day 24 of my dbh drawtober 2024: "skinless android"
idk man just wanted to draw skinless connor and hank's reaction.
i was using the dbh trailer for ref for skinless connor and he's so different from the other androids. but some of the choices they made seemed strange so i kinda did my own thing but most of it is true to the trailer. (for some reason they made a separate plate for his philtrum and the bottom plate of his face had this weird shape around his nose so i discarded all that lmao. like it didn't make any sense. i also added something around his nose cause it was more aesthetic.)
has this been done before???? the parks and rec "someone will die. of fun" meme but with north and josh??? idk, if it has but here's my rendition of it hahahah.
i hope josh's skin tone looks alright!!! using a watercolor brush for darker skin tones is tough because they end up looking ashy and pale so i had to use a lot of layering and colors. meanwhile, for north i used like 4 colors hahah.
carl and hank meet for the first time at one of those fancy parties that's celebrating the android liberation. they both only showed up because their sons were receiving some sort of recognition for their contribution to the revolution. if you saw tears in their eye at seeing their sons on stage, no you didn't.
i'm sorry i had to slip a rk1k reference in there teehee
markus and connor are dressed up as ekko and jinx from arcane for halloween!!!
bonus sketch of them of getting their costumes ready~~~
day 31 of my dbh drawtober 2024: "halloween costume"
any arcane fans in the chat????? do i ship ekko and jinx? no. do i ship this ekko and jinx? yes! i was going to add a little bonus comic with nines as vi, gavin as caitlin, and hank as silco but i ran out of time u_u
happy halloween everyone~~!
aaaaand it's finally over! i finished drawtober. i will probably post my thoughts separately on a different post but really proud that i finished my first inktober/drawtober challenge without missing a single day (though i was late for a couple hahah). i wish i had more time to really finish pieces, like this one. the messy painting is cause i was running out of time lol. but happy to have at least tried a challenge like this once just for the heck of it even if i never do a daily drawing challenge again.
a collage of my fav bits of all my drawtober 2024 pieces
i love collages bc it's like me collecting my artwork and putting it on a shelf (the collector in me is pleased). it's also fun to kind of see how my art progressed through the month. i thought i didn't have an art style, but looking at it all together i think i can see it now kekekek. i think more artists should collage their works to have a more direct comparison. it's so fun to see!!!
thoughts on inktober/drawtober as someone who just finished it without missing a single day
it's fucking exhausting.
okay but for real here are my complete thoughts:
overview of my experience:
firstly, the way i approached this drawtober challenge was a bit chaotic bc i was trying to do a dbh drawtober here while also maintaining an inktober challenge on my other art blog. keep in mind, this was my first time trying a month-long daily art challenge type thing. so very ambitious (and a little stupid) to try to do two at the same time. for awhile, i was able to maintain it. i hadn't missed a day for dbh drawtober while for my inktober i had only missed 3 days by day 20. but i was starting to really feel the exhaustion at that point and dropped the inktober prompt after day 20 completely. i just focused on dbh for the last 11 days.
i did not prep anything in advance. though the first couple days i kinda started brainstorming ideas for the rest of the month. some days i would work on future prompts if i had extra time. some prompts fit for unfinished wips from september. but largely i was producing new art the day the prompt was due.
i haven't drawn this much in literal years. so my art was rapidly changing as i was figuring out my style and my brain was just raring to come up with ideas. which presented a problem later in the month when i had all these complex ideas i wanted to execute. instead of keeping the drawings simple and achievable to finish in a couple hours, i wanted to create pieces that would take days for a prompt due the next day. it was impossible. my desire to execute complex pieces conflicted with the strict daily turnaround.
by the end of the month i was sleep-deprived trying to finish works. a couple times i had to stop working on the piece because i realized i wouldn't finish in time. and then i would have to start a new one with a simpler idea and post a messy sketch with some color thrown on. towards the end i posted some of them late.
overall, it was a tiring experience.
what i liked about it:
i really liked coming up with ideas based off the prompts. it was fun having a guide for my art. it helped me think creatively and think of aus and concepts i normally would not have. i felt encouraged to draw characters i normally don't and just really stimulated my creative juices.
what i hated about it:
it's exhausting!!!! especially if you are doing fully illustrated pieces and starting a new one every single day!!!! i felt like i couldn't take my time on anything. as soon as it was done i had to post it. a bunch of the stuff i look back and i'm like oh i wish i had time to fix those proportions. or i wish i could have rendered it out more. or that is not to the quality of standard i have for a piece but i had to post it cause deadline!!!! i was sleep deprived for most of the month trying to finish things!!!!
granted, if i just stuck with simple line drawings i probably could have been fine. but what's the point of purposely making quick and mediocre art????? i'm supposed to be inspired to create nice pieces so why would i purposely lower my standard just to finish a piece on time??????
the daily turnaround was a terrible grind and left me posting art i wasn't really super satisfied with or scrapping wips i wouldn't finish in time in favor of simpler pieces.
would i do it again?
hell no.
don't get me wrong. love the prompts! love that it encourages me to think differently and try different things. but i don't need to be pumping out art every day to get that benefit. i think a weekly challenge may be more up my alley. or something where i'm not drawing new pieces and immediately posting them every single fucking day. idk. anything but the daily grind for 31 consecutive days jfc.
final thoughts:
i understand there's a reason the original inktober was specifically for traditional artists working in ink. its easier to not get lost in the details and coloring when just using ink compared to digital art where things don't feel finished unless you render it out or clean it up.
i understand the original inktober was really meant for people feeling blocked and unmotivated. if you already are drawing everyday, this challenge can feel like a chore bc you won't be able to work on the wips you actually want to bc you're too busy working on your drawtober pieces. i have like 15 wips that i wasn't able to touch because of drawtober.
i think this challenge has a place for certain artists, but it's just not for me. at least not at this stage in my life.
anyway, if you read all that thanks and may blessings fall upon ye. lmk if you have any thoughts about my thoughts.
although amanda is usually associated with roses, i chose to draw her with black dahlias (which are actually a very dark crimson color). black dahlias symbolize betrayal so i thought it was fitting for her character. either she betrays connor in the end after he completes his mission or connor betrays amanda by going deviant.
was my first time drawing amanda and most of the time was figuring out how the heck her hair does the thing haha. i figured it out eventually. i set a personal time limit of 2-3 hrs for my drawtober pieces bc otherwise i would be working on each piece for hours when i really have other wips and stuff i wanna work on too.
bc the official inktober 2024 list isn't very inspiring to me and this is my first year doing an inktober type thing, i thought i would make my own prompt list for myself for a dbh drawtober. ik this is super last min but thought i would post in case anyone wants some inspo since i didn't see anything for dbh specifically this year~
i tried to make the prompts interesting trying to encourage ppl to branch out while also keeping it open so its not too restrictive. feel free to modify as you see fit. no rules just draw! if you happen to use my prompt list would love to see your work so use #dbh drawtober 2024
