Hi my loves and welcome back.
Long time no see!
It’s funny to think how different this month has been for me compared to this time last
year when I was posting a video every single day.
I can’t believe how quickly this month has passed without me posting anything!
That wasn’t the plan, obviously.
I knew I’d miss maybe a week or so, even this video your watching was recorded a couple
of weeks ago with the intention of having as my ‘First Half of Inktober’ catch-up
mid-month, and I’ve only just gotten round to editing it.
I really underestimated just how difficult moving house would be and adjusting to a new
space to live and work in.
A month in now, I’m still nowhere near used to it or settled into a new routine.
But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, work with what you've got, get on with the
things you need to be getting on with, whether you’re comfortable or not.
So that’s where we’re at today.
I wanted to share my progress so far with Inktober.
Like I was saying, very different to last years.
This one has just been rife with struggle and mistakes and stress and dissatisfaction.
But it’s also been a real lesson for me in perseverance and also in taking a risk
in doing things that just aren’t going to work, and being able to make those mistakes
and give myself permission to fail, which I’ve discovered is so much easier when you’re
not sharing every step of the way on social media.
So to start out with, I was using colour unlike last year where I really got into playing
with value.
I just wasn’t in the mood for the greyscale look but the only coloured inks I had were
the Winsor and Newton ones which I’ve always had issues with.
Whether it’s the ink drying up or evaporating or coming out a totally different colour to
last time I used them.
So this time round, I dug them out to discover that only a few of them were still usable.
It must be to do with how I store them, I’ve just always found them problematic like that.
The limited colour palette problem turned out to be more of a good thing though as the
colours themselves went really nicely together and had an overall, autumnal look about them.
So I was pretty excited about what I could do with them.
Then, coming up with a theme.
I’m not good at following prompt lists, especially for a daily drawing thing, the
pressure of interpreting a word that might not spark something for me… just doesn’t
work.
So I always go with a theme.
It took me so long to come up with something I liked but eventually I settled on antiques,
which I was pretty happy with as an idea.
And again, that and the colours, I had a good idea of what finished product I was looking
for.
In the meantime, I was already a week or so behind and had been able to see other peoples
inktober art.
All of it is amazing and I love seeing the different ways that people are doing things.
It’s all so inspiring…
I kind of wanted to do it too, do it all.
The harmony of Kendyll Hillegas’ round food drawings, the simplicity and style of Furry
Little Peaches, the detail and pure quality of Audra Auclairs, that amazing contrast and
real celebration of ink in Loish’s work.
It was so easy to see all that every day and think, whatever I do isn’t gonna be anywhere
near as skilled or even just as stylistically MINE as that.
You start to question your voice, what your contribution will bring to the table.
But I cracked on with it anyway.
And I’m glad I did.
Inktober is just one of those things, since I completed it last year, I feel like it’ll
just be an inevitable part of my autumn forever now.
I started with this approach, that you saw in the first drawing which was obviously completely
different, I was basically using these colours like I would watercolours.
And it just didn’t work.
Ink has more of a mind of its own, it bleeds and it doesn’t layer in the same way I wanted
it to.
The first drawing was okay but it wasn’t what I had in mind.
So I changed my approach, adapted to inks needs, and also really tried to celebrate
inks qualities and highlight the beautiful colours I was using.
I initially wanted to outline the pieces with the lovely calligraphy set I got from Caroline,
one of my wonderful viewers, but again, that didn’t go to plan.
And strangely, I didn’t feel defeated.
I think the difference was that I already knew I wasn’t going to be sharing each and
every drawing as it happened.
I was giving myself time to just try stuff, have it not work, try something else, but
keep making and keep finishing things, regardless of how they looked or how they met with my
expectations.
Obviously, going all month without sharing anything on social media wasn’t the plan,
and it really isn’t good for the health of my social media profiles, but I think it
was good for the health of my art, and my attitude towards it, and that is what matters
most at the end of the day.
I’m not totally satisfied with my inktober drawings.
I wanted to get more outside the box, really explore a different style, and due to things
going wrong, I did fall back into somewhere close to my comfort zone.
But I do always appreciate inktober for coming with lessons, and getting me into good habits.
When I’m settled in to the new place, I’m looking forward to challenging myself more
and finding a better balance with what I make and what I share.
But overall, I’d call this a success.
I think anyone that’s drawn anything this month has to celebrate some form of success.
Whether you drew every day or just one day, or even if you didn’t take part in inktober
at all, just did your own thing.
The importance of any challenge is catering it to you in a way where you’ll actually
come out of it having tested yourself and in doing that, improving, maybe not in an
obvious way, just a little step in the right direction.
Anyway, this is what happens when I don’t get to talk to you guys for a while.
I say all the things at once.
The footage for this video was a bit all over the place as the folders on my computer have
been a bit jumbled with the footage sitting around for so long, but I’ll have a video
in a few days time about what I plan to do with the finished drawings where hopefully
you’ll get to see them all.
I wanted to put them together into one big poster, just for me, not to sell, just to
keep them all in one place and be that physical representation of my second Inktober, completed
in full.
Let me know how you guys have been getting on.
I always love hearing your variations on different challenges, so if you’ve been doing something
different this month, I’d love to know more about it.
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon for the next video.
Bye!