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Side note*  I drafted this November 2nd and then took too long to get my sketches scanned!  Still posting this because it felt good to talk about.  Don’t you just love social media?  October was SO 11 days ago…

I survived Inktober and managed to put out a sketch a day for 31 days.  In combination with managing to cycle to work every day that I was in the office this month.  What am I going to do with myself for November?  Wow.

I’ll stop with the self-congratulatory platitudes, you don’t need to witness me patting myself on the back.

But I think it’s really important to convey this: Inktober removed a LOT of my limits.  One of the things I remember most vividly from years ago was how I would go into art supply stores and drop $100 on supplies – I was so drawn to them, but then I would come home and just stare at them, at a complete loss.

Wanting to create is the first important step.

The second step, which I think was the hardest for me, is just starting.  Just start.  And that is where the paralysis will usually kick in.

“But if I’m going to paint or draw something, it needs to be amazing!  I don’t know what to draw!  I want to draw that thing there, but I have NO idea where to start”  Just start.  There are endless quotes about it online, but honestly, there’s no secret.  Just start.  Be patient and forgiving with yourself, learn to laugh at yourself and remember – you can always make another drawing tomorrow.  That was the major Inktober insight for me – there was always a different drawing to be done the next day.  You always hope each one will be more epic than the last, and sometimes they are.  Other times, definitely not.

I have made a little list of things I want to keep working on, and I’ll be sure to keep sharing things as they are produced.  I am looking forward to slowing down with the need to post something every day, just a little.  I’ll try to maintain the habit of working on something on a piece every day, but completing something every day had an added pressure to it.  ALTHOUGH my piece on Day 30 was one that I would have kept painting on (all the greenery) if  I’d had more time.  I didn’t – Frank and I had an agreement for date night on Friday which meant a solid stop time to work for both of us – and I was even more surprised and pleased with the final look of the piece.

These are random musings, I know.  I’m just excited – I feel like I brought a solid little body of work to life last month.  I have a good amount of stuff to scan now, and the excuses I had for setting up my Etsy shop sooner rather than later are falling off the table.  Online shops aside – I’m learning what I keep returning to and obviously want to improve upon.  These were items on a list a long time ago, but I’m starting to sense an order of operations for things to work on this next month.

Let’s see what I can do with November, shall we?