For as long as I can remember, I've always been a highly introspective person. That greatly helps me to understand myself.
Still, I feel that it took me until this year for me to really understand who I am. In particular, to recognize myself as an artist—or as a creative more generally speaking,—and understand that my profession doesn't define who I am, but what really does are the things that inspire me.
It can be that I feel like that just because I'm coming to some turning point in my life. Maybe, many years from now, I'll have changed so much again that I'll consider that only then I'll have understood myself. I cannot tell though, we need to wait and see.
What matters is that now, I have that feeling: this year I discovered myself. Before then, it feels like I was just sailing along, without any idea whatsoever of the actual me.
A few years ago I started daily journaling, and along with it, I also did a short year review. But in the past couple of years, I did very little journaling and missed the 2021 year review. This year, I got inspired by
to do it again, based on this template that she kindly prepared and shared along with her own 2022 retrospective. I also decided to make it public, by sharing it here.So, this is my 2022 in review, followed by a look ahead at what I expect 2023 to be.
An accomplishment I'm proud of
The Inktober challenge.
It's only one of the two biggest accomplishments I had this year, but completing Inktober is one thing that I'm especially proud of.
That's because it's one of those things that I tried and failed at before. It's like the kid trying again the bicycle without the supporting wheels, after having fallen off a couple of times. When we finally succeed, it makes the accomplishment even more rewarding, by reminding the times we failed before.
I wrote about my experience and learnings with the Inktober challenge and it's the theme of my first-ever YouTube video, in which I also do a flip-through of my sketchbook with all the drawings. In case you still didn't see them, you can see each of the daily drawings I did throughout the 1-month challenge on my Instagram account, starting here.
Below are a few of my favorites:
A mistake or failure, and what I learned from it
I'm a guy with big plans. How much of those become a reality is a whole other story.
It's no different when it comes to my art stuff, which is the thing that I've been putting most of my energy into during my free time over the past year or so.
However, I also have the tendency of getting lost in the big plans, and miss doing the basics. In this context, it's easy for me to go days without doing any art because, for instance, I'm planning for a big project. Guess what? Many times the big project will not happen or take longer than anticipated, and I can easily go for weeks without accomplishing either the big project or doing the simple stuff, such as a quick sketch to keep the practice going.
That's a mistake that'll often lead to discouragement and sometimes goes as far as making me quit things altogether due to getting lost along the way.
The main point for me in doing art must be simply that: doing art. Whatever I plan on top of that cannot cast so much shadow on the art-doing part to the point of killing it.
I think this year I finally rationalized that mistake and understood its root cause and consequences, so I'm keeping my eyes wide open to prevent it from happening again.
The simplest way I found so far to fight that mistake was to focus on my sketchbook, but with no intention of making great art on every page—or on any page at all. Whenever I feel stuck, I simply open it, pick the first medium that I'm inspired with, and put something down on paper. I won't end up with the most amazing piece of art, but at least I will have a drawing that I can look at and feel I did something.
A challenge I overcame
Finishing that drawing which I wrote about in The Joy of Pulling Out the Masking Tape was the most important challenge that I overcame this year.
That post does the job of explaining in detail what finishing that drawing meant to me, so I won't repeat it here. In a nutshell, however, it wasn't much about the technical challenge, but more of an endurance challenge, which turned into a personal breakthrough, changing my mindset in a deep way.
Below is a photo of that drawing, which is now framed on my wall, working as a frequent reminder and inspiration for me. It's made using graphite pencils, measuring 37cmx48cm, and took me weeks to complete. I titled it ‘In My Hands', which meaning goes beyond what the image depicts.
A new skill I learned
I don't think this year I learned any new skills from the ground up.
To not leave this part blank, however, I will mention the rediscovering of inking as a medium that I love, and the significant improvement I had in my skills with it—to some extent, I can even consider I didn't know how to ink until I picked it up again this year (and I still have a LOT to learn).
Below are some images of my practice.
Inking is one of my favorite mediums, but also a very challenging one for me. It's definitely a skill that I intend to continue working on in the upcoming year.
A seed I've planted and want to grow
This year I finally got enough courage to go ahead and create a YouTube channel, record, and publish my first video ever to the world.
I also moved the few writings I had in my Medium blog here into Substack, which is a platform I'm very excited about going forward.
For the purpose of sharing my thoughts, creative stuff, learnings, etc, I see YouTube and Substack working together, so I want to continue experimenting with these two platforms. It can be I'll find out that one works better than the other for me, but even to get to that conclusion, first I need to produce some steady content in both of them.
An experience I'm grateful for
I'm thankful for having had the opportunity to take some time off my daily job, in a sabbatical period.
I don't hate my job. Quite the contrary, I'm grateful and fortunate for everything it gives me. However, whatever job we have, even if it totally aligns with our greatest aspirations in life, I would say that the very nature of it being a job makes us all wish to take a break from it as an obligation, whenever possible.
I didn't take a sabbatical with the goal of “finding myself” or any other higher motive. It was simply about being able to stay longer with my family, with my hobbies, and myself, which is usually not possible just by taking the normal amount of vacation days that we are entitled to.
In total, I was able to combine one month of vacation and three months of sabbatical, which was a great experience that I do recommend to anyone that has the possibility to do that.
What about next year?
In general, I don't believe much in new year's resolutions, in the sense that I feel this time of the year we're keen to be artificially motivated, and set unrealistic goals that are usually, at best, gonna make us feel bad for not achieving them.
I understood that what works best for me is to simply stick to whatever framework I've been using throughout the year to plan projects and set goals, without letting the end-of-year effect cripple it.
That said, I'll still follow along with the template and do some sort of wishful thinking for the upcoming year. I'm curious to look back one year from now and see how much of it I have stuck to.
So, here we go.
I want to create…
…as much art as possible, ideally every day, and just for the sake of it.
Related to the learning that I highlighted above, although I do want to make progress with my bigger projects and goals (mostly related to art), I don't want to get lost in the middle and miss doing the actual art. Otherwise, those projects and goals lose their meaning.
I want to start…
…drawing more from my imagination.
In the last couple of years or so, I basically only did art based on references. That's mostly out of conscious choice because my focus is on training the fundamentals and developing my technique on the different mediums. I figured that using references removes the need for inspiration, which is usually a barrier that prevents me from getting something done. That was mostly a correct choice, I believe.
However, doing that frequently comes at the expense of missing the fun and joy of just drawing from the imagination, or being looser with the whole thing.
If not much from imagination, I want at least to do art without any sort of agenda other than pleasing myself. I mean, if I'm in the mood to draw animal portraits in charcoal for a whole month, I'll simply do it, non-stop.
I want to leave behind…
…even more of social media, as something that simply sucks my time away.
I don't see social media as a definitive evil, as long as we know how to make proper use of it. After great improvement on that front, however, I have lately started to slip on it again, allowing myself to scroll through the reels just for the sake of it.
I want to replace that habit with a more constructive one. I'm still not sure what that can be, but it needs to be as easy as pulling the smartphone out of the pocket. I'm gonna try to keep a small book always within reach or resort to digital books on my phone. Let's see.
I'm accepting suggestions.
I want to experience…
…selling any piece of art of mine to a complete stranger.
As silly (or not) as that seems, I want to have that experience.
It's surely nice to get likes and comments on what we post online, and compliments from friends and family. However, I haven't experienced yet the feeling of shipping a printing, for instance, to someone that found my stuff online, liked it, and decided to invest their money to have in their home something that I created.
If you are also an artist of any kind, you might agree that in one way or another this kind of recognition is something any creative/artist seeks (and while I write that, it makes me genuinely think about whether it's possible for artists to be completely fulfilled by just having their art for themselves. If you have an opinion/perspective on that, I'd love to know it in the comments below.)
Many artists that already have a business established may take that for granted, but if I can get that experience for the first time this upcoming year, it's gonna be a great and unique personal achievement.
I want to learn…
…how to build a terrarium and make it work.
A few months ago I suddenly had the desire to build a terrarium. I don't recall where that came from, but I immediately got into binge-watching how-to videos. This is a project that's sitting on my to-do list for a while now, and I want to take action and make it a new hobby.
I just bought all the supplies I'll need, and I'm planning to do it this week. I also imagine it's not gonna be a one-time thing, as it takes some trial and error to get it right, and eventually build one that I'm fully pleased with. Therefore, I’m considering it as a skill to be learned.
I will prioritize…
Spending quality time with the people I love and care about, whenever I have the opportunity.
Doing art that brings me joy.
Getting my side-projects off the paper (starting with the YouTube channel and this Substack).
I will remind myself…
…to always enjoy each and every day.
Every plan and project can go sideways or even fail altogether. There are certainly gonna be stressful days and sad moments, as life is not always flowers and rainbows—although I surely hope no tragedies will happen.
However, amidst any of that, I'm learning that what truly matters is to enjoy every day I'm alive in this world and able to do anything that I want to (or simply do nothing, with no regrets.)
What about you?
Are you into doing yearly reviews? If you did or will do yours and share it somewhere, let me know in the comments below, and I'll love to read it. Also, feel free to just drop a comment here with your short version of it.
I enjoyed doing mine this year, and I want it to become a habit in the years to come.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great 2023!