mjkroes

This is a bit of a tradition now I suppose... Gotta do that wrap up journal while it's all still fresh~ (Already left it a few days ).

Inktober was a bit unusual this year, I mean global pandemic aside, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the event in September and whether or not we should participate. I did look into this a bit but ultimately decided that Inktober was for me, and my personal art had nothing to do with Jake Parker. I decided to partake again this year because I always see improvement after the October Marathon ends, and also because I have been strugging with art block for a few months and hoped the accountability of a challenge would get me back on track.

This year was also unusual for me because I didn't use the official prompt list. This decision was not a made because of the controversy, but because in the past I have found the prompt list more restrictive than helpful (You can read my previous two wrap up journals where I mention this). So this year I set out to make a series of 31 illustrations that would tell a little story. My hope was that everyone following along would be excited about what was happening next, and that a short wholesome story would be the little distraction we all need right now.

I vaguely planned the story and set out a basic storyboard on September 30th, then each day I gathered the reference photos I needed and drew the thumnails, before moving on to the final illustration. I was challenging myself to not shy away from backgrounds, so I leaned into references to fill in the gaps. This year I also decided to exclusively use one fountain pen for the whole process and I really enjoyed it.

I found the art process to be surprisingly painless because I didn't really have to think about what to do each day since I could refer to my storyboard. I actually think using the prompt lists in the past required more brain power than this project did. If I participate again next year I will most likely do my own project again instead.

Of course, as I say every year, Inktober is indeed a challenge and there were ups and downs. This year the thing I struggled with most was sitting down to actually get it done. I think it must have been the art block but some days I procrastinated starting until way too late. I never missed a day, but sometimes that meant I was working right up until the deadline. Also, because of inktober I pushed a lot of my other responsibilities to the wayside meaning I was often up until 2AM to get the rest of my life sorted before starting again the next day. I would not recommend this; I was soo tired and burnt out by about half-way.

Despite the challenges, I am really proud of "Atelier de Millie" and I think the finished story is really cute. There are some illustrations that I'm not happy with but I think that will always be the case when you draw every day, they can't all be good days.

Lastly, my top picks. It's always so hard to choose just a few!

A big thank you as always to everyone who followed along, commented and favourited! Your support really means a lot and kept me going this year.

I'm currently in the process of getting Atelier de Millie ready to print and sell as a zine; If that's something you would be interested in owning I would really appreciate the support!! (More updates on my shop to follow)