Thirty-One Days of Drawing

There was a time when I wanted to be an artist.

Scratch that, I’ve always wanted to be an artist. In fact, maybe more honestly, I’ve always *been* an artist, but I’ve had a rocky relationship with myself, in part because of severe childhood trauma/abuse, and therefore I have not always been in touch with my need to create art.

Yes, I called it a need, because it is not a want. It is an actual need, a non-negotiable part of my life (and I suspect many other people) to create things.

Inktober always sounds like a fun idea: 31 days of drawing. I started my 31 days a little bit earlier, on the 28th, because I do what I want, and I also did it digitally, because I do what I want, and I also didn’t obey any of the prompts, because… I do what I want. Essentially, I didn’t do Inktober. I did my own thirty one days of drawing, and at the end, I’m glad I finished and I know what I want to work on next.

Here are a few of my drawings. I don’t really feel like posting all of them, just my favorites. I already posted all of them as I made them to various groups I’m a part of, and that was plenty.

I drew this one on day 5.

This one was a quick drawing I did on Day 7, a scene from my novel.

I liked this next one too, from Day 12. This is a character from my next book, working title WOLFSBANE.

And then I ended up doing a whole buncha dinosaurs. Because there were unexpected things which happened in the time that I was doing this challenge, and suddenly the energy that I needed to create drawings had to be allocated to other things. It wasn’t my favorite, and I wanted to make My Best Drawing Yet every single day, but reality is frequently more about Showing Up.

So here are my dinosaurs. 🙂 Some of them, anyway, I ended up making 19 of them. And in the end, I think they were probably exactly the right thing to make.

They were actually pretty fun to make, I’m gonna be honest. :]

I’m glad I did the 31 day, non-Inktober drawing challenge. It was good.

In other news, I’m working on some other cool projects. I’ve been feeling like it’s time to work on the podcast again, although I’m not going to make any promises or say anything until it’s a little more concrete. Also, as mentioned above, I’m writing WOLFSBANE, a story set in the same world as OATHBOUND.

The book (I think it’s a sequel, but I’m not calling it that yet!) is one I started earlier this year, but I’m finally getting into gear with it now. There are new characters that I’ve taken some time to get to know a little better, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing it all come together in a brand new novel.

No promises on when it will be done, but speaking from my own desires, it would delight me to no end to have it published by the beginning of January.

I’ll keep you posted!