Inktober 2024

This is the third year I’ve participated in Inktober. The challenge is to create a new pen and ink drawing every day for the month of October. They provide prompts, but you don’t have to follow them.

Below are a few of my favorite drawings I’ve done so far.

The prompt was “Remote.” This is my interpretation, as music takes me anywhere (Books, too.)

The prompt was “Hike”. I don’t hike, but I’d like to see this if I did.

The prompt was “Roam”.

The prompt was “Sun”. For me … “Got that sunshine in my pocket, got that good soul in my feet.” from Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake.

This was an instance where I had no inspiration from the prompt, “Guidebook”. So I just drew what I wanted, my beautiful cat, Mewsette (no longer with us.).

Well, I made it to the halfway mark. Whew! Only 16 more to go. Am I more disciplined? Hard to say. But I am persevering.

What Patience Yields …

… a desire to return to the final version of the blue heron I’d wanted to do.

Version #3 is a combo of pen and ink, watercolor, and digital. Just playing around is not always something we (creatives) allow ourselves often enough, but it’s the only way we find new things and grow.

Patience and Trust

It seems that there are periods in our lives when we have plans, goals, dreams, and we are just not going to get to them when we want. Plans? What are those?

To create art, to plan a future, to write, to do any of the things that a freelancer wants and needs to do takes blocks of time, and more importantly, focus. And that’s what I have been sorely missing.

Sorting out my life in the interest of giving up 40% of my second floor has been a two-part journey. The first part is choosing what belongings need to stay and which to go. Thanks to Buy Nothing, mentioned in an earlier post, I was able to find new homes for 45 items. But the second part is the need to go through everything I own – every closet, dresser, storage area – to see what no longer aligns with who I am right now, and THAT has been a life review of large proportions.

It has entailed remembering so much – joy, sorrow, laughter – through photos, art, and other items infused with memories. I keep trying to focus on where I’m going, but between Buy Nothing and a life review, on top of the demands of everyday life, I have none. I’ve lost so much time. And energy. The blue heron is a tiny example – started out with a color sketch, then another version in watercolor, and my plan was/is to do a digital rendering. That was a week ago.

I remind myself to have patience, and to trust, as I do believe, that everything is unfolding in exactly the right way and at exactly the right time, always for me. It’s all almost done. Patience and trust … working on it, working on it.

Happy Halloween!

It is said that on All Hallows Eve (Halloween) the veil is the thinnest between the realms of the living and the dead, and we are most able to be in touch with our ancestors/loved ones on the other side. Whether this is true or not, whether you believe it or not, it is a magical time when anything seems possible.

Have a great day!

p.s. This is my final drawing for Inktober. Done!