Inktober and Failure

Well, as usual these days, I couldn’t finish Inktober. I had an emergency that derailed me and then it was hard to get back on the tracks. I haven’t finished much the last few years. If you’ll recall I began a sketch a day in January. I don’t remember how far I got, I think three months, but looking back it was a bit ambitious. Inktober seemed more doable. Only 31 days. But alas, it was not. I did complete 100 faces in a week a while ago, so there’s a win. After getting two thirds of the way through Inktober and then “failing”, I wondered why I did it in the first place. Why do I set myself up to fail? And do it so publicly at that?

As I was thinking about my failure with Inktober and all the past fails that I have with my art I realized something. It’s a bit silly to call them failures. The real failure would be to never try or start anything. Maybe right now I have to be prepared for a month of sketches to be unexpectedly interrupted. Hey, that’s real life and the reality is that Inktober is a challenge to create art for 31 days. Not a personal call from God to save the universe. Perspective. Ahhh, I feel better now!

In light of that perspective, I want to share a few of the my favorite sketches from Inktober. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll get all 31 done? Or not. But that saving the universe thing? I’d better get on that!!