Transcripts
1. Introduction: Do you have an art
project that's sitting unfinished because you can't find the time to complete it? Or perhaps you've
always wanted to create something like a series
of illustrations, a comic book or a picture book, but have yet to take that leap. Well, I'm here to help. Hi, my name is Lawrence, and welcome to my class. One month of focus, create, and complete your art
project using October. Join me as I share with
you the lessons I've learned over the years
participating in October. And see how I turned a
simple art challenge into a motivating force and designated block
of time to create and complete some art projects
I've always wanted to do. We'll begin with a
brief overview of what October is and
then I'll take you through my various attempts
year by year as I share tips on planning
and prepping and how I stayed motivated
throughout the month. By the end of this class, I'd like for you to have
a clear understanding of what your goal
or project will be, while also having
a solid plan in place that will help you
reach that finish line. And just to be clear,
this is not a class about gaining followers or
subscribers on social media. And it's not about learning
how to draw either. It's about growing as
an artist by completing a creative project for yourself and having that proud
sense of accomplishment, regardless of whether
you choose to post it to social media or not. If October isn't
your thing, well, you can easily apply what you
learn here to the plethora of monthly art challenges that take place
throughout the year. You can even use the foundation to create your own block of focus time on your own terms whenever it works best for you. Our class project
is comprised of four parts, defining your goals, setting your constraints,
creating your plan of action, and finally, crossing
that finish line with your completed project. I provided worksheets that
you can download to jot down notes and answer questions
as you watch each lesson. So with that, let's get into it.
2. History, Rules & Guidelines of Inktober: So what is October? Well, like many other
monthly art challenges, the foundation is the
same one drawing a day for the entire month and
for the month of October, creatives all across the world take the inktober Challenge, which was created by
Jake Parker in 2009. Jake created the
challenge as a way to improve his inking skills
and drawing habits. The idea of doing
something for a month or 30 days can easily
evolve into a habit. And drawing daily can help increase the speed at which
you develop as an artist. Furthermore, the structure
of Tober increases your creativity by introducing constraints and some
accountability. Here's a breakdown of
the rules or guidelines. Create a drawing using only ink. Share that drawing on
social media and hash tag the drawing with hashtag October and hashtag October
plus the year. And then just repeat
that each day. Ideally, by producing a
drawing and only ink, it forces you to really
think before you draw. Visualizing an image in your mind before
producing it on paper, as opposed to haphazardly
throwing down random lines and pencil
that can easily be erased. The limit of medium
helps clear the path to drawing ink on
paper, nothing more. And posting to social
media helps with accountability by putting
yourself out there to say, hey, I'm doing something. And watch me reach my goal. And given the size of
the inktober community, there's this built
in support and motivation you get when posting
and commenting on line. Seeing what others are
doing as well can be encouraging, motivating
and inspiring. So, but drawing a day using only ink and posted
to social media. This is what I would call the original or raw form of October. And in all of my years of participation, I
have not done this. I have always
needed some sort of underdrawing or sketch before
inking, and that's okay. That's just how I draw and it's part of my
creative process. In 2016, Jake introduced the prompt list to further assist with removing
the friction of getting started
a single word to guide your imagination when
staring at a blank page. Over the years,
Tober has evolved. As more people participated. Various forms of
permanent mediums, as well as digital
inking, are used. And even additional
prompt lists, often with cohesive themes to help guide you even further. Some artists get satisfaction
out of just random doodles, while others like
to set a timer as an additional constraint to
help increase their speed. And then there are
people such as myself who started
using the challenge as an excuse or
motivator to produce fully completed projects
such as picture books, comics, print collections,
sticker packs and so on. And by setting your
sits on a target. Along with the proper
prepping and planning, you too can create a finished product by the end of the month. So now that you have an
understanding of what October is, let's begin my personal
journey that started in 2016 in the next lesson.
3. Setting Project Goals - Inktober 2016 & 2017: As I mentioned earlier, 2016 was the first year I
participated in October. I had no plan in place
and no real goal. I just decided I wanted to do it and I was
off to the races. I was drawing whenever I had
time or could squeeze it in. And it became a pain
in the butt at times, especially when it's late at night and the clock is ticking. But in the end, I
completed all 31 days, but I wasn't really
happy with the results. I felt like my art was
all over the place. An experimental mishmash of
style and subject matter, and I used a lot of
other mediums as a crutch and there was no
consistency across the board. Pens, markers, colored pencil. And really, all of this is okay because art can be whatever
you want it to be. But I realized that's
not what I wanted. And honestly, at times I felt
like I was phoning it in. I wasn't motivated to draw. And over time had that just
to get it done, attitude. And that's not how I wanted
to feel about drawing, and if I was feeling that way, then what was I even doing. Ultimately, I didn't really
gain anything from it, and I felt that I
could do better. The first lesson I learned
from October was goals. I needed a goal,
a target to hit. So in 2017, I set
some goals for myself based on what I didn't like
about my attempt in 2016. Number one, use
only ink, no color. Number two, use a
consistent style. And number three, create
something cohesive. Those goals led me
to the idea that I wanted to tell a story and
publish a picture book. That would be my
overarching main goal. My loose, not very well
thought out plan was to use the official prompts in a narrative
for each drawing. Every drawing would feature a creature as well
as a child in peril. Collectively, they
would work together as a cohesive narrative
for the book. Needless to say, the
journey was brutal and I definitely bit off
way more than I could chew. Here's where I fell
short in my planning. I did not consider if the style I chose was actually attainable. And therefore, I underestimated the time it would
take to produce each piece and wanting to stay true to that one
drawing a day aspect. Each day, I would brainstorm
the idea, thumbnail, it, lay it out on illustration
board, ink it, scan it, color grade it, and then post it
to social media. And this was all while
working full time and having various other
obligations going on. It was just too much.
But in the end, holy crap, I did it. And posting my daily
illustrations to Instagram as well as people
seeing pieces in person, is really what kept me
motivated throughout the month. Receiving praise from friends,
family, fellow artists, and strangers really helped
push me through to the end, but there was also a decent
amount of fallout afterward. It took me a year to
actually finish the book. I wound up designing it twice, and it was difficult to find a quality printer at
a reasonable price. All in all, I was just
totally burnt out. I didn't post to Instagram for over a year and I didn't
participate in October in 2018. I didn't want to make the same
sort of commitment again, and I felt it was better to
just not participate than try to reach the same standard I had set with the last one. It may have been dumb for
me to think that way, but I needed the
breather. So I took it. In the end, I learned that
my goals needed to be realistic and my plan of action a little
more thought out. And I also needed some
more constraints. But most importantly, I needed the experience
to be positive. Sure, I finally made a book
and I achieved my goal, But it really wasn't
worth the sacrifices. I really wanted to enjoy the journey and the process
of creating my art, not just the destination
and the finished product. My takeaway from that
experience was the following. Be realistic. Don't bite
off more than you can chew. Think about what you have
going on that month and set realistic expectations for
yourself. Use constraints. Keep it simple with an
appropriate art style. Narrow the medium,
and do some tests so you know what it
is you're getting yourself into before you start. Then make adjustments. If you need to
have a solid plan, decide what you're going to do and how you're
going to do it, write notes, do
thumbnails, and so on. And most importantly,
create a schedule. Lastly, be positive. It doesn't have to
be overwhelmingly serious or monumental.
Don't dread it. Look forward to
it, kick its butt. Be in control and
have fun with it. Now let's continue with the
journey in the next lesson.
4. Utilizing Constraints - Inktober 2019 & 2020: In 2019, I decided it was time to jump back
into October again, and this time I would use what I learned from the
past two attempts. Be realistic, use constraints, have a solid plan
and be positive. I decided I wanted to do
letter forms as my focus. I've always loved
hand lettering. Even when I was a kid in school, I loved experimenting with
my handwriting style. And I loved taking
notes in class, along with endless
amounts of doodles too. For a while at work,
I was doing doodles, posted notes that
consisted mainly of work related themes and stuff people set
around the office. Another love of bye is music listening whenever I
can while driving, drawing, showering,
cooking, and so on. I decided I would combine the
two loves for my project, my goal hand letter and illustrate song lyrics,
my constraints. Use the daily prompts and find song lyrics that contain
the word for the given day. Use pen and ink on
Bristol board and experiment with using
custom half tones and other ink effects. At the time, I figured
out a way to transfer half tones to my artwork
using laser ton er, printouts and chart
pack blender markers. My plan prep as much as
possible before 1 October, Being that the prompts are
released a month earlier, I could find all of my songs, write out the portion
of lyrics I would be lettering and start thumbnailing layouts for each drawing. Once October came around, I would do all of my pencil under drawings in the morning, and then I would start
inking during lunch at work, then finish up after
dinner if I needed to, followed by scanning and
posting my artwork to Instagram as part of
the B positive lesson. Whenever possible, I
would be listening to the song that I was
illustrating for that day. In the end, the experience wound up being a
lot of fun and I was pretty happy with the
results in March of 2020. As we all know, Covid hit and the great shut in began when
it got closer to October. I was unsure of what
I wanted to do. At the time, I was
toying with the idea of starting a Youtube channel
that focused on my art. Given that I now had
a lot of free time on my hands with not
much to do aside from binge watching various
streaming content for October 2020. My goal was to fill my
October drawings while focusing on learning a new
skill, inking with a brush. My constraints were to keep it simple and letter only
the daily word prompt. I would use India
ink and a brush on Bristol board and I would keep
the video aspect as simple as possible by filming
in real time with very little post editing
based on those decisions, my plan for the most
part was fairly simple. The most time consuming part of my prep was figuring out the
video and lighting aspect. Having worked as a director of creative and motion design
for well over a decade, I knew that I would over
engineer anything related to video cameras and
lighting for this project. The weeks leading
up to October were mostly spent figuring out the
camera and lighting setup, creating a designated
drawing space, and recording
various test videos. Once my month of focus started, the routine was fairly simple. Every evening, I would
power up hit Record, sketch out the prompt,
and then ink it. When I was finished, I did a quick trim and color
grade of my footage, added some pre selected music, and uploaded it to Youtube, as well as posted time lapse versions of the
videos to Instagram. In the end, it was an
overall good experience given the state of
everything at the time. But in the following
winter months, after some thought and reflection
on the past two years, I realized I needed
to get more out of what I was doing. I
needed a project. I needed a more
definitive artistic and creative project
or product to work on. I feel that's the best way
to learn a new medium or technique and the
end satisfaction is so much greater for me. I also learned that I
want to tell stories. I needed to work
on something where I'm quite literally
telling a story. That's really the
ultimate goal of what I wanted to be
doing with my art. So given those two realizations, I had an idea for a project and I would need
to use everything I've learned over the years
in order to complete it and not exhaust
myself in the process. So let's learn more about that project in the next lesson.
5. Planning & Preparation - Inktober 2021: Given my experience of
the two previous years, I now have added
two more bullets to my list of lessons learned. Create a product, tell
a story, be realistic. Use constraints, have a
solid plan and be positive. My goal for October
2021 was to write, illustrate, color, and
letter a short comic book. My constraints would be to use the prompts
to inform the story. Limit the story to 31 panels
spread across 12 pages. Use 11 by 17 illustration board. Use tambo brush pens and micron technical pens along with
India ink and white ink, utilizing brushes
and other tools. Then I would tone, color
and letter digitally to save time and keep the
focus to mainly inking. Now I know that
still sounds like a lot of work and don't get
me wrong, it definitely is. But I felt like
with a solid plan and the right amount of prep, I could accomplish that goal. Maybe even with
some time to spare. My plan was to start pre production at the
beginning of September. I would begin writing the story when the prompt
list was released. On the first, I would develop my page layouts based on the 31 panel count
and story flow. I would then need to develop
all of my character designs, environment vehicles, and so on. Once that was complete, I could create all of
my under drawings or digital pencils using
Photoshop and then print those as blue lines
onto illustration board. And most importantly,
I needed to create a solid schedule taking into consideration
any prior obligations so I could get ahead
whenever I could. I found various ways
to save on time, either during pre production
or for when I was inching. For instance, I
used Meta Human to help create a solid
reference for my characters, which helped speed up my
drawing time immensely. I was then able to finish all of the digital lettering
before October. All I had to do was
drop it on top of my finished scans and make
a few minor adjustments. The most time consuming part
after inking was coloring. But given my many years of
comic coloring experience, that one pretty smoothly knowing timing obstacles
beforehand allowed me to get ahead
whenever I needed to. Instead of sticking to
the one panel a day, I sometimes would complete 23 or even four panels a night. And coloring wouldn't
happen until the pages were fully inched. Remember, at this
point in my journey, I was using Tobra as an excuse or motivating force to
complete a project. Not necessarily develop
a daily drawing habit, but regardless, it
still compounds over time and it helps
you to grow as an artist. And completing projects was
my artistic or creative goal, not just drawing daily. Getting ahead meant I could
schedule my Instagram posts, freeing me up to do
more actual artwork. In the end, I finished my
comic with four days to spare, and I was super happy
with the results. A lifelong goal, since I was
a kid, finally achieved. So from here, the final lesson
will be the class project, where you will define your goals as well as your plan of action.
6. Reaching The Finish Line - Class Project: Let's quickly recap the lessons I learned from my
October journey. I needed to create a product, tell a story, be realistic,
Use constraints. Have a solid plan
and be positive. Now this list in its entirety
may not work for you, so feel free to modify
it as you see fit. You may not want or need to create a product
or tell a story, and that's completely fine. You just need to define what it is you want to accomplish. Let's begin with step
one. Define your goals. What is something that you've
always wanted to create, or a technique you've
wanted to learn? Thinking about spending
a month drawing, what would make
you the most happy or give you the most enjoyment, or the greatest sense
of accomplishment without running yourself
ragged in the process. Remember, you need
to be realistic. As I mentioned before, having some cohesive theme for an overall collection
can aid in its creation. Here are some ideas to help. If you're stuck, you could create a series of character
designs or portraits. They could be monsters, aliens, fairies,
cats wearing hats. Or you could draw a
series of one item, such as spaceships
or monster trucks. Tree houses, ice cream Sundays, teddy bears or fashion outfits. You could also create a
single poster or print that's made up of 31 individual
characters or items. Or one large illustration that's divided up into 31
parts or sections. Or you could make your own
board game or card game, or similar to what I
have done in the past, an illustrated picture book
or a short one shot comic. Once you have defined your goal, you can now decide on how
to narrow your focus. In step two, set
your constraints. Will you be using
the daily prompts? What medium will you work in? Traditional ink brushes.
Technical pens, Dip pen, Repito graph. Maybe you're going digital
and we'll use Photoshop, Procreate or some other program. What style will you work in? Are you just outlining or
are you shading heavy, solid shadows or
transparent washes, Perhaps cross hatching
or stippling. What size will you be working at and on what type of surface? Teeny tiny size like a postage stamp or giant
size like a movie poster? Do you want to use
smooth printer paper, Bristol board or toned paper? The fewer questions you leave
unanswered, the better. Now that you've chosen your goal and set some constraints, it's time for step three. Create your plan of action. I would first start
by doing a test to see if what you decided
upon is still realistic. And if so, what do
you need to do to be as efficient as possible
when creating your artwork? What areas of what you
want to accomplish are the hardest and how can
you make them easier? This will help inform what prepping you need
to get done before the challenge begins and how
much time that will take. Maybe you only need a few
days or a couple of weeks, and maybe that time is spread
out across a month or two. The prep work can take as long as you need it to in order for your one month of focus to be
as successful as possible. Do you need to
purchase supplies? Should you be doing
preliminary drawings? Do you have a
dedicated work space or a drawing area set up? And is it clean and ready to go? At what times during the
day will you be working? What prior obligations do
you have for the month? Will you be away or tied
up and unable to draw? If you're posting
to social media, Should you
predetermine a list of hash tags that you can
easily copy and paste? Do you know how to schedule
an Instagram post? And if not, should you be
learning ahead of time? The more you plan,
the less you'll have to think when it
comes time to start. And that part is key. Greasing the runway,
so to speak, removing every hurdle and
pulling out all of the stops. You should be able to
sit down and know when, what, and how you're
going to draw. And you should be excited and looking forward
to it each time. Well, I hope that you found my personal experience
with Tober informative. Although this may be
the end of this class, the next step in your own
journey is just beginning. I encourage you to
download and use the worksheets I
provided and please post your completed projects
because I would very much love to see what you have created.
Thanks for watching.
Lawrence Basso, Illustrator & Visual Creative
