As mid-October approached, I announced with great pomp and circumstance that, even though the month was halfway through, I — and you—could still try to get on the #Inktober bandwagon.
I declared a new variant of Inktober, the procrastinator’s nudge to get on board with the popular drawing challenge. I called it #IdesOfInktober, referencing the made-famous-by-Shakespeare Ides of March. The Ides of March was a day of settling debts in ancient Rome, so I thought it appropriate to apply to Inktober, the daily drawing challenge — we could settle the debt we creatively minded folks feel we have to ourselves for not getting on it like everyone else.
Just to wrap a bow on this and hopefully gain something from my failed attempt even at this underachiever’s “challenge”, I thought it would be fun to share a quick report on how it went for me.
The Report
14 out of 16 Drawings Completed
So if you count my declaration post on @drawingisimportant, I posted 14 times. But truly, there were only 13 actual drawings. So I guess 13 out of 16 days of drawing isn’t all that bad!
In fact, I’m going to say it wasn’t a failure at all. Just because I set a goal of drawing every single day, it doesn’t mean I literally had to draw every day. Just setting the goal got me drawing a lot more than I had been in recent times. I think that perspective is really important. Drawing every day is not my job. It supports my job (as an illustrator), but it is not my priority. I have other things to do. If my daily drawing practice suddenly became a burden to me, it would cease to live up to its purpose. Rather than inspire me, it would distract me from other more important things, and in that sense, do quite the opposite.
8 Hours Spent Drawing
From October 15–31, I spent an average of 34.2 minutes creating and posting 14 drawings, including the…
