drawing every single day of october to fight my perfectionism

i have no idea why but since the beginning of time, october was unanimously chosen to become the Art Challenge™️ month. inktober, mertober, fandom specific-tober - you name it. regardless of the prefix, the premise of all october art challenges is for artists to draw every single day of the month with a set prompt provided for each day. and this year i have decided to participate in #badtober2024!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

ever since i got into drawing, art challenges have always intimidated me. it wasn’t just the pressure of creating something every single day, but the pressure of how my art stands among the art of others. no matter how much i practice i feel like my art could never be as good :( i would become hypercritical of myself and stress over every nitty gritty detail until it ruined the whole creative experience. at its worse, i stopped drawing for a year.

thankfully through the support of my friends (and an upgrade from a wacom pad to a screen tablet) i started to pick up drawing again! i went from drawing doodles in discord late last year to making my very first print this year :D! i still struggle with the thoughts of not being good enough from time to time which does affect how often i draw. i was in the middle of a drawing hiatus (again) when my boyfriend sent me the prompts for badtober2024.

i thought it was called that because the prompts were ridiculous. turns out the spirit of badtober is to not take yourself too seriously. the ridiculous prompts push artists to think outside the box, and it doesnt care if you half-assed a drawing. what’s important is that you drew something and will continue to draw.

suddenly all feelings of intimidation VANISHED. this challenge just wants to encourage me to keep on drawing, so there’s no need to be afraid of being judged. today marks the first week of me doing this challenge and i have to say i find myself enjoying the art process MUCH MORE. i’m not scared to experiment and fail because no one’s expecting it to turn out perfect. the freedom to experiment made my art more authentic and fluid instead of stiff or forced.

the person giving me the biggest encouragement through this challenge is my boyfriend (who’s also participating) <3! although he doesn’t dabble with digital art as much as i do, him volunteering to join me on this journey has really made everything WAY more fun and stress free. i love his funny and creative mind and bouncing ideas off him almost always leads to me drawing something way better than i imagined. i wouldnt be enjoying myself as much or feel as proud of myself if it weren’t for him being here cheering me on <333

the prompts are only gonna get more difficult and while i’m not sure how to do some of them i’m excited to brainstorm and see where the art takes me! i’ll document my progress weekly because this is a new experience for me and i wanna keep a log of my thoughts.

if youre interested in our badtober2024 journey, follow my insta @ohnoits_mia! ^U^