124/365 The End? #31daysofmacabstract no. 31 #aquatober complete! The whole inktober challenge was a ton of fun. I'm going to ramble. Read on, if interested... Before it started, I hatched an idea of subject matter. The next process was to generate a list of specific ideas within that focus. After organizing them into a fashion that allowed the difficulty and complexity to build throughout the cycle, I made thumbnail sketches for the composition of each piece. Doing so would allow the piece to be mentally percolated until execution of the concept, and also serve as starter point for each piece (not to mention help collect all of the ideas I'd had instead of forgetting how I planned the 30th piece over 4 weeks later!). The roguelike pieces, I just collected about 15 ideas, and very few of them I actually stuck to. If anyone is interested, maybe I'll share some about the process when I resume that quest in the near future. Overall, my preparedness was overtaken by the fluidity of life. I started out on a strong curve, being a couple of days ahead of the date - much of which I attribute to working both challenges in 3 x 3" format. This forced the concepts to express themselves within the size constraint, but also allowed tactical decisions to finish the task in a timely fashion. Time well spent with my son, is something I'll never apologize for. I did beat myself up a little mentally when I finally fell off of the upswing, but that was a one-off. This little skull, was finished at 10:23 last night. I hardly managed to finish inside of October, that being with some substantial thought put towards the whole affair in late September. There were 2 or 3 herculean days where I had to plow through 5 or 6 pieces between the two media, but it only made me better, more driven to finish the month on time. It was a hell of a learning process, and it was also a bit of a victory lap for me. On October, 1 of 2016 - I dared to dream and began lifting the pen, the brush and the pencil, vanquishing entire pads of paper, building a portfolio, sheet, by sheet, by sheet and by sheer will and determination to capture a tattoo apprenticeship. 365 days later, a new path begins...