Some unexpected joys of Inktober/Peachtober 2022
When I decided at the eleventh hour to participate in Inktober/Peachtober, I was filled with trepidation and excitement. I was thrilled to join a community of artists undertaking the same challenge, to be challenging myself to draw to order and to come up with fun ideas, and to make connections with other artists and friends through the drawings.
I had committed to making it a fun, easy and joyful experience. For the most part, I succeeded by quitting my job and embracing imperfection.
As the challenge came to a close, I felt a sense of achievement and found that I had improved my drawing and composition skills.
I also experienced several unexpected joys, such as
- Having fun drawing characters with big attitudes and making up absurd stories about them
- Observing my drawing style emerge
- Improving my ability to draw from imagination and to draw to order
So much fun drawing characters with attitude and making up absurd stories about them
I don't think of myself as a storyteller. I believe that this comes naturally to some people and I am not one of them.
However, during Inktober/Peachtober, I began to make up stories about my characters and actually found that it was a really fun thing to do.
Each time that I created a post for a particular character, I would try to provide their backstory and elements of their personality. For example, I created this character for Day 23 (prompt 'Sprout') who looks cross because people keep wanting to touch her hair. I then came up with her siblings Bud and Blossom and called the family the Springfields.
Sprout, Bud and Blossom Springfield, a family of bloomers
Also, as I was posting the drawings to different groups on Facebook and Instagram, I modified the captions to suit each audience group, and the story grew in scope and absurdity. Some of my characters caught the imagination of viewers who provided more ideas and I incorporated them into the stories.
Seeing my drawing style(s) emerge
I agonise over my drawing style. I am constantly wondering how all my drawings and painting styles fit together.
Well, Inktober helped a lot. I was obliged to complete drawings. I have a tendency to do lots of sketches because I love coming up with ideas but not so much completing. However, I've realized that the act of rendering, the choices made, the solutions I come up with, the techniques used and so on, in service of finishing a piece are essential to providing the conditions for style to emerge.
My sketchbook for Inktober/Peachtober 2022
Drawing from imagination and drawing to order
Up until September this year, I believed that I could not draw from imagination. Characters and places that I drew from imagination were flat, stiff, boring and awful.
I'd read books on how to cultivate the skill of drawing from imagination but could never apply the suggestions in a way that didn't feel like a grind.
However, after watching Borja Montoro (Disney, Dreamworks etc) talk about how he comes up with characters on a Trojan Horse is a Unicorn sketchbook video, I found a technique that makes drawing from imagination effortless for me. Borja Montoro draws shapes and finds the image in the shapes. It's similar to looking at clouds and finding images of faces or animals in them.
I had a go at this. I began by making interconnected circles and squiggly lines in my sketchbook and looked for images in them. Slowly, faces, people, flowers, leaves, birds made themselves visible in the squiggles.
What a breakthrough! I filled 2 sketchbooks with characters and critters in a week.
This technique has somehow unlocked the visual library and the technical drawing skills stored somewhere in my brain.
Inktober/Peachtober 2022 drawings
I also realised that there is a big difference between drawing from imagination and drawing to order. When using the technique to draw from imagination, I have no idea what I will come up with. However, with a drawing challenge like Inktober/Peachtober that is based on prompts, I had to figure out how to draw to order.
This required a different technique. What a revelation to find that there are different techniques for drawing from the imagination! It seems to me that each technique accesses different parts of my brain where elements of drawing are stored - shape, value, contour, perspective and so on.
Most of the time, I went through drawings I had already done and added or changed elements to fit the prompt. Nevertheless, there were some drawings that had to be drawn to order because none of my drawings would fit, such as these of Ikku イックウ (一 空）the intrepid introverted space person.
Ikku イックウ (一 空）the intrepid introverted space person
I came across a technique that helped a lot, as demonstrated by Scott Flanders. It's an iterative process that makes drawing to order a more systematic process.
Interestingly, Scott Flanders mentioned that he intuitively uses the free form technique (that I mentioned above) but that when working to a brief, he had to come up with the iterative technique to ensure that the some outcome would fit the client's needs.
I have barely begun to use his technique but it helped tremendously when I needed to come up with ideas for designs and ideas that would match the prompts for Inktober/Peachtober.
I found that both techniques unlock different ideas, and create different and random connections.
I also found that the extremely challenging process of coming up with ideas and executing them became easier with the techniques and with practice. Throughout Inktober/Peachtobler, my imagination and drawing practice became more intense and prolific!
The final takeaway
Take the first step anyway
I often live in my head - I'm very good at imagining how my drawings look like. But, as I have found during Inktober/Peachtober, actually putting them down on paper and completing them is the first step to wonderful things. I saw my drawing style emerge, my creativity went off the charts, I came up with ideas for a series of drawings from the drawings I completed, and I had fun in unexpected ways!
Free card featuring Bougainvillea Thorne
One of the characters that I drew for Inktober/Peachtober, Bougainvillea Thorne (cousin to Sprout, Bud and Blossom) took on a life of her own. Read about her loves - the sun, bright colours and parties - and her design career here.
I made a holiday card featuring Bougainvillea and you can download it for free.
Here's a tip when downloading the card: type $0 in the field for amount to pay (you are given the choice to add another amount, by default).
If you want updates on freebies like the card featuring Bougainvillea Thorne, sign up for my newsletter!
You'll be the first to find out about freebies and goodies. And you get fun drawings and fanciful stories to light up your day.
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