Well, only four and a half months late, but I’m finally done with Inktober 52 2024. It’s been a long slog. I was actually staying current with the prompts up until October, when the “regular” Inktober took over. Right after that I had to launch into the standard end of the year/holiday projects and obligations. I tried to catch up despite that, but failed. Then I took on that arcade cabinet project for my brother (if you follow me on social media you’ve seen the progress of that), which I really got carried away with (big surprise), starting in January. The arcade cabinet is finally done, so expect a detailed post about it at some point soon with my usual closeups of all the details I crammed in that you probably can’t see, or at least won’t notice, with the naked eye, as well as some shots of the finished pieces. It turned into quite the undertaking, but it was tons of fun. I refined my workflow and learned a lot about the vinyl printing process and application. I plan to turn some of the art into shirts and stickers at some point, too, so all in all it was a good project.

I’m still trying to get back on track to where I originally planned to be in 2025. My main goal for the year is to focus on the “It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time” graphic novel, both the writing and the art (concept art, thumbnailing, and finished pages). I originally thought I’d be doing Inktober 52 2025, but I’m already 15ish prompts behind at this point. While I really enjoy the whole Inktober thing and how much my skills have improved while doing it, it gets time consuming (especially once I fall behind), so I have to prioritize. It’s something I struggle with, because any time I start something that becomes a “tradition” or a routine, I am compelled to continue it, sometimes to my detriment (it permeates all areas of my life, not just art. It can be particularly problematic with working out as I have a tendency to add new or different variations of exercises, but I still do the old ones because my Brain thinks I’ll lose the ability to do them. Not only does it make my workouts take too long eventually, but I tend to overtrain). Not doing so is almost physically painful for my Brain. I haven’t completely ruled out doing Inktober 52 this year, but I know it’s likely the smart decision not to if I actually want to make some progress towards getting IPMDT finished and published. Telling the stories in the sequential art medium is really where my heart lies. Not doing Inktober 52 is going to be a mental struggle, though, and the more annoying parts of my Brain will try to convince me that any skills I have gained over the last several years are going to evaporate. I also intend to publish future volumes of “Inklings” (what’s that? You don’t have a copy yet? Don’t worry, almost no one else does either. BUT! You can fix that by going here.), and skipping a year of Inktober 52 feels like a continuity gap, a failure. I realize that makes next to no sense outside of my own head, but I still have to contend with it. Doing Inktober 52 has also been a great way to generate some finished art that I can post all over social media almost daily and get a little attention. I’m not sure the work in progress update art has the same effect, but honestly, we’re talking about tens of people, most of which I know personally. I fear losing whatever ground I’ve made in the fight for eyeballs on my art, but I think having a finished graphic novel (or several) for sale would be more helpful in that regard, too.

Anywhat, enough babbling, let’s get to the point of this post: the Inktober 52 2024 art roundup. If you want to read all my rambling insights about each piece (and you haven’t already been following along through at least one of my social media presences), head over to the gallery. Otherwise, just enjoy the (usually ridiculous) interpretations my Brain comes up with for the prompts.

I have to admit, since it took me so darn long to complete this challenge this time around, I totally forgot I had drawn some of these, so that was fun to go back through. Anyteeth, now it’s time to turn my attention to the IPMDT graphic novel project, with occasional detours into turning some previous Inktober art as well as some of the arcade cabinet art into stickers and shirts (and maybe a few other things…). If you want more frequent work in progress type updates, be sure to follow me on Deviant Art, Face Book, Instagram, Reddit, and now BlueSky!