Bonbon

ᴮˡᵒᵒᵖ·

Yesterday, upon my hair,
perfectionist who's trying to
stop being such a perfectionisthello!!!!!!
finally gave 🍬self a faceI met a Spheal whose head was bare ona li @jan-PonponIts head was bare again today, is excited about bnuny horns rn
(send asks!)I wish, I wish it'd grow astray...🍬

story in   ↑↑↑ top ↑↑↑  link:
‘They're Made out of Meat’
by Terry Bisson, 1991
discord (a lot of bons)
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Bonbon
@Bonbon

So, Craptober.

Just  Inktober  that challenge where
you draw for each of the
31 days of october with ink
, but intentionally kind of crappy.

beautifulClick here for way too much intro text involving personal bloops etc. and question marks

I have that issue where I would like to draw, but I just don't.

Possibly in part because I'm afraid of it looking like crap??

So I never learnt the joy of simply making marks on paper to just make SOMETHING that I might have in mind. Which, as I understand, is pretty flippin' helpful in gaining the mileage to make art that doesn't look like crap???

I already started talking about this in my intro post, but intentionally crappy Inktober (or craptober) then seems like a good way for me to just jump the flip in, and I'm going to make my standard not too much better than this kind of crappy eldritch tripod wolf I hastily drew when making a joke to my D&D group:

still beautiful

and maybe this will help me overcome whatever paralysis I have in doodling anything, as maybe I'll learn how to draw without that unconscious expectation that every drawing I make must be this undertaking for which I must contribute a sizeable amount of time, effort, and energy???

And the thing is, at this point in my life, I actually kind of like the way kinda crappy art looks like! So why am I afraid of making it myself????

Which is why I want to participate in Inktober this year, but with intentionally crappy drawings.

I want to be able to make silly doodles for pleasure without too much expectation of them being anything. To draw without fussing over every detail like what i am doing to some extent with just this post aa.

And maybe doing this challenge will help me figure out what to draw in the first place when I think that it's time to draw something but don't want to treat it like an exercise or anything (like I have been with drawabox.com and suchh).

Rules of Craptober

  1. Follow the typical rules of Inktober
    • VERY optional is ink. We're doing Craptober now, so draw with whatever crap you want, so long as it doesn't intimidate you too much
      • The main skill we're developing for Craptober isn't inking nor drawing itself (tho those can certainly happen incidentally) — it's overcoming the perfectionism that keeps us away from drawing at ALL (or, at least, nearly as much as we'd like)
      • With that said, if you DO use pencil, I would still avoid erasing, as nothing coaxes perfectionism more than being able to continually edit your work. Maybe avoid Ctrl + Z if you want to do this digitally. Commit to whatever you put down and nod approvingly that your work is going to look extra crappy for Craptober
    • And tag with #craptober and/or #craptober2022. Tagging with #inktober is optional
  2. Draw at a skill level well below what you are capable of
    • Even if you have a lot more skill now, you want to recreate the headspace that kids tend to have, where they shamelessly draw just for fun without thinking too much about it kids are pretty chill with things like this — be chill
    • If you draw one day and feel reluctant to draw the next day because you want to live up to yesterday's standard, then lower today's standard
  3. Identify mental roadblocks keeping you from drawing every day and consciously add rules to beat them
    • For example, if you're reluctant because of time issues, set a time limit on how long you can draw for. Even a 5-minute doodle every day is infinitely more than no drawings at all
    • If fixating on certain skills holds you back, like perspective or making sure that you put every line down with confidence, then invent rules that limit your NEED to use these skills — you can always train them more deliberately outside of Craptober

How I'm going to do Craptober

  1. This is all about combatting perfectionism, so I'm going to do things to sabotage perfection
    • For example, I'm going to skip the first day of Inktober. Which looks to be Gargoyle this year. Which is too bad, but also kind of a relief?? Eheh. That way, if I miss a day, then I won't have to feel too down, since I had already missed a day from the beginning if i miss like all but a day or two tho…………… (next year aa)
  2. I'll start with a daily time limit of 5 minutes digging for references, and 20 minutes of actual drawing
    • I'll add an additional maximum of 20 minutes if I'm really feeling the drawing, but any more than that will set up too high of expectations for Future Me
    • I can also adjust the times between days since adhering to the same rules every day sounds like another kind of perfection that I could avoid??
  3. I'll probably also consider setting up a time limit on how long I can spend actually POSTING my crapdrawings, too
    • I'll also be tagging #inktober and #inktober2022 in addition to #craptober and #craptober2022 in order to increase possible visibility in case anyone else also wants to participate, but I would ordinarily not give myself the anxiety of letting really crappy beginner doodles show up in the same results as other people trying to perfect their inking abilitiessss. 😅😅😅

I feel very nervous posting work well below my standard online outside a one-off context, like a Discord conversation. But in a community as new and cool as cohost, I feel like it'll be a lot easier to get over that anxiety.

I don't know if anyone else would participate, but maybe if I can get myself to actually put SOMETHING out there, I can set an example such that maybe other people can feel less nervous about attempting a challenge like this?? But ultimately, I'm mainly doing all this for myself, anyway.

And, in some ways, participating in this challenge would also beat the perfectionism of wanting only good art posted online and associated with your name. Once I put this stuff out there, I would have blemished this ideal of being a good artist to live up to when it comes to deciding whether to upload something on the internet. I want this low pressure when it comes to posting anything.

If other people do start contributing to #craptober, I want people to be able to look at another's work and think not "Omg their art is so much better than mine why do I bother", but instead "Hmm, their work is crappy, but I think that I can do a crappier job..."

This is also a fun opportunity to reference fun art or styles that deliberately seem to work against certain drawing foundations, like perspective and all that. I would post examples, but I don't want to imply that their art is crap — but I definitely do 💖💖💖 them in all their unconventionality aaa.

And if it's already in the middle of October, and you're just discovering this, remember...

✨😌 It isn't all or nothing 😌✨

Joining something late is a good exercise against perfectionism, after all.


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in reply to @Bonbon's post:

Ooh, it isn't too late if you want!!
If you have a sort of perfectionism where you must start in the beginning (or at least early), then starting at... like... right at the endd could still be a valuable way to fight perfectionism!
Otherwise, if you're still interested by then, there'll be Craptober next year!!! ✨

personally i'm converting it into No Effort November™, starting any day now i swear

doubt anypony else is gonna do it but that just means i won't worry about other peoples' doodles on my timeline being better than mine

nnnevermind crapuary it is and now i'm simultaneously concerned that i'm putting in too little effort (i set a time limit for 20 minutes but struggled to come up with enough drawing to fill 10) and too much (i don't have art skills as is so how do i go below 0)

Oh darn, I somehow never saw your comment for No Effort November™, otherwise I'd have wished you well for that!!
(great name for NEN™, btw!)

Crapuary sounds fun!
Now I have the chance to tell you that I wish you well for that!!! ✨

And remember that sitting down and actually making marks of ANY kind with the intent to draw is basically the hardest part for many people (possibly yourself included???).
Even if it feels like too little effort, you simply making ANYTHING is still infinitely more than all those days you didn't make any marks with the intent to draw anything, so let's at least celebrate that fact!

And if you find that what you draw doesn't intimidate yourself from drawing at that standard for the remainder of Crapuary, then it isn't too high effort!
But definitely gauge your energy levels when crapdrawing.
You're allowed to let yourself get frustrated later on when you let yourself draw with more effort.

As for feeling like you have too little art skills to avoid feeling frustrated/too high-effort while crapdrawing...
You'll probably need to quickly develop a little bit of skill in the beginning, and just make modifications of those skills after.
Like, for my crapdrawings, I figured out an overly simple way of drawing animal faces with a simple shape for snout + dot eyes + ears + cheeks/head, and every other animal face was just modifications of that based on my references.

...Also, what you also don't see is all the discarded doodles that don't make it to my final crapdrawing.
If I'm iffy about something that I lack the skills for, I very quickly make a bunch of botched drawings toying around with the new skill that I'm trying to develop until I get it how I like.
And I include this as part of the 20 minutes.
Like, with my crapdrawing of a chicken, I played around with drawing six other chickens before finding a way to draw them at the desired level of crappiness/simplification (which only took like maybe a minute to crapdraw even if I spent a lot more (albeit under 20 minutes) quickly experimenting).
For my creepy fairy, I quickly drew a mouth on the side before the one used in the crapdrawing.
I also adapted how I normally doodle the sun for the body of the fairy so that I wasn't learning any new skills for that.

This is just what worked for me, though (..even if it probably emerged from me sneaking perfectionism into my anti‑perfectionism workkk).
Just play around and figure out what works for you!
A lot of it feels like problem‑solving to get you through the challenge while still abiding by the rules you've put on yourself for a reason.

If it offers any motivation, since Craptober, I've periodically randomly doodled something WAY more than I have since I was a kid (usually I'd see something on the internet that I'd like to try drawing as a quick study (like maybe I'd like a character from a brief twitter video, and I'd try to draw them), and then I might doodle a simple original piece using what I learned from that (if I feel like it).
So I think that I was quite successful in quashing a nice chunk of the fear and perfectionism that was holding me back (though it's definitely still there).

Good luck!!!!! ✨✨

funny you reply now because i've since decided that it's probably not for me

specifically after seeing your first ever #craptober post in which you say it's specifically not to get good, which is something that i would like to do

(and i'm not sure if drawing and guaranteed-not-improving is actually better than not drawing at all, since the former might "prove" to my brain that i can't get better ever)

but now that you say all this i think this might've been a misconception too so iunno

(also turns out there's a youtube channel called technology connections that also uses the term no effort november, convergent evolution i guess)

Yeahh, I also want to get good, but I had a lot mental baggage that I had to get over first.
Since I have so little drawing experience, I did have to learn a bit and develop some skill for every crapdrawing I made, so I came out of Craptober with a nice handful of new specific skills under my belt.

But for already experienced people who draw but just don't bc perfectionism, they probably wouldn't need this quick learning step for the challenge.
But I 100% did since I wouldn't really be able to draw much without thissss.

(and i'm not sure if drawing and guaranteed-not-improving is actually better than not drawing at all, since the former might "prove" to my brain that i can't get better ever)

Notice that you've identified personal hang‑ups that you anticipate would hold you back.
This sort of introspection is a very valuable skill to be learning, and is definitely part of the challenge in personalizing its rules for yourself and updating the personal rules as you go on.

ah i somehow managed to completely miss the "make your own rules" aspect (misconception triple combo woo)

think i'll look for something with more rigid guidance if possible (only thing that comes to mind is drawabox but that's for a different genre of drawing than i care about)

You'll probably need to get pretty creative with the search process for something like that.
Things like trying different keywords, and in various platforms (tumblr, twitter, youtube, reddit...), and sometimes even buried in the comments in there...
Maybe even finding like one small tutorial and milking as much as you can get from it, and such, before digging for another.
I once found a library book all about doodling as a person who doesn't draw, which was inspiring in some ways (my Craptober may not have existed without the causation cascade from that), but it was almost TOO simple at that point??

Maybe you'll find the drawabox-level holy grail of what you're looking for, but exactly what you need might not even exist...
At that point, you might get a lot out of trying to make one yourself (and possibly share on platforms like cohost??), which would prime your brain to approach things that you might normally overlook a little differently.