and got the job done anyway and with time to spare. 

30 GOTO 10: Doublethink Dumb

The Littlest Link Dump

So, here's a fresh new discovery... that happened about two weeks ago. 
I was browsing the App store to pad out my wishlist when I happened upon a new app from one of my favorite software companies, Autodesk. It's called Graphic, a vector drawing application for the iPhone and iPad which threw me for a loop at first because:
1) despite the trademark "A" and white border on the icon (sorry, guys, RCA did it better in the VHS days), the developer listed was some band of yahoos called Indeeo. 
2) I couldn't find anything on the Autodesk site about it. 
That second point isn't too surprising; that main site is a brochure laid out by someone who's never read a brochure in his life. Seriously, it's like they're ashamed of some of their mobile apps. Finally, simply putting "Autodesk Graphic" in a search turned up a dedicated site emblazoned with the typical trappings of an Autodesk page. There, all was made clear (emphasis mine): 

Introducing Autodesk Graphic. Formerly called iDraw, Graphic is a professional vector illustration application for Mac OS X and iOS. We're passionately focused on making it one of the best design applications available, and we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions!

There you have it. An old app got a fresh coat of paint, and a new sponsor. Normally, I'm a tad leery of such "new acquisitions" as it feels like the ultimate betrayal of any startup or other small company's implied mission statement of staying small and focused, expanding only on their own strict terms for better or worse. Then again, in this tough economic climate, it's important to be realistic, and a little rebranding goes a long way. Sellout is a hideous word that should be banished from existence, or at least reserved for the kind of betrayals that end with bodies getting dumped in rivers. I have no problem giving Indeeo the benefit of the doubt that they're still producing a quality app, now with better support than they ever could have hoped for. 

I look forward to giving this new kid a tour of my studio. 

Don't You Trust Me?

Gave my left hand a challenge. Granted, vector art relies on mouse movements and manipulation of primitives, so it's hardly daunting, but it turned out nowhere near as daunting as anticipated. 

Profane Offer

This was a tedious nightmare, but good grief was it fun.

Don't Ask Directions To The Right Side of History

Frontiers (Plus bonus)

I'm Not Done Here

IDEAS HAVE NO IDENTITY

Made in LibreOffice. 

I probably spend way too much time on Google+ having deeply intellectual debates with idiots. It's one of those cases where the other person almost has a point, but take it a little too far to the point of absurdity, cutting off their nose to spite their face while writing it off as "just a flesh wound". I don't have a problem with opinions, but I think Harlan Ellison put it best,

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your INFORMED opinion."

There's always at least one curious turn the discussion takes that often reminds me why I left Tumblr (which I've learned is Slavic for "Trigger"). The other person takes their foot out of their mouth long enough to start asking personal questions, even though I don't really go out of my way to hide my identity (I'm pseudonymous, not anonymous). Basically, they're trying to root out my agenda (which is Icelandic for "Privilege"). This might be fair if they weren't trying to filter my position through a strainer woven from false dichotomies, as in, "I'd only speak in favor of teaching evolution in schools if I hated God by way of some personal tragedy, a la the Epicurean Paradox*."

The fact of the matter is that devoutly, pedantically religious people are afraid of ideas. They're afraid because God is an idea, an idea for a benevolent creator deity concocted by scared, lonely shepherds in the Middle Eastern desert to reconcile their insignificance with their existence. What scares them is that many other people the world over had the same idea. It may not look that way because the idea is dressed up in culture and history and conflict, but underneath all that, they're all alike. When people realize this, suddenly they become harder for those in power to control and dance to the beat of their particular drum. Marilyn Manson put it best, "I don't hate God. I hate his fan club." In the end, if you're focusing on the medium instead of the message, it means you're all out of ideas.

Flat version

I normally try to avoid gradients in vector art (except maybe for backgrounds), but I think it's really fitting for this one.

*(which is an old Iroquois slur that roughly translates to, "God can't hear you and he probably thinks you suck anyway")

VECTOR 5NA1TF

Ladies and gentlemen (and all those in between who say, "Nuts to labels!"), I give you the first and possibly only appearance of 5NA1TF, a robot made using a vector editor in Google Drive's office suite. The background, embers, and text are done in GIMP.
The serial number (which would have been visible on the main body had I found a shade of gray I was happy with) stands for "5ir Not Appearing 1n This Film" as he is not part of the storyline for That Which Never Lived.