As an experienced artist, I'm filled with arist's block experiences. "How could I overcome the artist's block and draw better than what I could do?" this is a question in my mind when I got a fresh artist's block. Years and years, I finally find a little light of "Exit".
I'm writing about the growth of i-BOOM for KofiChallenge. Mentioned with a "one topic a month and one prompt each day" practice for both drawing and Serlumo reading practice. One day, Kuma Sanki came to me and said "Oh no you and your drawing is now sucks. I have to bring my illustrator back." Then this training... practice starts.
What can the result be of practing through a month?
The rule is:
A topic will be set and the creator should follow it as the instructions through the month. There will be a prompt for each day.
Then. The game starts.
The Start
It was July when I first had this practice started. The topic was "Nothing more than 30 minutes". In the thought of "Oh there are a long long 30 minutes" I was smashed into smashes since I could make something super, duper, monster... rough sketch.
I thought drawing on paper will make my process faster at the very begining so they are worked on paper. So then I found I am doing too slow on paper so I tried to work with computer graphic, Clip Studio Paint. And the result is...
The first CG piece made in mid-July by Nalcyon
SAME.
No no. It shouldn't be something like this, right? I slow myself down from the tip of fire and started to find the Serlumo smashes out which are hiding and affecting me when I was drawing. Day by day I practice drawing and reading, the last day of July came.
The piece worked on 31July by Nalcyon.
Started trying on styling storks and making those flat colours a "fully touched" looks. This is the start of my journey.
The Struggle
August came and the topic was "Draw 2 hours or more". I drew some and tried. Kuma Sanki found me afraid of working on a full piece and I found that it was due to the experience made in July.
It was hard. Just like being surrounded by salmons with pans in fins when playing Salmon Run in Splatoon.
The best piece (Splatoon2 fanart) made in the first week of August by Nalcyon.
"Be brave!" Said Kuma Sanki to me.
Okay, brave. I got one full month to try and to practice. Why don't me try it brave?
Then a meowie series started.
The first piece of the meowie series by Nalcyon.
Just like breaking through a blockage, I started drawing views I can see in my beloved Hong Kong. I found the joy of drawing a full piece within or more than 2 hours. Backgrounds, lights and shadows. I'm so happy with that.
When the last day of August came.
The piece made in 31AUG by Nalcyon.
Tips! - Prompts
Creating is always a super nice way to Serlumo reading even you don't need to know how.
700 Serlumo smashes were successfully dealt during the practice even I didn't put any extra effort on it. For this, the prompts help a lot. The prompts I used are formed like this:
"( #a group of numbers )( prompt vocab )"
Why "# a group of numbers" plus a "prompt vocab"? There're so many things a group of numbers can tell if you play around with numbers and your imagination.
Somebody will tell that it's too hard only work with a group of number. That's why a prompt vocab follows.
The most important thing is, the number can react with the subconscious directly to make you imagine and create easier, and to reach the goal of dealing with the smashes of Serlumo.
The Speed
September, back to school. Topic of the month is "Limit: make everything done within 60 minutes and lineart only. (Manga and comic OK)".
Doing quite weak in linearts, this is a good practice to me. With the experience of the previous months, I started my challenge with chibi and no background. Okay, I missed the umbrella of my inkling this time. And, couldn't wait for playing Splatoon3.
The piece made in 2 SEP by Nalcyon.
It must be the power of Splatoon3 I prepared some lineart for Halloween YCH commissions during this month.
A piece made in the last week of SEP by Nalcyon.
Around 15 minutes for sketching and the remains for inking. It is so encouaging to see the change from the start to the end of the month!
The Growth
"Nothing more than 10 minutes" is the topic of October practice. I used A6 paper and pin-pen for this. No pencils and erasers to make things faster.
But, the most important thing is never limit yourself from what you yet able to do.
The first OCT piece by Nalcyon.
Set your goal. It might be far but never too far to reach.
You may feel free to join me to deal with Serlumo smashes via buying i-BOOM a coffee (then you will get your trailermade, personal prompts from us).
Create your creation with the prompt, better once a day and fill a month. Let's see if you're getting closer to your goal. Good luck.
