Inktober 2016: My experience

As I told you before, I participated on Inktober, which means drawing and inking something every day of October. I wanted to write this post during the first days of november, but since I had a couple of intense weeks full of exams and homework I couldnt take the time for posting what happened with my Inktober experience.

First of all I want to tell you that I really enjoyed drawing every single day; I never thought I would be able to do it because I am always procastinating or stressed out with University. Somehow I made a time each day to draw, ink, paint and post, and it was absolutely amazing apart from exhausting. I feel proud of what I achieved, although my drawing tecniques are not the best ones and my fan base is inexistent. Anyway, I would love to do Inktober again next year. 

Now, I want to show you the drawings I did that have more likes on my Instagram: 

#5 Rapa Nui traditional clothing

#4 Belly Dancing traditional clothes

#3 2000's Digital era

#2  Kpop style

#1   90's last decade of the millenium

And these are my favourite drawings, the ones I enjoyed the most doing and the ones with the better results according to my appreciation (without any orden) :

I want to finish this post telling you that either if you participated in inktober (failing or succeeding) or you didn't, KEEP GOING. I am just starting and its getting better for me, although I am not professional yet. I really hope you start doing what you love and things get better for you.

Thanks for reading. With love, Sofía.

Inktober 2016: Half the way

I promised I would write a post talking about my experience so far with Inktober so here I am. First of all I want to tell you that everytime it comes a challenge (a fit challenge, a diet challenge, a whatever challenge) I struggle a lot to do it and when day 15 arrives, somehow I stop doing the challenge. Well, this time I will fight myself to finish every single draw of Inktober. Right now I am on day 16 so that's an advance.

If you are doing the challenge (or another one) this may help you to stay on track.

1. Draw and draw and draw: It doesn't matter if you are tired or sick or if you have a lot of things to do, JUST DRAW. I am the queen of procastination and resting, but this time I can't let me go to bed if I hadn't draw something. My days at Uni finish at 5:30 pm and I arrive to my home at 6 pm. After that I have to study a bit, make a homework, take a shower and toast the bread for tea time with my family, but I DRAW, and I end up super tired, of course. Anyway, seeing my improvements is worth the pain. So do the same and draw.

2. Practice the skills that you don't have: With this I mean, try to stay focus in your art and the draws you want to do, but apart from that try to practice drawing the things on which you always fail. For example, I can't draw nice hands or faces, so I started practising my anatomy skills. Remember: practice makes the master.

3. Post online: I know that you sell your best work and you have to let down the one you did not too well, but in this challenge the best thing to do is to show your work. It doesn't matter if you took a bad decision in your draw, post it online anyway. If there is something I have learnt doing the challenge is that people don't see your draws the same way you do. I have made horrible draws according to my point of few, and when I post them, I realized many people liked them. On the other hand, some beautiful draws according to my appreciation were not that popular on instagram as I wanted them to be. So don't stop showing your art; beauty is subjective.

4. BE YOURSELF AND GET INSPIRED BY OTHERS' STYLES: I know what are my flaws and I know what are my skills. I want to be better but I continue the line of my style. I draw in a certain way and certainly you do it too. I also get inspired by all the other people doing the challenge; I can't stop looking at the pictures of the girls I admire, but I know I am not them. Some people may love your style and might get inspired by what you do. Keep your style always, and if you have to change, do it, but never feel ashame for your art.

I wanted to make a bigger post but that will have to wait. I am planning on showing you my method to draw. The steps and all of that.

Thanks for reading.

With love, Sofía.

Inktober 2016: My experience so far

On october 1st I started the challenge 'Inktober', which consists on drawing something every day of october and inking that draw. The challenge states that people can 'participate' with a draw everyday, a draw every two days or just half october. People then post their draws on internet using platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, etc. 

This year I didn't plan to participate. On october 1st I was seeing pictures on Instagram and suddenly I realized it was inktober! I took the decision of participating really fast. I said to myself: you should do the challenge. So I created a new instagram account where I could post just illustration made by me, and then I drew something.

My theme for the challenge was (and still is) fashion through history, so I did a list of the different styles I wanted to approach in my draws and I made a calendar in order to organize better my days.

The list:

1. Medieval Period.

2. The Renaissance.

3. The Baroque.

4. The Rococo.

5. The Victorian era.

6. 1900.

7. 1910, The belle epoqué.

8. 1920, Golden Twenties.

9. 1930.

10. '40.

11. '50.

12. '60.

13. '70.

14. '80.

15. '90.

16. 2000

17. 2010

18. 2016

From that on I haven't though what else to draw. I want to continue doing Fashion through History, but I still have to think about it.

My experience so far has been pretty good. I feel that my drawing tecniques have improved with every new draw. I am very motivated to draw; although sometimes I am tired because of my University responsibilities and exams, I always find a little of inspiration to finish the draw of the day.

Later on I will write other posts related to this topic. Maybe I am going to tell you how I am doing with the challenge in the middle of october, and most probably I am going to write an entry when I finish the challenge, telling you my thoughts about it and showing you what I liked the most to draw and my final feelings about it.

I hope you are doing well. I encourage you to participate in Inktober 2016.

This is my instagram account in case you want to follow my works: iranoha.ink

Thanks for reading.

Being a freelancer (my dream)

Whenever people know that I don't really want to be a teacher at highschool, they inmediately ask me what am I going to do when I finish University. I always say that I want to be a writer, and I also want to be a translator and editor, but apart from that I would like to be an Illustrator too, so I started to say that I am going to work in the book industry by doing all of those things, which is something I really want to do. Besides that, I tell them that I want to be a freelancer, and most of the time they don't even know what is that so I have to explain it to them. If you are like me and you want to be a freelancer, you should read this entry.

First of all for the ones who don't know what I am talking about: being a freelancer means being your own boss. That's it. You work from your home (if possible) or from a place rented by you, of from your office, etc. The thing is that you decide everything on your 'company'. You choose if you want to wake up very early or more late, you choose if you want to wear a suit or a dress, or if you prefer wearing your pajamas, you choose how many hours are you going to work and who are going to be your clients. You decide the name of your 'company', the rules for working, the prices, the EVERYTHING. You are the boss, the employee, the secretary, the manager, the marketing person, etc.

Why do I want to be a freelancer? Weel, because I want the freedom that freelancing would give me. I want to do artistic work, I want to create, to write, to edit, to translate, to illustrate, to live a life full of creativity and joy. I know that problems may arise anyway, that clients can be mad at me for some reason, that money is not going to be falling like rain in my pockets, but I'D LOVE TO BE A FREELANCER, to feel happy doing what I like to do, and that feeling is what I am searching for since forever. 

How do I know that I will be happy if I am not a freelancer yet? My idea of being a freelancer started when I knew Frannerd. She is a freelancer illustrator from my country and she recently published a book called 'A punto de partir'. After reading her book I started watching her youtube channel and I couldn't stop! I always feel motivated and inspired when I watch her videos; it makes me feel happy somehow, with a lot of motivation to work and be creative...and that is how I realized that I wanted to have a proffesional life similar to her. I always wanted to work in my home, because apart from not liking the fact of waking up at six A.M to go to a job that wasn't the one I wanted (being a teacher of English), one of my dreams is to be a mother, and having the opportunity of raising my kids and being at home are some of the things I am most concerned with. Those factos collided (wanting a creative job and wanting to be at home) and I said: OH GOD I WANT TO BE A FREELANCER. 

Do I know the pros and cons of being a freelancer? Oh yes, I know that there are cons and pros. I have read a looooot of blogs and interviews on the subject and I also bought some amazing books that are related to it:

1.Steal like an artist from Austin Kleon, isn't a book about freelancing, but it is a book about creativity and in some way that has to do with the job I want to have.

2.Creative, INC from Meg Mateo Ilasco & Joy Deangdeelert Cho, It's an amazing book about being a freelancer and having a freelance business. It gives you tips about every single aspect of having that 'career', it motivates you and it also has some interviews of people that are already freelancers (all of them with different jobs such as Animator, Illustrator, Prop Stylist, etc.)

What am I going to do now? Meanwhile I finish my career I will also focus on making up my portfolio, which is (as I have read) very important when you want to work as a freelancer. I will also try to use my leisure time for creative purposes like writing, drawing and learning things about both topics. I also want to start working for people (potential clients), doing translations or editing. Hopefully I will finish my first book and do the possible to publish it.

If you are in the same road as me, I recommend you to investigate, create and try to do what is in your hands to fulfill your dream of being a freelancer.

With love, Sofía.