So I want to try practicing with quantity over quality for a bit. September and August were dedicated toward spending time to practice every stage of the process to I could get better at rendering

But this time I want to mostly focus on getting sketches out, and try rendering in a black-and-white style (on the tan paper background. I really like that aesthetic)

I understand that Inktober is intended to ink a drawing every day, but there really isn't an "inking" stage to digital art. The closest you can get is lineart

That's not what I'll be doing. Instaed, I want to do something a little different:
* sketch to the prompt for every day. If life/work makes me miss a day, I will continue the prompts in order without skipping, even if I have to finish in November
* No working ahead. I can work to catch up on missed sketches if I have the time, but I can't work past the prompt for the current day
* I am going to do my best to limit myself to 1 hour. I hate disrupting the flow state, but I'm kinda sick of spending 4 hours making a sketch. I want to get better at just getting my ideas onto the canvas more efficiently. That is the point of this exercise for me
* I am allowing myself to erase during the sketching stage and the thumbnailing stage, but I am restricting myself to one layer, trying to stay true to traditional artwork
* Once all 31 prompts have sketches, I will select 10 (or more) to take to the next stage. This will be a mix of my favorites and the ones that got the most favorites when posted
* I will make a journal with the 10 selected and the order they will be worked on
* The 10 selected to continue will get an "inked render". What this means is that I will put one layer on top of the sketch, solid black G-Pen brush, no erase, no undo, one layer, no transformation tools. Once a line goes down, it stays. Only exception is when Clip studio freaks out and puts a random line down I didn't draw (it happens sometimes). I will have to use line weight variation and hatching to depict shading (this used to be my traditional art style, but I've never tried it digitally, so I hope it works out).
* it may take more than 1 day to do an inked render. I won't be rushing myself on this, but I'll aim to be efficient (since I don't have undo. I won't post WIPs during the inking process, only showing the render once it's finished. I will create a new Inktober folder in my gallery that will include both the sketches and inks. They will still be named differently than my usual "(date) [title]" format in order to be better searchable in the future if I want to look back or participate again in future years
* After all 10 of them are "inked", if there are any that I simply adore, I will let myself try a full lineless render. I'm not committing to a specific number for these. I just think it'll be fun to compare the drawing in to styles if there's any I actually like at the end.
* After all the sketches for the prompts are finished, I'll allow myself to take breaks if I get inspired, but I really want to stick to the 10 inks

I'll post a sample of one of my favorite inked renders I did on the back of my calculus notes between classes during college. I hope I'll be able to recreate the style. It'll go into my scraps folder before the end of the month (gotta figure out which bucket I stored that drawing in)

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Prompts & Brief Summary for each. If you are unsure which character I'm referencing, please check my main gallery for art I've ordered in the past of them. Usually I explain characters that don't have art yet in descriptions of their ref sheets.   Ask_Derpy_Cat1 . Feel free to ask about specific lore if a prompt intrigues you. Happy to share what I've got in my head, since I doubt I'll do many of them justice (this will be my first experience with drawing landscapes)

1. Backpack - Aurora packing for a quest
2. Discover - Stormy finding a magic temple ruin
3. Boots - Low angle shot of a captured Stormy viewed between the boots of the capturer
4. Exotic - “exotic dancing” of a luxury fur. Maybe tethered to the stage or pole to show the lore
5. Binoculars - Aurora using them to look into the distance (toward the viewer)
6. Trek - Stormy approaching a magicpunk tree while crossing "The Scar"
7. Passport - stormy undercover using paperwork to get into the human city
8. Hike - Aurora with her backpack hiking up a mountain trail
9. Sun - one of our girls traveling through the desert. Either from a bazaar or toward a ruins. Or both if I'm feeling ballsy
10. Nomadic - stormy and a Bear shaman walking together in the mountains
11. Snacks - Rora (and Sylva?) on a snack break during the quest, eating junk food from Otherworld
12. Remote - main Orycal cave and Orion overlooking the viewer
13 Horizon - maybe a scene of “The Scar” as seen from the temple ruins in prompt 2
14. Roam - Stormy “roaming” around a Springvale market
15. Guidebook - Back in the Orycal cave from 12, focusing on a celestial map where Orion was in the first piece
16 Grungy - encounter between Stormy and an ally who uses the sewers as a hideout
17. Journal - Stormy writing in one at a table by the candlelight. Inside a typical tavern's rented room
18. Drive - Dusk and her motorcycle
19. Ridge - Stormy overlooking a cliff
20. Uncharted - pirate Rora
21. Rhinoceros - Rora vs rhino guard
22. Camp - one of the girls by a campfire. Maybe in a hammock
23. Rust - Stormy’s magic rusting armor on a guard
24. Expedition - Rora (and Sylvie) getting ready to enter the underground ruins of some ancient structure
25. Scarecrow - Rora practicing her swordplay against a scarecrow
26. Camera - Rora brought a Polaroid camera into the mirror. Shes using it to take a picture of a defeated foe
27. Road - stormy and/or Rora about to ambush a slaver caravan
28. Jumbo - Stormy’s magic avatar (or Werewolf Stormy. TBD)
29. Navigator - Rora going one way while Sylvie and the map go another
30. Violin - Sylvie playing it in the tavern by the mantle
31. Landmark - Stormy approaching a sacred tree

Forgot to post an update. I know I'm three days behind. Haven't worked on it at all since the weekly showcase

On Monday I had a doctor's appointment (post-surgery checkup, thinks are getting better ^-^)

On Tuesday I was REALLY out of it. Not sick, but like, everything felt... off, and not in a good way. Idk how else to describe it. Ended up sleeping until minutes before I had to leave for work, finished work with a migraine, took a several hour nap, woke up and the migraine was still there, and just decided it wasn't gonna happen. Couldn't bring myself to look at screens for more than a couple minutes at a time

Today I'm still reeling from yesterday. No fever or anything, just a mild fatigue and brainfog and idk why. Gonna just go back to napping and hope I'm feeling better tomorrow. If not then Friday probably.

I haven't forgotten. Getting Polaris's ref sheet done is still a huge priority for me

No excuse this time. I just really don't feel like spending Monday on drawing hands. Gonna save it for a day where I have more motivation. I kinda just wanna take a nap and call it a night alreayd (it isn't even dinnertime yet here). Just off today so imma break now and get back into things tomorrow.

Had a chaotic Friday. Not going to be home until late. No opportunity today to draw. Will still be working on the weekly showcase tomorrow. Goal is to get at least one of the arms of the ref done, if not both (unless I get pissed at the legs/paws shapes. Then I’ll spend my time redrawing them instead. We shall see

Imma keep this brief. Had an eye exam. They dilated my eyes. Discomfort looking at screens tonight. No drawing today. Will be back tomorrow

So… this last week I had my postoperative check-in with my doctor to see how I’ve been recovering from surgery.

Though my health is doing well, he wasn’t willing to have my mobility restrictions lifted yet. Because of this, I haven’t been able to find a position/posture that I can comfortably draw from while following my limitations. I’m getting really antsy to get back into drawing, but the last thing I want to do is undo the entire surgery process because of wanting to doodle.

I’m still here and consuming content to hopefully learn from in the meantime, but I’m still going to have to wait at least until my appointment mid next month to get permission from my doctor

I’ll probably ease back into it things when I get back by doing a week or two of character studies. Re-drawing some of my old commissioned artwork from reference. Then do a couple breakdowns of illustrations posted by other artists I admire and want to learn from for things like proportions

Then maybe sometime in July I’ll have enough practice back to be willing to draw a full illustration again. I know I still see Palworld getting updated, but it seems the trend/fervor has died out quite a bit

Though I recently got a poke-fusion adopt that may be fun to dry designing an anthro form for. We’ll see what inspires me once I’m back in-practice.

I also still want to continue my “colored sketch” series of my kitty cosplaying as pokemon characters. Though I may shake up the style a little bit. I wanna try to emulate a few sketch styles I like and see what works best for me. I’ll probably do one of Blue in the current style (that’s trying to emulate Fluff Kevlar) then pick a different artists sketch style to play with for the next batch… keeping things I like/dislike from the first few in mind).

I’d also like to get back into more critically analyzing my pieces. It’s not fun spending an extra 30-60 minutes typing up everything wrong with every single drawing I do though (there’s only so many hours in the day, especially since my last promotion at work, this new position eats up way more overtime than before). I’ll have to find a balance. Maybe I’ll have my timer of 20-25mins to art then 5-10 minutes to review while posting. Anything I can’t capture in a 10ish minute summary can wait until next time. Try and maybe only point out a small handful of things at a time instead of a long list to comb through. Let myself focus more on fixing the problems. Idk we’ll see. Since arts a hobby and not a side hustle, the idea of spending an hour doing gesture drawings/boxes/anatomy practice as a warm-up isn’t feasible. Such warmups would eat my entire time and then some. I think they’re a fun exercise but should have their own dedicated sessions instead of warmup.

Thanks for being patient. I’m starting to get impatient to get back into it too tbh

So... seems I can't escape all the medical bs. Spent all day dealing with a whole bunch of nonsense. Though I technically have time today, it's also already dinner time and I'm finally able to sit down. TBH I don't want to waste what little time is left of my Saturday on sketching.

What im going to do instead is do my weekly showcase tomorrow morning and post it same day, instead of my usual routine of doing it today to post tomorrow with a critique using fresh eyes

Shouldn't change things too much. May be posting later in the day tomorrow. Just making the journal for the sake of transparency

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to take a bath and enjoy the rest of my last pre-surgery Saturday night. Happy 4/20 to those of you who partake safely/legally

God I love dealing with US medical institutions

Got off work. Was excited to doodle at a reasonable time for once

Then I get a call from the hospital that they never got my lab results they need for me to do surgery

So I call the clinic that ordered the tests to see whether they had them and forgot to send to the hospital… they didn’t have them

So I had to call the urgent care facility that did all that. After being transferred several times I find out there was a problem with my blood sample so they never sent it and didn’t call me to get another one.

My surgery is like 3 business days away. Their labs take 2-3 business days to send results to the clinic. Let alone the hospital

I can’t bump surgery back because (a) I already took off work (b) my insurance is ending their contract with the hospital so if I don’t get it by the end of the month, it won’t be in-network, so I either spend a fortune or have to start the process all over with a new surgeon and spend a ton more money doing all the preliminary shit again for someone else

So I end up being told to go back to urgent care so they can take more blood to test again, and it *should* get to the surgeons care team just in time (gave the hospital’s fax number and told them to send a copy directly too)

So I come in. Now I’m stuck waiting for it, AND I’m getting billed again to redo the tests that they screwed up the first time. It’s already 7pm. I doubt I’ll be drawing today, especially with how much of a bad mood this has put me in. Will work extra on the weekly showcase tomorrow (to upload Sunday like usual)

Imma be honest, it's been a really crappy day today and the last thing I want to do is spend the next hour of my 30mins of scheduled art time troubleshooting why my tablet doesn't work today (because it's had new problems every day this week) just to feel obligated to squeeze in time to draw too.

Not feeling it today. I'll do doodling tomorrow instead

SO... I missed this whole week and I have some tea

I've spent about 60% of my free time trying to get my new computer set up (turns out, copying 3TB off software/settings/etc onto a new system on a new OS is not easy. I think I finally got clip everything set up and all drivers installed... except I haven't tested my tablet yet. I've barely gotten all my software/accounts/settings back to where I want them

The remainder of my free time has been fully dedicated toward getting ready for something big... Without boring on the details, I'm going to be getting back surgery in 2ish weeks... so then I'll be unable to bend/reach/twist for 2-3 weeks after (I have a post-op in mid May)

Which means I'll only be able to do art stuff until right before the surgery. Even though I do things like having an angled stand for my tablet, the last thing I wanna do is screw up the surgery and undo the very expensive procedure because I wanted to doodle.

I'll try to see if there's any extra setup needed for my tablet tomorrow and do a bit of doodling (maybe finally add some basic shadows to my doodle of my kitty dressed like Red

I'm a bit overwhelmed by all this medical stuff though (I've spent closer to 85% of my time outside work dealing with it). It doesn't really feel right to do a full weekly showcase if I haven't done anything all week. I'm gonna be keeping it to simple sketches (probably more "pokemon cosplay" since the last thing I wanna do is start a render that I won't finish before the procedure. Instead I'll just work on these simple doodles in the meantime

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten, and I'm not just being lazy about habit. I've been doing tech support and playing "medical test subject" all week.

Like I predicted earlier, my medical appointment took most of my Friday, don't feel like setting up my tablet so late in the evening. Still expect I'll be spending most of tomorrow setting up my new computer instead of working on the weekly showcase, but we'll see. Depends on when it arrives. Will update if I expect not to be able to do it

Imma be honest. I have the time but I'm so burnt out that I don't really wanna go through the effort of pulling out & setting up my tablet just for a 20min sketch or accidentally waste another hour trying to get a background figured out for the render (turns out, being on hold most of the day and dealing with medical appointment + insurance BS kills your willpower to deal with anything else for the entire day)

No April Fools stuff (not a fan of "fake out humor" imo). So yeah, see y'all tomorrow when I'm not neck-deep in dealing with the US healthcare system :'D

Had some medical appointments today, looking like I won't be getting home until after sunset today. I'm fine, but I won't have time to do any arts before bed tonight. Will get back to rendering tomorrow.

It's late, I just got overtime, no time to work on renders today. Gonna go to take a shower and go to bed. Rendering will resume tomorrow

Another overtime day. Not looking like I’ll get home until it’s too late to do any rendering

Gotta love busy season~

Been having a bad day. Lots of overtime. Other stuff I don’t wanna get into. I just wanna crawl into a hole and sleep

I’ll get back to rendering tomorrow

It’s the Monday after daylight savings. Did a bunch of overtime and it’s already almost time to get ready for bed. Just gonna turn my brain off and vibe today. Will put in work toward the render tomorrow assuming overtime isn’t bad again. Stay safe out there yall — daylight savings is a brutal

It's just about bedtime today and I finally have a chance to sit down. Not gonna be able to squeeze in another drawing session. To make up for it, I'll be adding an extra 30mins to the time I have set aside tomorrow to work on weekly showcase

Going back to my original planned routine, spend Saturday working on a piece for roughly an hour, then upload it on Sunday for the self-critique so I can properly assess myself with fresh eyes instead of immediately after diving into the details

However, it feels really weird spending only an hour on this piece after spending at least 90mins/day on foxparks over the last 3 weeks (with the exception of the days I missed from overtime).

Gonna spoil it a little bit -- it's another palworld sona that I've noticed a distinct lack of art for ;P

The showcase is a rough sketch, but I do actually wanna render at-least a cel-shaded version (idk about a full soft shading illustration though). I think while I do my studies over the next few days/weeks, I'll go from 30mins of practice to 20, so I can do another 10-20mins of rendering work after each session. I think this will be a good idea for helping to practice rendering at the same time as the rest. Then (more likely than not) use next week's showcase on more work refining the render)

TLDR: slightly revising my plans going forward so that I can reserve some time for studies and some time for render practice... Looking forward to this one. Foxparks was still referenced pretty heavily, but this one coming up only referenced the pose, and a screenshot of the pal from the wiki -- more creative liberties this time UwU

Welp. There goes my plans for art until Monday/tuesday

Got dragged into more overtime. I’m still burnt out from all the extra hours last weekend and now I’m gonna have to do it again. Was supposed to be a 3 day holiday weekend too. Now I’m pissed off

I’ll try but no promises. I’m already cranky enough today and the last thing I wanna be doing is staring at a screen while trying to get an imaginary fox’s ass to look right.

Circumstances outside my control. I’ll at least be back into routine Tuesday (hopefully) but at this rate I might make myself sick before I can actually get a day off again

Sorry all, not art today

Was at work 16hrs yesterday. Been here 11 hours today and not close to being able to finish for the day yet

I’m totally mentally and physically exhausted. I’ll just get back into things once work calms down

I do have something in the works, but I've already spent way longer on it than I initially planned for this week. I'm at ~6 hours in and only at the lineart stage. So I'll end up finishing the piece probably sometime later tomorrow. Partly because I'm putting a lot of care into being deliberate about the process, and partly because I might be getting sick again

Since Monday is a US federal holiday, I'll be pushing everything back by a day:
- Finish the showcase piece tomorrow
- Review and critique myself when I upload it on Monday
- Begin Week 3 exercises on Tuesday

Just know I'm not procrastinating. My plans to finish the piece tomorrow are to fix some of the wonky lineart areas I needed to take a break from, add the flat colors, and try rendering (unsure whether I'll do airbrush or try more practice with cell shading again. Mostly the fun, but tedious, component of coloring once I fix those last few lines