#Blobtober 2022 Kickoff

Hello again, my Reader. Thanks so much for being here.

October in North America means cooler temperatures, shorter days, and crispy leaves. For many artists, it also means a variety of month-long art challenges. Birdtober, Botober, Drawlloween, and Tinkler Lab October are just a handful of fun-looking art challenges that draw (haha!) attention from artists. There are many, many more!¹

I started out participating in the fun in 2020 under the title, “Blobtober” after the practice of making blobs of paint and using those blobs to suggest an image to draw.² Other drawing challenges usually come with prompts, but for this, there is no list of prompts. The blob IS the prompt! First, I paint blobs of paint. After the blobs have dried, I study the blobs and ask myself, “What does this blob look like?” or “What does this blob make me think of?” Then I draw it. Simple! Mostly.

A small sketchbook of line and wash drawings of various objects in sepia. Note the date. I called these “inkblot doodles” before I learned about Inktober.

I always start out the challenge with the blissful excitement of a fresh month, a brand new blank sketchbook and lots of amorphous possibilities. I have learned, however, that, although this is a simple concept, there are some real challenges.

The first thing that starts to challenge me is the expectation that I have to draw different things for every blob, every day. This is fine in the first handful of days but after a week? Whew! In my first year, mental exhaustion set in quickly but after publicly committing to the challenge I had to figure out some ways to cope. The following are some of the ways I kept going. Note: They are not in perfectly chronological order.

Skip some blobs!

A small sketchbook page with various animals, human faces, and ordinary objects illustrated in line and indigo colored wash.

On day 4 it felt okay to give myself permission to leave those three blobs “blank.” I do see some images there, a mastodon, a snake, a bullfrog with its belly puffed out, but after 17 blobs, I decided I exerted my brain enough that day.

Dab paint on with a sponge and draw in the spaces between blobs.

A small sketchbook page covered with indigo blotches of paint. Line illustrations of animals drawn in the spaces between darker blotches.

Using the negative spaces between the darker masses of color, the effect, to me, was of animals floating in outer space. My favorites are the ones where animals appear to be partially hidden behind a rock or sleeping on a cloud.

Drip ink onto the page, blow on drips with a straw, and ignore the blobs altogether!

A small sketchbook page and half a page covered in black and red drips and splatters. Line drawings of animals are scattered throughout.

At first, I thought it was going to be easy to find images in the blobs. Nope. To finish this two-page spread I used a helpful book titled, How to Draw Almost Everything: An Illustrated Sourcebook by Chika Miata. The illustrations throughout this book are simple and have a child-like feel. Giving myself permission to draw “like a kid” was a good skill to learn.

Draw from one category only each day

A small sketchbook of faces in a 5X3 grid drawn in line and earth-toned wash.

In addition to giving myself permission to draw simplified and child-like, which made drawing faces fun and accessible, sticking to one category helped too. For faces, Drawing and Painting Expressive Little Faces: Step-by-Step Techniques for Creating People and Portraits with Personality, by Amarylis Henderson is one of my favorite mentor texts.

Draw outside the blob!

A small sketchbook page of butterfly drawings done in line and blue toned wash.

I think this strategy is one of my favorites because I am generally a rule follower but I understand that sometimes, breaking rules is okay. After having set the rules for myself, it gives me a sense of agency to break them. Thinking outside a blob feels like a fun way to break the rules and a skill I believe worth cultivating.

Reduce the number of blobs per page.

A small sketchbook page of line drawings of fruit done in line and orange wash.

Less blobs means less work!

Because I wanted to share my drawings on social media, the other thing that became a challenge for me, was the idea that each new day’s drawings has to be at least “as good as” if not “better” than the previous day’s drawing. Regardless of where this idea comes from, it’s something that can freeze me sometimes. And in 2020 I created several pages that I ultimately didn’t share because of this.

In 2021, I started my Blobtober challenge but quickly abandoned it. In hindsight, this was because my beloved dog, Tsotsi, had died that summer and I was still grieving. Grieving can take on many expressions, and in my case, it was that I had little energy for creativity for many months after Tsotsi’s death.

This is camera shy black dog with jelly bean eyebrows, amber brown eyes, and white paws is my late dog, Tsotsi. Just chillin on the early summer grass in our back garden.

I want this year to be an enjoyable experience. And I want to make it all the way through. Thankfully, I am going in with a little more self knowledge this year. I now know that I can give my self permission to do the following if needed:

• post pages even if some drawings don’t work how I wanted

• skip a day now and then to rest

• repeat drawings or create multiples

I hope you enjoyed reading A Making Life and thanks so much for being here.

Sincerely,

Alma

P.S. Are YOU engaging in an art challenge this year? If so, I hope you tell me about it in the comments.

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1. There is some controversy over the name Inktober, which is why, if you are familiar with “Inktober” I have chosen not to put this reference in the main body of this newsletter but you can read about it from one source here. And this source here.

2. I learned this from a Sketchbox tutorial. It was presented as a way to warm up the imagination.