This is my first time doing this yearly Kimo challenge (only learned about it last month!)

Kimodameshi means test of courage and it’s a yearly figure drawing challenge lead/administrated by artists [Amreio (for future kimo links), Andrew, Jason, Corey, Ona] that’s been going on for 4 years. I don’t know these artists well as I just stumbled upon this!

This is where you post a study (or a page of studies) within 24 hours, officially for 20 days during March. If you fail to do so for a given day, you’re out of the challenge and banned from the server. A supportive battle royale for artists to see how long one can last I guess?

It’s not for everyone and many drop off/get banned because life/work/family/stuff happens.

I was just giving this a go and I survived! So here goes the captions I wrote at the time for each :’)

Day 1: Pink and Blue. Study of this photo of this person I don’t know ;P

Little timelapse!

It was posted and shared as ref so I didn’t find this photo myself – the colours are super eye catching so I wanted to have a go at it.

I had the time to do this over a weekend so effort and quality will vary because I’m studying! I’m not here to make pretty pictures so quality is going down from here ;P

Day 2: Where I panicked and filled up an unfinished study page

It’s a mess as a sketchbook should be :’)

Day 3: Figure drawing and stylising it further

So far the pages were done during non work days! Trying to not stress during work days (but failing to buffer it during this week)

Day 4: trying something different with this figure study, not sure if I like it

This was after a work day so I just needed something done and then improvised the doodle on the right :’)

Started to play with colours too, got inspired

Day 5: ref figure study and doodles based from it

Got mixed, hurt, happy, sad, disappointed feelings when one thing works out, the other doesn’t and get left/cut/ghosted. Not out of malice, just forgotten or so I hope. It’s how things be sometimes.

Learning lessons, growing pains, expecting disappointment, people are flawed and I’m not that high priority.

Accepting while I struggle to make the most with what I do have. And keep specifying/asking for what I really want (which is difficult to know for sure when I need testing, time and thought to process it). What am I doing with my lifeeeeee

Gosh looking at this now they look like green zombies whoops!!

Day 6: figure studies and a doodle from imagination

This was done in a rush so I don’t knowwww

And realising time and time again that I should probably stop doing Super Leonie Mode and simple self portrait pieces because not only people don’t care but I’m also feeling even more embarrassed, self centred and self conscious. I’m going to slowly stop later this year and fade Super Leonie Mode away by August or so when my buffer runs out. I’ll do self portraits sparingly because my previous PJs one probably didn’t do well, clear from my Youtube timelapse metrics (metrics I can’t block). Ouch.

It really is a slow, sad death :’)

Ah well lots of things don’t get any attention also; guess I’m too niche and not “there” yet to some industry and fleeting internet standards ;P

Day 7: figure studies and a stylised sketch

I’m just drawing from the references people were sharing to get things rolling so far. There’s also a few people who drew mostly portraits rather than the whole figure but as long as it’s part of the human body, it counts!

Gosh there’s been a bunch of impressive work by other artists – I am a humbled little artist :0!!

Reflecting and rambling about Week 1

I decided to post these publicly after the challenge so that I can do things at my own pace and focus on making studies and posting things separately. I can’t create art and format posts for social media within a day too much anymore ;P

Hey I have work and life to juggle too so I’ll keep doing things at my own pace! I don’t want to burn out too badly and shall continue to protect my joy in creating and learning art :’)

I feel like this challenge forces me to make something and at the same time, I don’t want to simply draw what I observe all the time just to fill the page. I find myself falling into that because I’m trying to keep up a buffer but I fail to do so beyond 1-3 days. It feels like a juggling act between studying, wanting to have something presentable, impressing other artists and not wanting to be banned. All the external pressures that can backfire on me if I’m not managing things well.

Striving to focus on practicing/training, making it a habit and will need to remind myself to make sure I’m learning/growing and not always in my comfort zone. It’s easy to forget! For week one I kept going in and out of my comfort zone with varying results so that’s something…! At least I was experimenting bit by bit and trying to keep myself interested and engaged ;P

The deadline did kick me into gear at the expense of my sleep and I didn’t fall into internet timesinks as much :’) I hope to do this again next year.

After this challenge I will go back to my less intense pace of juggling learning art, doing figure studies and making art. Maybe this challenge will keep me doing studies on a regular basis! Shall keep rotating at least? I don’t know and I want to keep things flexible depending on what I’m in the mood for in the moment. Still I’m very slow to get into the study headspace sometimes. I’m tired too 🙁

Currently I’m pooped and juggling as usual but getting a bit better with sleep even though I don’t often reach 7 hours still. Baby steps :’)

Shall post and ramble about week 2 next week! Thank you!

---