COMICS
Here are the comics from October!
ART
October was all about the Peachtober drawing challenge. 31 days of ink drawings.
I found it way more challenging than similar challenges in previous years. I think a lot of it was focusing on cartooning, which I’m still learning and not very confident with… although, I did a lot of cartooning for last year’s Mosstober challenge, so I don’t know for sure.
I am glad I did it though. And I managed to finish it! I learned a ton in the process. About cartooning and style. There were a lot of design choices to make each day in how I wanted to approach the drawing. I learned, sort of brute force, how I like to ink my cartoons, shade them, and what kinds of shapes I’m drawn too and what artists and genres inspired me the most and felt most intuitive to learn from and influence my own work…
For example, I went into Peachtober really into kawaii-style cartoons (if you remember the Ghost in the Garden comic…like that!). I still really enjoy the style, but apparently mostly when other people do it. The kawaii drawings I did early on in Peachtober were some of my least favorites to make. But on the other hand, I was reminded what an incredible resource the work of Mike Mignola is for me. It’s not cute, his subjects are usually way darker than anything I do, but his use of simple shapes and linework and large black shadows was so fun to experiment with in my own work and I was usually super pleased with the result. I wasn’t trying to copy him obviously, just learn and apply what I’ve learned to my own drawings and combine with my other drawing habits…if that makes sense…
I also realized that while I know that I would like to make more sci-fi themed artwork, I have like zero visual library for it. As in, I haven’t really practiced it much. So when I wanted to do a Peachtober drawing that used sci-fi elements, I had to study and practice them before I could do the work for real. (This happened with a lot of other elements too. Apparently I have a very small visual library.) I think it helped keep the challenge fun, to use it as a chance to learn how to draw a lot of different things that I haven’t really worked on before. But that probably made it more exhausting, because it did take so much practice and study every day…
And even on days where the drawing was ultimately very simple, it was an interesting experiment in cartooning styles too. Like, it turns out I’m not super into like classic Disney animation cartoons, or Hanna Barbera, right? But I LOVE drawing cartoons like Adventure Time and Bob’s Burgers. But I also still enjoy the anime-style of Carles Dalmau so I got to experiment with that a bit as well.
All in all, no wonder I’m exhausted! It was a lot to work on and work through, even if very little of that was in my Peachtober sketchbook. But I’m super glad I did it!
I definitely plan on talking about it in even more detail in an upcoming Sketchbook Tour post. So, be sure to check that out later this month! For now here are some of my favorites (and you can see them all on my Instagram!):
For November, I’m hoping to get back into something resembling my old routine. Balancing sketching with larger illustration projects. I would’ve liked to do an illustration this last month, but I was just relieved I got my comics done! So I’ll definitely be focusing on my comics again, and a new illustration. And I think I’ll do something like breakfast sketches again… I think I’m going to move a bit away from fan art studies, and work on intentionally building that “visual library” and practice drawing all kinds of stuff that I want to be able to include in illustrations in the future.
BOOKS
Reading? What’s that??
I started October reading a bit more of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy— because spooky scary, right? But I didn’t get very far, and eventually was just using it to study for Peachtober. Oops. Towards the end of Peachtober I picked up copies of The Movie Art of Syd Mead, and the Beginner’s Guide to Sketching: Robots, Vehicles & Sci-fi Concepts. The former is just gorgeous and fascinating, but the latter is especially helpful. I really enjoyed reviewing the approaches of the artists included. Since I kept gravitating to sci-fi subjects for Peachtober prompts, it became a super interesting resource that I’ll continue to study and practice from, I’m sure.
If I read anything else, especially not art related, I don’t remember it. Meh.
(I really want to read more… it’s just finding the focus, time, and well, making it a priority… I always feel like there is something else I should be doing… If you have any advice for making time to read, let me know in the comments!)
THE REST
As is tradition, October is spooky scary movie month! I think we watched a horror movie every single day this time! I prefer a bit of ridiculous in my horror movies, so my favorites were The Blob, Lake Placid, and Scream 4. I don’t care for Stephen King’s work, despite The Shining being one of my all time favorites. Prey, the new Predator movie, is excellent (although I kinda viewed it as more action than horror but it was still fantastic!). For the scariest: Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum.
If you have any Halloween movie recommendations, definitely comment and let me know! Especially like, fun not-horror movies? I was trying to find one to watch during the day for Halloween, and could only think of Casper, Hocus Pocus and the 90s Addams Family movies… All great, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve seen them a ton!
I also started playing RimWorld this month. It was recommended in an online course about character design and world building. I’m not really sure why, since as a player you don’t seem to have an exceptional affect on the design or world (that I’ve found yet…) But that said, it’s like Banished (one of my favorite games) with sci-fi flavor text. So naturally, I’m obsessed…but it’s like totally research… right?
Anyway, thanks for reading!
Summer Child Designs 