My Recent Situlation

In the past two months they has been a noticed lack of new content on this blog. That is because of recent events in my life.

Back in December my father passed away. As anyone who has lost someone will know, when someone dies you tend to reevaluate your life to compare your life so far to the life of the person who passed away. And if you had a life that didn't exactly look "great" right now compared to the life of that dead person then you tend to feel pretty low. You may feel unaccomplished. It,s natural to do so, especially if that person happens to be a relative that appeared to have done a lot in one's life.

In March an aunt passed away. She wasn't that well known to me, but her death did awake feelings I had for my dad. I attended her funeral. Then an uncle of mine passed away. One I was quite close to (but not as close has I was to this one). Of course I attended his funeral. Then another relative passed away. An more obscure one. Didn't attend funeral. And then other aunt passed away. I had four relations die within two months. By May I had reevaluated my life too many times to be considered healthy. Admittedly, on the day when I was told about the last death I experienced the most severe bout of depression I had ever had. IT WAS AWFUL! I couldn't be bothered to watch TV! That is not normal for me.

I may have had some form of depression before this. Probably since my graduation in 2012. But this year's deaths in the family have pushed it to an extreme. So extreme that in April I was prescribed an anti-depressant. The leaflet that came with the tablets did say that it will get worse before it gets better - and they were right. That day in May was horrible. Fortunately, my mood improved soon after. In fact, since taking the tablets I have become more assertive. I am more eager to do things than before.

Recently I drew another pokehuman. A friend of my nephew asked for an Eevee.

And a parent has commissioned me help teach her kids how to draw.

What an interesting challenge.

Inktober 2015 - Pokehumans

Inktober is a challenge set up by artist Jake Parker for artists to encourage them to draw more.

The rules (taken from Jake Parker's website) are simple. For every day in October participants must...

1) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).

2) Post it on your blog (or tumblr, instagram, twitter, facebook, flickr, Pinterest or just pin it on your wall.)

3) Hashtag it with #inktober

4) Repeat

I was introduced to this challenge by a friend on Facebook who was asking me what should he draw for Inktober this year. After coming up with an idea for him I had the thought of doing the Inktober challenge myself.

At the time of discovering Inktober I was thinking about (and sketching) Pokehumans - Pokémon in human form. So naturally I choose to do that as the theme of my drawings for Inktober. To make it more interesting I asked my sister, nephew, and mother to write up a list of 31 random Pokémon for me (except Pikachu and Meowth, the two most obvious ones and ones I have done many times before (just look about this blog for Cat Stevens)). 

Here is the list....
(Excuse the spelling)

And here are my drawings from Inktober 2015.

Oshawott

Celebi

Ninetales

Zubat

Haxorus
Not my best work

Mamoswine

Darkrai

Kyogre

The reason for the sailor fuku was because I found out that the day of drawing it was Aya Hirano's Birthday. (She's a Japanese voice actress best known for voicing Haruhi Suzumiya)

Gengar

Squirtle

Growlithe

Dialga

Palkia

Keldeo

Tentacruel

Typhlosion

Charizard and its mega evolutions
I drew it than then made a coloured copy of it for my nephew for his birthday.
(Charizard X is his favourite.)

Grovyle

Froakie

Genesect

Absol

The drawing of Absol coincided with Back to the Future Day.
Back to the Future III was on TV and the scene with the Indians gave me inspiration.

I then drew this...

Meloetta

Serperior

Emboar

Diancie

Meowstic

Rapidash

Grotle

four attempts at Deerling
(one for every season)

Gyarados

Chandelure for Halloween

In the first weeks of Inktober I had trouble choosing which one on the list to do next.
So while I was out I ask the people I met to choose one for me.

While in the Glasgow office of NAS (for a meeting regarding the newsletter I work on)
one person (named Fiona) was a bit disappointed that Lugia wasn't on the list.

So, on a whim, I took the time to draw this...

Lugia

What should I do for next Inktober?

If you got ideas, write in comments.

UPDATE

A friend of my nephew's commissioned an Eevee.