the daily drawing revival

I haven’t been keeping up with my daily drawing task (been doing it maybe half the time, if that), so I joined a Habitica challenge. It’s exactly the same task—draw something every day—but it comes with a Discord server and a daily sketch channel, and somehow that makes all the difference.

It’s neat to see how everyone has their own niche. Emily does still life pencil drawings—typically a single object (mushroom, cauldron, lollipop) with perfectly smooth shading. flight does pen sketches of people in action poses (soccer players, martial artists, runway models) plus environmental life studies (people walking down the street or in a café). Qupo does mammalian creature design. Tatiana does incredibly detailed face shots. Sam does anime-style DnD OCs. Mx. Ekko does one-line sketches and abstract art, often in metallic(?) pen that displays differently under blacklight.

I don’t usually think of myself as having a particular art style, but looking at everyone’s sketches makes me realize we all have distinct styles in terms of subject selection, approach, and execution. You’d never mistake one of my drawings of a person for one of flight’s drawings. Or if I drew a cauldron, it wouldn’t just be a cauldron, there would be slimes hanging out and maybe candles and shelves in the back if I were feeling ambitious, and it either wouldn’t be shaded or would be roughly crosshatched in pen.

I’ve been trying to make my daily sketches more varied, instead of my classic “anime headshot at 1:30 am because I can’t think of anything else to draw.” (Having a daily sketch channel is also great for getting ideas.) Some of my more interesting sketches this month:

• FR fanart and adjacent art (Razanei, a “legless wyrm,” and a not-undertide)
• 2d scenes in a vg/cartoon style (mushroom city with UFOs [2011 called, it wants its doodle back], sky castle, various doodles inspired by newbie’s Lovecraftian fishing game)
• life studies: still life spaces with perspective (my office workspace, view of the kitchen as seen from my desk)