INKTOBER 2018 – DAYS 27 TO 31

As Chie would say, BAM! Inktober 2018 is done :) 31 days of drawing with ink finally comes to an end, and in total I produced 62 drawings, two on each day. While it was hard at times, it flew by and was fun; tons of fun in fact, but probably the toughest thing I’ve done so far in terms of art. I guess it wouldn’t be called an Art Challenge if it was easy :)

Before we jump into the main topic, which is about SACRIFICE, here’s my final five days worth of size A6 (9x14cm) drawings for Inktober 2018 days 27 to 31 –

DAYS 27 TO 31

ANIME FAN ART

  • Maromi, from the anime Paranoia Agent, Ink Drawing. Day 27 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • Kyubey, from the anime Madoka Magica Ink Drawing. Day 28 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • Happy, from the anime Fairy Tail Ink Drawing. Day 29 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • Totoro, from the anime My Neighbor Totoro Ink Drawing. Day 30 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • Jiji, from the anime Kiki's Delivery Service Ink Drawing. Day 31 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson

DAYS 27 TO 31

lilSOPHiE COSPLAYING VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS

  • lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame character Parappa the Rapper Ink Drawing, Day 27 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame character Chun-Li from Street Fighter Ink Drawing, Day 28 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame character Samus Aran from Metroid Prime Ink Drawing, Day 29 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame character Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros Ink Drawing, Day 30 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson
  • lilSOPHIE cosplaying videogame character Morrigan from Dragon Age Ink Drawing, Day 31 of Inktober 2018, with Artist Sophie Lawson

WHAT I LEARNT?

Here’s a bunch of things I made notes of during this past five days, lil things I felt were important:

  • Hard to Find Reference Photos with too Broad of a Subject
  • Rest is Important
  • Getting Started can be Hard
  • 0.5 creates a Totally Different Feel to the Drawing
  • My room always looks like a Bombs Gone Off during/after an Art Challenge

I talk about them all in the following video, where I also discuss each drawing, but for this blog post, lets jump into the topic of Sacrifice.

YouTube player

SACRIFICE

I’ll be honest, this final five days was tough. If there had been any extra days, I don’t think I would have made it. When you’re doing an Art Challenge you have to Sacrifice something, otherwise you won’t get it done.

Inktober 2018 was my priority for the whole of October, and it was around day 25 that I started to realise I had maybe sacrificed too many important things in order to get it done … I was beginning to fall out of balance.

Sacrifice is part of committing to an art challenge, you can’t do everything, but my problem is, I sacrificed the wrong things, and committed to too much stuff.

Drawing for Inktober 2018 on it’s own would have been fine, but I also wanted to do a weekly video, a weekly blog post, oh, and I also decided to do two drawings a day instead of one lol To do all this, I had to sacrifice even more things … this was my main issue: I Committed to Too Many Things, and it caught up with me by the end.

In future art challenges, I’ll have to find a way to simplify things.

Some of the things I sacrificed included:

  • Meditation,
  • Sleep,
  • Nature,
  • Visiting my Tree Friend,
  • Reading,
  • Swimming.

All things that Bring Balance to my Life! Some of them, like reading, I can accept not doing, as an art challenge is a form of learning so it kind of feels ok to sacrifice reading for a few weeks, but Meditating? Sleeping? I have to make sure I don’t sacrifice them again in future.

MEDITATION AND SLEEP

Meditation is probably the main thing that brings balance to my life, yet it’s always the first thing I ditch when I need to find time.

Why? It doesn’t make sense, same as sleep. I even recorded a podcast a few weeks ago about the Importance of Never Sacrificing Sleep … yet for a couple days each week of Inktober 2018 I found myself going to sleep past my bed time. The thing with Sacrificing Sleep, and Meditation, is that the effects of not doing them Creep up on you Slowly, so at first you think you can get away with it.

What I’ve noticed is, if you sacrifice say 2 hours of sleep, you seem to need five times as much to get back to normal. It’s odd, it’s not like you can just sleep an extra 2 hours the next day, for some reason, that doesn’t seem to work. Sacrificing sleep sort of snowballs out of control.

For me, Sacrificing Meditation leads to Negative Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours. Fortunately I was able to see them popping into existence, but I thought, blimey … that’s because I’ve not been meditating for a few days.

It’s odd, because Sacrificing these things didn’t effect my Drawing, once I sat down to draw I was fine, I could get into it and really enjoy it, but it was during the rest of the day, the normal life moments. I really started to feel the effects of not meditating most, and honestly, I had this massive feeling of just needing a rest by the end of Inktober 2018, so I was both happy and sad when I finished my final ink drawing.

CONFLICT

Right now I’m conflicted. I loved Inktober 2018. I had the most fun in ages, I produced so many drawings, I know with certainty lilSOPHIE is my future and I learnt so much it’s pretty incredible. Yet. I’m glad it’s over. Maybe it’s ok to feel like this? For the next week I intend to do nothing lol I’m going to: go Visit my Tree Friend, Read Some Books, Shave my Legs and Go Swimming …

Floating in the Water, Just Chilling, sounds good to me :)

THE NEXT 7 DAYS?

There is no next days, Inktober 2018 is over. WOOHOO…umm, I mean, AWW lol

It went so quickly, and I will miss it. Inktober 2018 was a month of Fun, finding tons of new Inspirational Artists, stepping out of my Comfort Zone and learning where my Limits are.

Am I glad I did it? Yes! I think it will be powerful moving forward; I now know I can look at a reference image and turn it into a lilSOPHIE … basically, I learnt how to start Drawing from my Imagination, which is something I’ve wanted to do for years, but always been too scared to try.

I’m also really glad I wrote about it all on this blog, because while it takes time to write these things, Journaling is such an Important part of an Art Challenge.

When doing an Art Challenge, you’re not just learning new art skills, you’re also learning about yourself too.

Thank you Inktober 2018

SELF-SACRIFICE WHICH DENIES COMMON SENSE IS NOT A VIRTUE. IT’S A SPIRITUAL DISSIPATION

– Margaret Deland