It's the halfway point for Inktober and I'm so full of thoughts that I wanted to write some of it down before I forgot it. This post is partially to share things with others, and partially to reflect on things before the second half of the month begins. I apologize in advance if some of it seems disconnected or rambly. I've tried to organize things as best I can.

I think the best place to start is with the subjects I'm selecting. As stated in my post at the start of the month, I wrote my own prompt list to use since I expected the official Inktober one to be more of a hinderance than a help. The intent was to use a randomizer to select the prompt for each day on the day of, but that didn't last as long as I expected! The first three days' pieces were selected that way. After that, I either picked whichever idea on the list stuck out to me the most that day or it was something that just came to me as I was browsing FA during the day. I figure it's better to go with something I have passion for in the moment than let it distract me as I try to do a not-as-interesting thing just because the randomizer picked a certain word.

One thing that I have to consciously avoid doing, however, is studies. Or at least direct ones. I think every single day has been plagued by my brain telling me things like "you should do a hand study so you can draw hands better for the rest of the month!" or "you should do a paw study so you have a process in place for that!". I have to remind myself that I have limited time each day and the goal is to do things I consider finished. Instead, I've compromised with myself by incorporating the tempting study into whatever I'm doing that day. Inktober 13 (feral Simm)'s pose was partially selected because it would let me work more on the paws I struggled with on Inktober 11 (Oub sitting). Days 6 (squirrel), 7 (Simmsolplush), and especially day 8 (mask)'s hatching came because I wanted to study karanacat's work.

Someone on Discord commented that my pieces varied in styles and vibes. I think it's an excellent thing that I can draw in a variety of ways and get what feels like a consistently good result. But it also reveals to me how little consistency I have in my process of drawing. Take the hands in Inktober 1 (Simm with book) versus Inktober 11 (Oub sitting): I feel like I did the former well but the latter poorly despite both being from high-quality photo reference. There's a lot of factors that could contribute to it but I think it all comes down to having an okay process for the position in 1 but not 11. The same can be applied to a lot of things in my pieces: eyes, hair, paws, fur, etc... Sometimes I can get them right on the first try, but usually I'm stumbling about.

I think the lack of process is clearer to me now because I've been locked in on avoiding gradients and only using two brushes (and really only one since the other is only for sketches). It's easy to get lost in trying to fix a poor sketch using 30 different brushes, but it's a lot more obvious the foundation is missing when you only have line width to work from.

Limiting myself to effectively only one brush has led to another piece of self-discovery: a preference for a certain style and technique. There are so many styles out there that I love to see and would love even more to be able to draw in. Unfortunately, getting good at a particular style requires practice which requires time invested in that one particular way. Along with what I said earlier about a lack of process and how it has led to varied style, I'd like like to figure out a direction to go and I think that direction is to get really good at my linework and hatching.

(If you want a really good example of what I mean, check out Karanacat's work like this piece and this piece. Variations in value are done entirely through hatching unless it's a solid block of black. I'm fairly certain both of those were originally done with a G-pen and then scanned to digital!)

Does this mean I'm going to give up on things like soft shading and color and painting? Nope! I still rather enjoy using those. But I think I'll be putting a bit more emphasis on using hatching and line width.

I really wasn't expecting much at the start of this month. Last year I was consistently 1-2 days behind schedule and only doing really "safe" pieces that mostly came down to "draw this photo or game screenshot". I expected I'd do better this year, but not nothing crazy. I thought I'd have one or two pieces that I liked but that I'd want to quietly brush most of them under the rug and hope no one noticed them.

Instead I feel really proud. I feel like I'm making things that are good. And not just something that was accidentally good but like it's part of a trend of having actually improved. I'm looking at the things I've made this month and thinking "wow, the past three years of practice are finally paying off".

(That's not to say my stuff is masterpiece after masterpiece. I can see places for improvement in all of them. But compared to what I expected from myself? They're wonderful.)

And that pride is coming from other, smaller things as well. I've wanted a feral Simm design for a while. Now it exists and I was the one to draw it.
Yesterday, while doing Inktober 16 (Zoroark Oub 2), I realized that I was using my own art from the previous piece as a reference. I'm having ideas for pieces and my default question is "What day should I do that on?" rather than "Which artist should I go to that will do it justice (because I couldn't)?". ... Well, at least some ideas go that way. I'm not going to stop commissioning other artists any time soon. But hopefully you get what I mean about feeling better about my own work. :p

A few people on Discord have even commented on how seeing me do Inktober and seeing my improvement has inspired them to try art or get back into it. It's wonderful to hear people say that, and I encourage anyone who feels that way to do so! And definitely share your stuff with me. It'd be a great feeling to know that I led someone to starting their own art practice.

So where to go from here? Well... I don't quite know yet other than forward. Only 15 days left and I have plenty of other prompts I can do. I don't know what I'll do for each day, but I'd like at least one or two of them to be something involving humans and something involving transformation.

I'd like to give a thanks to everyone who has shown any interest in what I'm doing. I know that drawing for myself is the most important thing, but it's hard not to get a bit excited when I get a ❤️ react on Discord or a fave here on FA. Also, a special thanks to Kendrakkin, Sketch, and Scarlet-Frost for joining me in Discord VCs on various days to give me art advice.

Do you have questions? Comments? If so, I'd love to hear them. Comment here or @ me on Discord somewhere if you share a server with me.