#inktober 2017 day 9

[sknow-and-ink]

2017

Day 9 - Screech

[askbensolo]

Ask Ben Solo

What’s up, HoloNet! The name’s Ben. Currently 23 years old. I’m the only son of an Alderaanian princess and a Corellian scoundrel, and I have an adopted sister named Rey.

I started this blog when I was fifteen and afraid of becoming a Jedi. To make things worse, I started hearing voices in my head…voices that turned out to be someone who wanted to control me. Luckily, my friends and family got involved, and Snoke seems to have backed off.

I did make friends with some of Uncle Luke’s Jedi students, but I ended up attending the University of Naboo (Go Shaaks!) and got my degree in Journalism, since I’ve always been interested in writing, history, and politics. (Scroll back enough, and you’ll see my cringe pro-Imperial phase from back in the day. Yikes.)

I stayed on Naboo after graduation, and now I write for The Chommell Sector Daily. In my free time I lift weights, write poetry, and fight with people online.

Ask me a question!

—Ben

------

Run by @luke-shywalker Est. 2016

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Friends' Blogs:

Fannie’s Blog: @fanniepentarra

Amalia’s Blog: @mal-is-tall

(Their blogs are dead because they're lame, but maybe if we bother them enough they'll come back)

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Inktober 2016

Posts by Character

Family

Mom: My mother, also known as Senator Leia Organa, also known as Space Mom, also known as Don't Mess With Her. Tough as nails. Also has nice nails.

Dad: My father, also known as Han Solo (or scruffy-looking nerfherder). Isn’t as cool as you think he is, but makes up for it with heart.

Rey: My adopted sister, also known as "Kid". Ten years younger than me. Originally from Jakku. Eats faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Uncle Luke: My uncle, also known as Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Is a cinnamon roll.

Ren the Bantha of Indeterminate Gender or Origin: My stuffed bantha friend. Not much can be known about this humble beast, but they are fiercely loyal.

Threepio: My mom's protocol droid. Has foregone enough memory wipes to pass as sentient. Best ignored.

Artoo: Luke’s beeping trash can. Extremely rude.

Chewie: My dad’s best pal. Gives great hugs. Don’t play holochess with him.

Lumpy: Chewie’s son. About my age in Wookiee years.

Darth Vader: My grandfather. It's complicated.

Friends

Fannie: One of Luke's Jedi students, who has since graduated. Twi'lek. My bestie when we were teens. Mom friend.

Amalia: One of Luke's Jedi students, who has since dropped out. Massive Togruta girl. Frenemy.

Treeso: My roommate from college. Gungan. Solid dude.

Sweeper: My archnemesis: the cleaning droid at work that keeps eating my paper notes.

Ugly Raisin Men Who Have Invaded My Mind With the Force

Snoke: Enough said.

Story Events

The Long Night: (2/25/16 - 4/2/16) In which I woke up from a nightmare and couldn’t sleep.

Space Braces: (5/16/16 - 12/7/2017) In which I got braces.

Get Out of My Head: (8/4/16 - 8/28/16) In which Mom left for a diplomatic mission and left me at home with my dad, and I was consumed by fear and darkness.

The Visit: (10/6/16 - 11/5/16) In which Uncle Luke came to visit us.

Sixteen!: (12/3/16 - 12/11/16) In which I turned sixteen.

Life Day 21 ABY: (12/25/16 - 12/26/16) Life Day!

The Impending Future: (9/10/17 - 9/29/17) In which I had an existential crisis about Mom wanting me to become a Jedi, and I discovered Snoke.

Seventeen!: (12/3/17 - 12/11/17) In which I turned seventeen.

Life Day 22 ABY: (12/25/17 - 12/26/17) Life Day!

A Week With Luke: (12/21/17 - 1/7/18) In which my mom made me spend a week at Luke’s Jedi school.

An Awkward Situation: (4/26/18 - 7/15/18) In which I thought my best friend Fannie was going to ask me out. Like, on a date.

About Amalia: (7/16/18 - 8/7/18) In which I accidentally started a chain of rumors about Amalia, Luke’s mysterious and hardest-to-get-along-with student.

The New Roommate: (4/24/24 - current) In which my roommate Treeso moves out and I have to find someone to take over his lease.

Recurring Tags Below

[space--cadet-glow]

Inktober: "The 31 Days of Vaati" 2023 (MASTERPOST)

Here are the links to all 31 parts of my 2023 "31 Days of Vaati" Inktober series!

(Masterpost of years 2017 to 2022 HERE).

"Another Brick in the Wall, Part Zero" In which, Vaati holds some forget-me-nots.

2. "When the Tigers Broke Free, Part One" In which, Vaati is stalked by the Running Gag Cat.

3. "In the Flesh, Part One" In which, Vaati welcomes you to his strange show-- his life's story.

4. "The Thin Ice" In which, Vaati's past slowly comes back to haunt him.

5. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part One" In which, Minish Vaati begins adding bricks to his Wall. 6. "When the Tigers Broke Free, Part Two" In which, Minish Vaati hands over everything to Hylian Vaati.

7. "Good-bye, Blue Sky" In which, Vaati awaits the on-coming storm. Sort of.

8. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" In which, Minish Vaati tries to escape Ezlo's wrath.

9. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two" In which, Minish Vaati decides he's done with Ezlo's influence. 10. "Mother" In which, Vaati marks out pictures of his past.

11. "What Shall We Do Now?" In which, Vaati ponders on the various ways he can build up his Wall.

12. "Empty Spaces" In which, Nostalgia and Migraine help Vaati fill those holes in his Wall.

13. "Young Lust" In which, Vaati and Octavo go on a midnight rendezvous.

14. "One of My Turns" In which, Vaati drives Octavo away and is all alone.

15. "Don't Leave Me Now" In which, Vaati laments chasing everyone away. But Migraine's still here…?

16. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part Three" In which, Migraine tries to cheer Vaati up, but it's much too late.

17. "Good-bye, Cruel World" In which, Vaati completes his Wall and is in perfect isolation.

18. "Hey You" In which, Vaati is utterly alone and is contemplating ways to go beyond his Wall.

19. "Is There Anybody Out There?" In which, Vaati slowly begins to wonder if there's truly no way out from behind the Wall.

20. "Nobody Home" In which, Vaati is unavailable. Please send your message to Old Minish, care of the Funny Farm, Tyloria…

21. "Vera" In which, Vaati continues to blot out his past, even behind his protective Wall.

22. "Bring the Boys Back Home" In which, Vaati continues to beg for help. The Wall is strong.

23. "Comfortably Numb" In which, Vaati has finally given up on having a good past and is wallowing in misery.

24. "The Show Must Go On" In which, Vaati contemplates becoming a monster.

25. "In the Flesh, Part Two" In which, sorcerer Vaati returns with a vengeance.

26. "Run Like Hell" In which, Vaati begins his reign of terror. God help us all.

27. "Waiting for the Worms" In which, Vaati's next target is Vaati. Wait, what?

28. "Stop" In which, Vaati comes to his senses and puts an end to his reign of terror.

29. "The Trial" In which, Vaati goes on trial for his misdeeds, and the verdict is to tear down his Wall.

30. "Outside the Wall" In which, Vaati accepts the loss of his Wall and steps outside, finally free.

31. "A Few Spare Bricks" In which, Vaati and Octavo dress as Belafu and Wazukyan for Halloween!

[the-sky-queen]

Inktober 2022

Day 8: Match

The perfect match: Aurora and Shade! They are in love and they are so cute. Had a bit of trouble with Aurora's eyes though.

Day 9: Sword (2017 list)

You know that thing where people make Arthur from Sonic and the Black Knight the Sonic alternate of that world instead of a human? That's what I did here. I like it. :) (Excalibur was an absolute pain to draw though!)

[doorbloggr]

Inktober Part 2

Motivation and Stress

Sunday 20/11/22

(All art in this post are my own creations)

Linktober 2022 Day 25: Zelda

As an artist, a constant struggle is finding the time and effort to sit down and just do the thing. Be it motivation or inspiration, it is difficult for creatives to start (or finish) pieces of art. This applies to writers, visual artists, musicians, and any other type of creative.

This year in particular, I had multiple months where I produced maybe one or two pieces of art if I was lucky. This is because art is a hobby for me, and there is no revenue in it. Maybe it is because of my motivation that there isn't? But from experience is past years, I know that nothing gets me in the mood for creativity like a deadline.

But that mood isn't always a good one...

Linktober

I first participated in Linktober in 2018, where I just did the regular challenge. And as someone who doodled sporadically in my spare time, it was a refreshing change to have structure to my art. The first issue I usually have when I want to sit down and commit to illustrating is... what do I draw?

Linktober, as discussed in my previous post, is a variation on the Inktober format. For every day in October, artists will post a drawing. Each year the folks at Linktober will cook up one or more Calenders of prompts to follow, so that I have a direction to follow for each drawing. Each prompt is still up to interpretation for what specifically you draw, but it's something.

Linktober prompt listsfor 2018, 2020, and 2022

So there's two aspects of a month long challenge that help my artistic drive. 1) The direction, and 2) the quota. Now for a while, in particular last October, I have thought of Point 2 being more "Deadline", but I think it is better to think of it as a Quota, and we'll get into that soon.

Direction

So a lot of the struggle to start doing art is to do with inspiration. In 2020 I had a fairly consistent inspiration for art since that was the year my D&D group played the most regularly. But this year, adult scheduling has meant that we haven't played as much, and as a result, less D&D art happened.

And it wasn't just that I could call on D&D as a loose concept to do the art, since these "session arts" were pieces based on highlights from our sessions. Before I did Linktober, I did a month long Pokémon drawing challenge, where each day gave me a Pokemon Type, or category of Pokémon (e.g. starter, eevee, legendary). Now sometimes when I was in the mood, I would draw Pokémon anyway, but with this challenge, I was given instructions for 31 drawings.

POKEDEXY, a Pokémon drawing challenge I did in 2017

All this to say, although good art can happen spontaneously, I personally found that I have the best artistic drive if I already know what I'm drawing.

The Quota

Again to use the D&D session arts as an example, part of the reason I was so consistent with my posting of those arts was because I wanted to get last week's art out before we had our next session.

Session Arts for Chapters 9-18 for our D&D "Everift" campaign.

Part of the artist's motivation problem is... why finish? Sure if you have the direction for a piece, you know what you're making. But when will it be complete? Unless you have a client, most artists are not working to a strict deadline, so it is up to the artist when (or if) a piece is completed, and when/if it's shared to the world.

The pro of a month-long challenge like Inktober is that you are given the when. For Inktober, it's October. You'll be aiming to finish and post your artwork during October, and if you're on schedule, that'll mean you release your first drawing Octover 1st, your 10th drawing by October 10th etc.

The Struggle

I've highlighted the benefits of a monthly challenge to an artist's drive, by they can also be detrimental if approached in a suboptimal way. I wanna discuss how my relationship with Linktober has changed.

When I started Linktober in 2018, Breath of the Wild had come out the year before, and a combination of DLC and challenge runs meant I was still playing the game regularly. The Legend of Zelda has long been one of my favourite fandoms, so of course the next year, I did it again.

In 2020, Age of Calamity came out, and I was playing competitive Smash Bros all the time, with Link as my main, so Zelda was still regularly a part of my downtime entertainment. So 2020, I doubled down on Linktober, and actually made 31 days of art for two separate challenges (occasionally crossing over). I was able to keep up that year because that time of year, I wasn't working a lot, and always prepared ahead of time.

My Linktober 2020 (left) and Linktober Shadow 2020 (right)

When it came to October 2021, I had stopped playing Smash Bros, and had been waiting for new Zelda content for a while. I told myself I would restrict myself to a simpler art and colouring style, so that I would be able to complete the challenge with less prep time. As a result, I was almost always preparing art on the day it was due. And the most unfortunate part was that I didnt enjoy Zelda as much as i used to. It was the most stressed I'd ever been about art. Linktober had become a job, and nothing kills creativity more than making it work.

I usually post updates during Linktober on my Instagram story. For Day 27 in 2021, I did not finish in time, and posted it a couple days later. It made me very upset.

So the point I made earlier about a schedule being good had it in fact killed the fun of art in 2021. I was creatively drained and didn't enjoy it.

Linktober 2022

This year, I made Linktober more enjoyable by removing any restrictions I had on myself. No uniting artstyle, no expectation that I finish the 31st piece by October 31st, and since the last week of September fell during School Break, I had a solid week of preparation time. And once I hit my stride, I actually got way ahead of schedule. Finishing 30 pieces before October 1st. That final piece stumped me for the same reason I had been stumped for art the rest of the year. The final prompt for Linktober is always Free For All; artist's choice.

Usually this is my Smash Bros Day, but I had left the Smash competitive scene on a bitter note. And the bigger problem I had the previous year was still present. The lack of new Zelda content meant that I didn't enjoy Zelda as much as I used to. My new main "fandom" was D&D. So although I am happy with my art for October this year, it may be my last Linktober.

Free For All this year I ended up making it about Mario Kart, since I play MK8 regularly with family.

Even if I fixed the Deadline issue, the original draw of Linktober, that it's all Zelda, became a restriction. Why all Zelda if I don't enjoy Zelda as much as I used to?

What to learn from this?

Direction and Quota can be great for art motivation. Having that push to tell you what art to do and when to finish it is great. But don't let that become the only time you do art. If you don't have the time to do art every day, weekly challenges are just as valid. And if the subject matter of a prompt list doesn't appeal to you anymore, feel free to change it up every once in a while. For October 2023, I think I might do a different iteration of Inktober that better reflects my current interests.

Have fun and do art.

[medusa-my-beloved]

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Yaroslava Apollonova / Inktober 2017 Day 9 - medusa

[acedrawws]

Inktober day 9: Hearts

Ayyy it’s another oc

[curious-eva]

[toruhoe]

Inktober day #9

[birdy-the-artist]

Inktober Day 9: Memes And Coffee

[larissarivero]

Inktober #9 - Screech

I hate being interrupted, but some interruptions are forgivable <3

[for-the-love-of-lizards]

Inktober day 8-9

Prompt: cyndaquil

[lesiasmadness]

Inktober, day 9: screech

[naissenceart]

Inktober #9: Screech 🏍️ Holy shit, drawing a Ducati is fucking hard.

[ladyingreen7]

Inktober 2017. Day 9/ Screech 

(ˆ(oo)ˆ)Ⓢⓒⓡⓔⓔⓒⓗヽ( ˋ(00)´ )ノ

[artsyklutz]

Inktober 2017 Day 9: Screech

Because Seagulls are assholes. LMAO