I've decided to end the current Sketchdaily streak.
It's just become difficult to keep up, as evidenced by how often I've fallen behind over the past few months and needed to catch up. I still enjoy the sketching and the drawing and the doodling and the trying out different stuff in Procreate; and when I was looking back at the past year's worth of sketches, there were a good number that I liked and was proud of. But the obligation to post sketches daily has started to weigh more heavily than whatever fun I'm having. I promised myself I would never shackle myself to unnecessary obligations anymore, so this is it. For the past few months I've also been having trouble fitting everything I wanted to do in each day, so I've realized that I need to give some stuff up, so this is appropriate.
It's not too bad, I made it an entire year (2021) + 27 days in January, so a streak of 392 days. The last time I was able to complete an entire year's worth was back during my last hiatus year in 2016, although that streak was a bit longer since I managed to make it a fair bit into February of the next year. Maybe it's better this way, I just do one of these 365-day runs every few years.
Still, one last sketch for the road. A couple of days ago I wanted to do a sketch of PH presidential candidate Leni Robredo. Back during the 2016 elections I did a sketch of a particular presidential candidate who later won. I'm not saying that was my fault, but let's at least choose a better candidate this time:
(Click photos to view full-size)
(Reminder: A sketch is not an endorsement. This one is though. #LetLeniLead)
Unfortunately, the sketches didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It kind of looks like her, but is also a bit off? One of the people I showed it to commented that artists usually take several sketches with a subject before settling on a final piece, so I good probably get this one right with a few more tries maybe? This was one of the things that convinced me to stop the current run - I figured if I wanted to get better I needed to spend more time with each piece and subject and that's just not something I can fit into a daily commitment.
Even without the daily commitment, I still hope to continue the sketching habit. Maybe even bigger or more complex pieces this time, now that I have a pencil and a sketchbook again. Or learn to do more difficult art? I'm hoping to find some kind of rhythm or schedule that still allows me to post sketches on a regular basis, just not something as demanding as daily! Maybe my sketches will be a lot better the next time I want to attempt a 365-day run!
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wooow! More than a year sketching daily, that's a really good thing! What bothers me of sketchdaily is that apparently you can only draw digital, not allowing to upload your real pencil draws. Isn't that a shame? Keep on working!!!!
You can upload photos or scans of your paper drawings/sketches. I've done a lot of them.