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Not too long ago I started a new occasional video series called Hey, Fascist! where I spoke out against those who have fascist leanings while showing pictures of my Volks Dollfie Dream. You can read more details while viewing the first video in that series right here.
For my second video in that series, I decided on Candace Owens, who was bloviating about how Ukraine didn’t become an independent country until 1991 despite the fact that a quick online search would reveal the other times that Ukraine had gained (then lost) independence going as far back as 879.
Yes, that’s the same Candace Owens who threw a major hissy fit on Fox News a few months ago because Disneyland Paris had hired fashion designer Stella McCartney to design a new outfit for Minnie Mouse as part of the theme park’s 30th anniversary and Owens freaked out because Minnie Mouse was wearing a pantsuit.
So I responded to Candace Owens’ ridiculous new video by filming my Volks Dollfie Dream on the screen while I read my reply off-camera. (You may notice that the doll had on a St. Patrick’s Day theme outfit. That was because I originally shot my video on St. Patrick’s Day.) You can see my video on TikTok, Clapper, and YouTube.
Just a day later Candace Owens made a series of insane tweets on Twitter about Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that would make Vladimir Putin very proud of her. I made another short video about her for the second day in a row where I paired screenshots of her tweets with the song “Shut the Fuck Up.” I then uploaded that one on TikTok, Clapper, and YouTube.
For a while I wanted to make videos where I express my opinions on current events but there have always been snags. Most of the videos I’ve made on YouTube and TikTok where I actually appear in front of the camera tend to have very few viewers. I know my friend Phil Shapiro keeps on telling me that I need to appear in front of the camera in order to build my personal brand just like he does on his YouTube channel. But what can I do if I make such videos and very few people bother to watch them? I’m not building my brand very much if very few people see my videos.
The only thing I can figure is that maybe I have the onscreen charisma of a housefly that nobody wants to watch.
I decided to try something radically different. I decided to make a political commentary video where you hear my voice but you see my Volks Dollfie Dream on screen. This is the doll that I customized myself and I’ve made most of her clothes. I also decided to try lowering my voice an octave to see if people would take to it more than my regular speaking voice. (I was inspired to do it after reading the details about the recent trial of Elizabeth Holmes where she did this in order to get people to take her seriously as a businesswoman. When I was a kid one of the reasons why I was forced to undergo speech therapy as a child in elementary school was because the speech therapist claimed that my voice was too high.)
I decided to address the target of my video by saying “Hey, Fascist.” I was inspired to do this by watching the videos of Native American influencer Lance Tsosie (who’s also known as Modern Warrior) who became popular on TikTok through his video series where he takes on racists by starting each video with “Hey, Colonizer” but his popularity has taken a major hit in recent months due to some personal drama.
I made right wing Republican pro-Donald Trump Representative Madison Cawthorn my first target in my new “Hey, Fascist” series because he uttered something really stupid. I uploaded it on to TikTok, Clapper, and YouTube.
While my views on YouTube were still minuscule, I got a lot of views of both TikTok and Clapper, which was great! It looks like I got a better response if I use a doll instead of my real face.
UPDATE (May 31, 2022): Madison Cawthorn lost the Republican primary so he’ll soon be an ex-congressman by early next year.
For the past few years I’ve heard of Mermay, the month-long occasion that originally began as an art event where artists drew or painted mermaids during the month of May (get it?). Over time other people have shared pictures of mermaid costumes, mermaid dolls, mermaid t-shirts, mermaid knickknacks, etc. Even though I have done mermaid art in the past, I’ve never done one specifically for Mermay.
In the meantime I’ve been taking advantage of the Coronavirus-related downtime to teach myself how to use TikTok. I came up with the idea of featuring dolls in a series of TikTok videos for the month of Mermay. I have a 1/3 scale doll-sized mermaid tail that I purchased at a doll meetup that took part during either Katsucon or Otakon many years ago. (I remember that a ball jointed doll fan known only as Dizzy was selling them for $30 each on behalf of a friend of hers who was sewing them.) So one day I carted my Volks Dollfie Dream doll wearing the mermaid tail to the nearby park, which has a lake. I came up with the idea of a lake mermaid resting by the shore. (That idea was born out of necessity because any kind of lengthy nonessential travel was strongly discouraged by the state and local government authorities due to the Coronavirus pandemic.) I took a couple of still photos of my Volks Dollfie Dream all decked out as a mermaid. They are sort of NSFW because they involve a topless anatomically correct doll.
I then shot this TikTok video featuring my Volks Dollfie Dream doll wearing the mermaid tail. I ended up censoring her breasts with stickers because I learned that TikTok strongly discourages nudity and I wasn’t sure how they would react to a partially naked anatomically correct doll.
The following day I decided to shoot a merman (a male mermaid) at the same lake. I pulled out my Fantasy Doll Tobias (which is another Asian ball jointed doll) and put him in the same mermaid tale that the Volks Dollfie Dream had worn the day before. Once again I shot a couple of still photos of this doll dressed as a merman.
I shot another TikTok video featuring the merman for Mermay.
I also decided to shoot another Mermay-themed TikTok video. This one would be different from the other two in that it would feature one of my small Hairdorables doll. This doll is from the second series and it features Willow expressing herself as a mermaid lover by wearing a fishtail braid and wearing clothes and accessories with seashells on them. Here’s a still photo of Willow that I shot last year when I unboxed her for the first time.
For this TikTok I shot this in my home using the backdrop that comes with each Hairdorables doll. Once again I decided to edit the video on my phone before uploading it on to TikTok even though I had problems the last time I tried this. Since that previous time TikTok had upgraded its app and it can now accept videos that were edited outside of that app. So I made this TikTok video featuring Willow the mermaid lover.
Since I had shot those videos I saw that the one featuring the Volks Dollfie Dream was the most viewed (despite the censorship of her bare breasts) while the one with the merman came in second while Willow’s video came in last place. I have since combined those three videos into one Mermay 2020 video and I’ve uploaded on to YouTube, which you can watch below.
I’ve been making TikTok videos of myself playing the ocarina. I recently combined two of those videos into one and uploaded it on to YouTube so more people will have the chance to see me in my ocarina-playing glory. (LOL!)
After I filmed myself playing the ocarina, I decided to walk around the neighborhood with two dolls in tow. At that point the cherry blossom trees were at its peak bloom. The National Cherry Blossom Festival had been cancelled and the local officials were doing everything possible to discourage people from traveling to the Tidal Basin to see those trees. However there was a cherry blossom tree close to my house that was in full bloom so I was able to take pictures of that tree.
I took a selfie while I was standing next to the tree.
Then I decided to put my dolls in the tree. Here’s my Volks Dollfie Dream doll wearing her Easter Bunny Lover outfit that I made myself years ago. Easter hadn’t come yet so I thought it was an appropriate outfit for that day.
Here’s my Fantasy Doll Tobias wearing his Red Prince outfit that I also made myself years ago.
Here are my two 1/3 scale Asian ball-jointed dolls in the cherry blossom tree together.
Just a couple of blocks away from this cherry blossom tree is a playground. When the weather is nice outside, one can normally see children playing on the playground equipment. However, that playground has now been blocked off due to the Coronavirus.
Last week I finally mailed off my entry in The Brooklyn Art Library’s ongoing Sketchbook Project. The origins of that one can be traced to my involvement in last year’s Inktober 2019 (where the object is to create one new ink drawing then share it on social media evert day from October 1-31). One of my Facebook friends who is also my neighbor saw some of my work that I posted on that social media site and she messaged me with this tantalizing proposition. A few months ago she had decided to take part in The Sketchbook Project and she even sent away for the sketchbook, which also included a few ink pens (one was a black fine line pen and the others were brush-like ink pens in black, brown, green, and red). Then she was distracted by other things in her life and she hadn’t started her sketchbook by the time October came. She asked me if I would take over her sketchbook for free. I said yes and she gave me the sketchbook, the included ink pens, and her log-in information for the website.
Since I had already planned and started work on the bulk of the sketches for Inktober, I couldn’t begin work on this new sketchbook immediately. I decided to continue with my current sketchbook for the rest of Inktober then immediately switch to the new sketchbook after the month of October ended.
I finally took a look at The Sketchbook Project in early November and I saw that it had a February 1 deadline, which meant that I only had three months to fill it in then mail it to New York City. I hit upon an idea where I would do The Twelve Drawings of Christmas for the second year in a row while using this sketchbook for the drawings. (Which means that longtime readers of this blog will recognize at least half of the drawings in this post.) While I focused exclusively on winter/Christmas themes for the 2018 edition, for the 2019 edition I decided to include fewer Christmas-themed drawings since I was using a sketchbook that would ultimately be sent elsewhere and it would be looked at by other people (some of whom may not even celebrate Christmas at all) at other times of the year besides the winter holiday season.
I began doing the first of the drawings in this new sketchbook using the included pens only to discover that the paper was a bit on the thin side so the ink would bleed through to the other side. I initially thought about switching to just pencils so I could use both sides of each page but I only had three months to fill in this sketchbook before it was time for me to mail it back in and I had other things going on in my life so I really couldn’t devote 40-60 hours a week on this project.
So I came up with the idea of pasting my own photographs on the other side of each bled-through page once I finished with each ink drawing. Using photographs definitely cut the amount of work on that sketchbook since printing and gluing the photo on a page is way quicker than drawing. This sketchbook would highlight my talents as an artist and photographer just like this blog.
For the photographs I decided on a theme. This year is the 10th anniversary of this blog so I decided to use only those photos that I had previously highlighted in this blog. Despite putting that limitation on myself, I still had a challenge of sifting through hundreds of photographs from the last 10 years in order to decide which ones I would actually use. For every photo I decided to use, there were probably hundreds of others that I could have also used. I also made an effort to have a variety of photographs so I wouldn’t get pegged by others as being only a photojournalist or only a portrait photographer or only a nature photographer, etc.
Once I finished my sketchbook the first thing I did before I sent it back to New York City was to make a YouTube video. If you like to listen to music while viewing my work, here is the video.
If you prefer to viewing still photos, I’ll list them here in the order that they were placed in the sketchbook. Every drawing and photograph have previously been mentioned in this blog so I’ll provide a link to the post in case you want to read about the story behind each visual. (The link will open in a new window.)
OUTSIDE FRONT COVER
INSIDE FRONT COVER
PAGE 1: THE JOKER AND ARTHUR FLECK
PAGE 2: MADONNA GIRL DALE
PAGE 3: A COSTUMED PERFORMER AT THE 2010 PIGTOWN FESTIVAL IN BALTIMORE
PAGE 4: HOWARD THE DUCK FAN ART
PAGE 5: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
PAGE 6: CLIMATE STRIKE PROTESTER WITH TRUMP BABY BALLOON, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
PAGE 7: BRUNI FROM FROZEN 2
PAGE 8: BLUE HERON IN PALMETTO, FLORIDA
PAGE 9: VOLKS DOLLFIE DREAM DOLL PEEKING FROM BEHIND CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE
PAGE 10: UNDER THE ZENTANGLE SEA
PAGE 11: BABY YODA IN MEAN CUTIES
PAGE 12: VOLKS DOLLFIE DREAM DOLL IN CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE
PAGE 13: FALL FOLIAGE AT CLARK’S ELIOAK FARM IN ELLICOTT CITY, MARYLAND
PAGE 14: HATSUNE MIKU AND THE CLAUSES
PAGE 15: A PENGUIN NATIVITY SCENE WITH LINUX
PAGE 16: 2014 COWBOY AND INDIAN ALLIANCE PROTEST AGAINST THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
PAGE 17: COPS IN RIOT GEAR AT THE INNER HARBOR IN BALTIMORE DURING THE BALTIMORE UPRISING PROTESTING THE MURDER OF FREDDIE GRAY BY THE BALTIMORE CITY POLICE IN 2015
PAGE 18: UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FLAMING CHALICE
PAGE 19: ROSCOE THE ROOSTER MEMORIAL IN TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND
PAGE 20: STATUE OUTSIDE OF ANN’S DARI-CREME IN GLEN BURNIE, MARYLAND
PAGE 21: BABY RAFAEL
PAGE 22: KRAMPUS TAKING DONALD TRUMP AWAY
PAGE 23: JOLENE SUGARBAKER
PAGE 24: COUNTER-PROTESTERS AT THE 2018 UNITE THE RIGHT 2 RALLY IN WASHINGTON, DC
PAGE 25: THE MAY DAY 2015 PROTEST AGAINST THE KILLING OF FREDDIE GRAY BY THE BALTIMORE CITY POLICE AT THE INNER HARBOR IN BALTIMORE
PAGE 26: EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE RAVEN
PAGE 27: UNDER THE ORANGE SKY
PAGE 28: OCCUPY DC (PART OF THE LARGER OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT), MCPHERSON SQUARE, WASHINGTON, DC, NOVEMBER 5, 2011
PAGE 29: BUTTERFLY ON A FLOWER AT BROOKSIDE GARDENS IN WHEATON, MARYLAND
PAGE 30: DONALD TRUMP AND HARLEY QUINN
PAGE 31: COBB ISLAND, MARYLAND
PAGE 32: RAINBOW OVER NORTH BEACH, MARYLAND, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
INSIDE BACK COVER
OUTSIDE BACK COVER
I felt a really great achievement in finishing this. There was a part of me that felt sorry that I had to mail it to New York City but that’s the way it goes. In a way working on this project is like having a child. You nuture it and make your own imprint on it but ultimately you have to let it go out into the wider world on its own as a completely independent entity. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my sketchbook again in person (let alone actually hold it in my hands one more time) but it was time for me to let go of it. At least I shot enough pictures and video footage so I can at least look at it again if I ever begin to feel sad over no longer having that sketchbook in my possession.
Yesterday I received an email from The Sketchbook Project informing me that my sketchbook has been assigned a new call number:
383.10-4
So if anyone ever goes to the Brooklyn Art Library and wants to see my sketchbook in person, you now know how to look for it.
From time to time I’ll probably log into the official website to see if anyone has checked it out or if the Brooklyn Art Library has sent it out on a road trip of some sort. It would interesting to see in the future whatever happened to that sketchbook. But right now I’m going to move on from that project and focus on other things in my life that needs attending to.
Two of my ball-jointed dolls rest among the purple spring flowers. One is a Volks Dollfie Dream and the other is a Goodreau Dolls Scrappy Rabbit.
Lately I’ve been going through some of my old dolls and start paying attention to them once again after neglecting some of them for so long (due mainly to the stress stemming from health, divorce, and lack of employment issues). I picked up my Volks Dollfie Dream doll, which is one of the first Asian ball-jointed dolls I’ve ever purchased for myself. I customized her myself and I even sewed her little cherry blossom and obi set.
It’s spring now and the cherry blossom trees throughout the Washington, DC area are now at their peak bloom. Here’s a photo of one of them that I shot in my neighborhood.
And here are the photos of the doll in the tree.
Since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday this year I decided to have a little fun. I’ve been using my Volks Dollfie Dream as a model for some rough drawings that I’m currently working on for a potential future animation. (It’s still in the planning stages so I’m not going to write too much about that project at the moment.)
I’ve been shooting pictures of her in my bedroom. Since today is St. Patrick’s Day and since today is sunny outside and relatively balmy (it’s still a bit on the cold side but it’s way warmer than the recent blasts of cold air that we’ve been getting), I decided to take a few dolls to the local park so I could take a few outdoor pictures.
I dressed my Dollfie Dream in the St. Patrick’s Day outfit that I made a few years back called Irish Lass. (You can learn more about the making of this outfit in this blog post I wrote back in 2010.)
I also brought along two of my Goodreau Dolls—Wiggles the Pig and Scrappy Rabbit.
Here’s a closeup of the Dollfie Dream holding Wiggles.
Here’s a closeup of Scrappy near one of the Dollfie Dream’s legs.
Here’s a final shot of the three dolls as taken from a slightly different angle.
Today is the day after Halloween and the first day of the two-day Mexican holiday known as El Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). In addition, Inktober officially ended right on Halloween yesterday. I succeeded in drawing and uploading 31 ink drawings in 31 days from October 1-31. I finished Inktober at the same time as I ended up getting sick with this stomach flu where I constantly felt nauseous and I alternated between going through dry heaves and diarrhea. The fact that it also happened on the same day as Halloween totally sucks. I barely managed to get myself together enough to give out treats to the trick or treaters. Instead of going to a Halloween night party at a friend’s house, I had to make an emergency run to Giant after the official trick or treat time ended just so I could pick up some medication and toilet paper.
Today I feel better in that the dry heaves and diarrhea has subsided and I feel mostly tired. I took a nap today and I’ll probably go to bed early tonight so I can rest some more.
As I go over the drawings I did during the month, I realized that I could easily put them into certain categories (with many of those drawings falling under more than one category).
Animals: Penguin, panda bear, black cat, dinosaur, swan, pig, two former ride cars from the now-defunct Enchanted Forest amusement park shaped like a duckling and a swan, Willie the Whale, goat, and Zombie Dog.
Based on Dolls I Currently Own: Volks Dollfie Dream, Batgirl and Wonder Woman (with Donald Trump and by themselves).
Building: Crooked House.
Clark’s Elioak Farm: Two former ride cars from the now-defunct Enchanted Forest shaped like a duckling and a swan, the Crooked House, Willie the Whale, goat.
Death Penalty: Guillotine.
Friday the 13th: Black cat.
Halloween/Day of the Dead: The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, Goat Man, Zombie Dog, Day of the Dead skeleton, Frankenstein, Jack O’Lantern.
Hollywood Scandal: Harvey Weinstein.
My Own 100% Original Character: Zombie Dog.
Native American (For Indigenous Peoples Day a.k.a. Columbus Day): Wolf kachina.
Real People: Donald Trump with Jesus Christ, Donald Trump again (with Wonder Woman and Batgirl), Donald Trump yet again, Donald Trump one more time, Tom Petty, burlesque performer Reverend Valentine, Harvey Weinstein, my father-in-law, my mother (which also includes Elvis Presley), Madonna Girl Dale.
Religious-Related Drawings: Jesus Christ (with Donald Trump), Unitarian Universalist flaming chalice, wolf kachina.
People Who Celebrated a Birthday During Inktober: My mother.
People Who Died During Inktober: Tom Petty and my father-in-law.
Politics: Donald Trump with Jesus Christ, Donald Trump again (with Wonder Woman and Batgirl), Donald Trump yet again, Donald Trump one more time.
Relatives: My father-in-law and mother.
Superheroes: Batgirl and Wonder Woman together with Donald Trump and by themselves.
Supernatural Book/Movie Characters: The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein.
Virtual Models from Figurosity.com: Woman running with a gun, woman dressed in psychedelic tye-dye outfit holding a gun.
The biggest challenge for me is that working on a new drawing a day then uploading it online to this blog and various social media sites took a portion of my time that I could’ve spent doing other things (such as doing house cleaning, putting up Halloween decorations, sending out a few more resumes). That was the main reason why I had quit a previous effort to do one new drawing per day starting on January 1, 2016 (which was a New Year’s resolution). I think the reason why I was more successful at Inktober than my previous daily drawing effort last year was because I knew it was only for 31 days that I had to worry about doing a new drawing each day. After that I could draw as much or as little as I wanted.
Even though there was an official Inktober prompt list of one word for each different day, I was more interested in doing my own thing since this is the first year I participated in this. (Inktober has been going on since 2009.) I only used the official prompt list if I was stumped for inspiration. Now that I got my desire to draw whatever I wanted for Inktober out of my system, I’m thinking that if I was to do this again next year, I would discipline myself by sticking strictly with the prompt list. It would be a way to challenge myself, especially since I’m sure that there will be a word or two that will have me totally stumped at first.
The biggest benefit I got from Inktober is that I was able to learn which social media sites gave me the best exposure in terms of publicizing myself and my work. I uploaded my drawings to the current popular social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) as well as other social media sites I haven’t posted anything in a while. These sites used to be relatively popular until they were overshadowed by Facebook/Instagram/Twitter. I decided to upload to them because I wanted to see if I should still bother with them. I found that the absolute worst were Flickr and Google+ because I only got one “Like” on both platforms and that was it. Tumblr was hit or miss in that I got maybe one or two Notes (which is Tumblr’s version of “Like”) for some of my drawings but there were others that got zero Notes. (The one drawing that got the most attention was the one I did of Tom Petty and that one only got four Notes.) Minds, the open source alternative social media site, was just as hit or miss as Tumblr in that I got maybe one or two “Likes” on some drawings but others were totally ignored.
By far the best response I got was on this blog and Instagram. In fact I got new followers on both platforms because of Inktober. Twitter came in at a close second in that I also got new followers as well as retweets. Facebook was surprisingly more of a mixed-bag. While I got a better response than Flickr, Google+, Tumblr, and Minds combined, the response rate was lower than this blog, Instagram, and Twitter.
The one major social media site that I didn’t use was LinkedIn because that one is more of a professional social media site and some of my drawings were either too political (such as the ones featuring Donald Trump) or the subject matter was one where I just didn’t feel comfortable in posting there (such as the one about the Harvey Weinstein action figure). I’ve seen people get chewed out on LinkedIn for posting anything that was even remotely controversial (especially one that’s political) and I’d rather avoid it since it’s common knowledge that would-be employers tend to look you up on LinkedIn to see if you’re someone they would even want to hire. I don’t want to lose out on any potential opportunity because of some post I made there.
It was time consuming to upload the same drawing on so many different social media sites per day but at least I gained knowledge on which ones are worth investing my time in promoting myself in the future so it was worth it in the end.
I also learned that there is certain value in practicing drawing only for yourself because you’ll never know when one of those drawings you’ve done have struck inspiration to do a regular art project based on what you’ve drawn. I’m thinking about doing a watercolor version of that swan I drew during Inktober because I really liked the results.
Another positive result of Inktober is that I discovered Figurosity.com and that site was valuable in providing virtual models for me to practice my drawing with. I plan to use that site for my drawing more often.
I also looked at other people’s Inktober drawings on social media and I was amazed by the amount of creativity I saw there. There were a few people who did some really ambitious things for Inktober. I saw some people do two or more drawings per day, which I personally admired since I found it a challenge to do even one new drawing in a small sketchbook every single day. I saw one guy who was working on a graphic novel and he decided to use Inktober to draw and ink one new page per day. There was another person who decided to use Inktober do a large complex drawing where the person inked just one section of that drawing each day with the goal being that the large complex drawing would be completed on October 31.
The biggest challenge with Inktober is to maintain my enthusiasm for continuing with drawing one new drawing per day then uploading it online. The first few days I was very eager and enthusiastic. But then I came down with this nasty cold but I continued to work through that cold even though my body wanted to get more sleep so it can knock off those cold germs. After I got rid of that cold I began to gradually view the daily Inktober sketches more and more as some time-consuming daily chore instead of something that I was excited and enthusiastic about. Even though I tried to keep the designs relatively simple and I used a small sketchpad, I still found myself burning out towards the end. This was especially true when I wanted to put up Halloween decorations or go to some Halloween-related local event only to remind myself that I needed to make time for my daily Inktober drawings.
By the last week I went to Clark’s Elioak Farm because I wanted to draw enough pencil sketches so I could just ink over them on the allotted day for the next few days. Then I spent one additional evening filling up my sketchbook with enough Halloween-themed pencil sketches to last me until the very end of the month.
But then I began to just burn out on even doing the ink over the pencil outlines, especially during that last weekend before Halloween. I started to partially-ink over more than one pencil sketch a day or two before the allotted date while leaving each one intentionally unfinished until the allotted date, when I would finish it so I could technically say that I did work on one new drawing per day each day during Inktober. One evening, about two nights before the end of Inktober, I used my free time to do the bulk of the inking on my scheduled drawings of the last two days while leaving just a small area of each drawing unfinished so I could spend less than 15 minutes completing each drawing on the allotted day.
I did it this way because I grew tired of spending anywhere from a half-an-hour to a full hour working on each new drawing then spending additional time photographing my drawing then uploading it on my various social media accounts. You may think that I was cheating but I don’t care. If I hadn’t done something like this, I would’ve grown so tired of spending a chunk of time on my Inktober sketch that I would’ve quit just days before October 31.
Right now I’m typing this in the early days of NaNoWriMo, which is something similar to Inktober where you spend every day in November writing your novel. I’ve read about people who are doing NaNoWriMo but I’m definitely not taking part in this. Spending time each day doing Inktober was enough for me without having to go from doing daily Inktober drawings in October to writing daily NaNoWriMo prose in November.
Now that Inktober is over, I’m going to take some time off from drawing on a daily basis because I have other things in my life that I need to focus on (such as the upcoming winter holidays in December). Ultimately I’m going to try doing a new drawing in my sketchbook at least once a month. I would do this by just working on that drawing in blocks of 15 minutes on a given day (and that would be only if I had extra time available for me to do such a drawing). I would keep on working on the same drawing, 15 minutes at a time and one day at a time, until I’m finished. Basically I want to practice my drawing but on a more leisurely schedule where I can balance that with other activities that require my attention at the same time.
Of course only time will tell whether I actually achieve this. (LOL!) But I’m willing to at least give it a try.
Here are a few things I would advise a person who’s thinking about doing either Inktober next year or simply wants to devote a different month to doing one drawing per day (such as December or March or June):
1. Don’t obsess too much about drawing supplies. I know the official Inktober site has a list of recommended supplies but some of these supplies (such as Micron pens) can be pretty expensive to those on a tight budget. If you can’t afford the recommended Inktober supplies, don’t fret. Just go with cheaper supplies instead. I did my Inktober drawings using a cheap pack of multicolored Paper Mate InkJoy pens that I purchased at Target for only $10. And I wasn’t the only one who didn’t use the best supplies either. I saw quite a few Inktober drawings that were done only with the cheap disposable blue ink Bic ballpoint pens and I found them to be just as interesting and well-done as the ones that were used with the more expensive pens. As for drawing paper, I would recommend shopping around because sometimes you can find the best bargains. Here’s one example: I’ve seen 9” x 12” (23 cm x 30 cm) sketchbook drawing pads on sale at my local Five Below store for only $5.
2. Use a small sketchbook that’s no bigger than 9” x 12” (23 cm x 30 cm). Not only will you fill up the page faster than with a larger sketchbook but a smaller sketchbook is more portable. I did my Inktober drawings using a 4” x 6” (10 cm x 15 cm) sketchbook. When I decided to travel to Clark’s Elioak Farm to do some more Inktober drawings, all I had to do was to put my sketchbook (along with my pens and pencils) in my purse and I was good to go. Heck, I saw some Inktober sketches online that were drawn on Post-It Notes.
3. If you can, try setting aside a certain time each day to work on your Inktober sketch. It could be when you wake up the first thing in the morning or after dinner or whenever. If you can’t commit to the same time every day, then just take advantage of whatever free time suddenly materializes to do your drawings. I’ve seen people admit that they did their Inktober sketches while riding public transportation on the way to or from their day jobs. I’ve even seen people admit that they did their drawings on the sly while being forced to sit in on a boring lecture at school or they took advantage of some downtime at work. Just do whatever works for you.
4. The one thing about Inktober I learned is that you can do some advance drawings in pencil as long as you wait until the designated day to do the final inking. In fact, I learned that this year’s official Inktober prompt list was put online two weeks before the month began so one could have the luxury to decide what he/she wanted to draw on the designated day and even do a rough sketch in pencil. I took advantage of this policy towards the end of the month when I began to burn out on doing a new drawing every day and I was in danger of quitting before the month was over. What I did was to go to Clark’s Elioak Farm, where I finished one new drawing in ink but I did other unfinished drawings in pencil that I could finish in ink over the next few days. By the time I finished that series, it was close to Halloween so I spent one evening just doing a pencil drawing of Madonna Girl Dale (who usually wears a costume in public all year round) followed by pencil drawings of traditional Halloween and Day of the Dead figures until the 31st drawing of the month. So I spent the last week of Inktober just coloring in one previously made pencil drawing in ink per day until I reached the last drawing on Halloween.
5. If you hit a rough patch where you really can’t focus on doing any complicated detailed drawings or you don’t have a lot of time to do anything too complex, just do a simple drawing that you can easily finish in 30 minutes or less. I experienced this challenge earlier this month when I came down with this horrible cold that literally left me feeling very weak and tired all the time. For those days I decided to do simple drawings of a penguin and a panda bear because those animals were relatively easy for me to draw quickly before I felt tired enough to take another nap. As an added bonus, those two drawings were basically black and white drawings so I didn’t have to do much thinking while I drew them. I also didn’t bother with drawing backgrounds because that would’ve been more time-consuming and I didn’t feel wide awake enough to draw something that would’ve been more complex.
6. Don’t be a perfectionist about your drawing. The whole purpose of Inktober is to practice your drawing, not focusing on being the next Rembrandt or Keith Haring. The idea is to do a quick drawing that can be done in a small part of your day.
7. Don’t be afraid of posting your drawings online, even if you personally feel less than enthusiastic about your latest drawing. I found that people tended to be really nice towards those who posted their Inktober drawings and many of them gave positive feedback. I personally didn’t encounter any cyberbullying in the month that I posted my Inktober drawings online. Just post your drawing online even if you personally don’t like it because there will be people who will like it better than you do.
Well, that’s it for Inktober 2017. I’ll end this post with a couple of embedded things in case you’ve missed some or all of the Inktober drawings I’ve been uploading over the past month. One is a YouTube video that includes some catchy background music.
If you prefer to view the pictures at your own pace without background music, you can view my Flickr album instead.
Today I’m starting to feel human again after suffering from this incredibly bad cold for most of this week. I felt a bit tired this morning but after lunch I felt okay enough to try this idea I came up with for today’s Inktober sketch. I would go to the College Park Day festival, which was held outside on the grounds of the College Park Aviation Museum. There would be various blues bands performing. I took my sketchbook thinking I would sketch some of the musicians or even their musical instruments.
I ended up scuttling those plans when I arrived to find that the temperature had gone up to a whopping 83 degrees with high humidity. There weren’t a lot of shaded areas at the festival so I ended up just briefly browsing the various vendor booths, taking a few interesting photos, then immediately leaving.
Instead I went to Target where I picked up a few food items I wasn’t able to find when I went to Aldi yesterday then went over to the Starbucks area of the store, grabbed a table, consumed a soda, and worked on my Inktober drawing in air conditioning while listening to a YouTube playlist of Scott Joplin music on my laptop headphones. (I’m still at the Target Starbucks listening to that playlist as I’m typing this. LOL!)
Since my original idea was a bust, I decided to do something I hadn’t done before: Actually use the official Inktober 2017 prompt list for inspiration.
Today’s prompt was “shy.” I came upon an idea of doing an ink drawing version of a photograph I shot 10 years ago. It was a day that I actually carted my two-foot Volks Dollfie Dream doll to the Tidal Basin when the cherry blossoms were at their peak blooms and I shot that doll among the tree branches. One of the shots I did, Volks Dollfie Dream Peeking From Cherry Blossom Tree, remains among my favorites from that shoot. I exhibited it at Artomatic and a few other local exhibitions. The doll in that photo looks shy as she’s peeking from behind the trunk of one of the cherry blossom trees. I attempted to replicate that shy look in my drawing.
As for that outfit she’s wearing in both the original photograph and drawing, I sewed it myself, which I detailed in this post.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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