Well, this is my first post-MTGinktober post, though of course I did draw our traditional Vicky-themed materials test before this year's unprecedented single-illustration run. In any case, I'm just kinda still thinking about Inktober, like, was there a way to make it work? It just feels irresponsible at this point. There's so many more pressing things I should be focusing on. Sadly, all this effort kinda went for nothing. There'd always be like one new "super fan" every year, but then they'd invariably head out once we stop doing Magic fan art. Understandable.
But I can't help but think whenever I see someone posting--I can't wait to give this a crack...It's bittersweet, though, cuz it's so physically grueling for me to do each year, yet I still love testing myself--my physical endurance and preparedness (stretching, pain/time management, process honing, etc.), plus the actual production aspects: figuring out what to draw and then actually doing it. Scaling back would be unsatisfying, as 2021 disappointingly proved, when I tried to force scaling down by drawing in a smaller sketchbook.
My favorite part was the research phase--sometimes that'd take three hours alone. Over the years I'd tailored my main Scryfall search to fit nigh perfectly what we're looking for, namely no Universes Beyond, but also tossing hits I can't stand. I managed to hit every single page at least once of my some 70-page search--there's no page I haven't drawn something from, many twice. I loved assembling my references and then "casting"--who's going to play the characters in this One Piece spoof? What props are we using? It takes so much effort to put each illustration together.
And despite the intensity, I'd always forget how to do it every year, but this was the first time my muscle memory came flowing back almost immediately. Some years ago, I literally wrote a document meticulously walking myself through every aspect of the process, and it's been invaluable in maintaining institutional knowledge, particularly on best practices so I can focus on drawing, not other minutia. This practice piece took a lot of checking of my guide, but our actual illustration flowed pretty smoothly. It was uncanny.
Anyway, sad that this ten-year experiment has come to a close. Just wanted to put some thoughts down on it while it's still freshly on my mind.
Not normal,
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