Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
On a late-night walk near Dublin harbor, Beckett found himself standing on the end of a pier in the midst of a winter storm. Amid the howling wind and churning water, he suddenly realized that the “dark he had struggled to keep under” in his life—and in his writing, which had until then failed to find an audience or meet his own aspirations—should, in fact, be the source of his creative inspiration.
“I shall always be depressed,” Beckett concluded, “but what comforts me is the realization that I can now accept this dark side as the commanding side of my personality. In accepting it, I will make it work for me.”
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #samuelbeckett @masoncurrey
It's a mess, right? Not particularly beautiful or impressive. That is what self-hatred is like. Easy to achieve. Not great to look at. Very common. And very, very hard. To all of the people that struggle with self-hate, it's all in your head don't worry. You are the only one that sees you the way you see yourself.
A drawing for someone I somehow met from the corner of the internet, his original character Runali. A few years of ups and downs, but there were many struggles due to poor mental health. In the end as things heal, we gradually recognised our differences and decided to take different paths.
She stands at 6'4,wth a deep voice and long pink hair and muscles,Zevaela is combative and quick like all shadow demons.she is friends with Tenebris and Dezajed,sometimes Tenebris annoys her and fights her,She and Dezajed are very "close" friends.She has a shadow and a monstrous form like all shadow demons have,sometimes she struggles to return to her normal form.she is great at flying whenever she has her large wings present.she's also great at tail wrestling too.
As usual I struggled to get a true likeness, but that notwithstanding, I was still pleased with the result.
HB, 5B and 9B graphite pencils on smooth cartridge drawing paper, size A3.
Things have been so busy of late and my output has greatly reduced. However, I have returned to oil painting. I revisited this piece I started last year and put in a few more hours to finish it. The scene was from a few summers ago when I visited Pen Arthur forest for the first time. The piece takes me right back to that day when the late summer afternoon sunlight struggled to penetrate the canopy.
I really struggle with the sumo wrestler pose. Difficult perspective and proportion as the body should lean forward. Difficult volume as a sumo wrestler is some kind of maximal volume of a body. Difficult balance in crouch position.
>> Anxiety—the most common of all mental disorders—currently affects about one in 13 people (7.3 percent). This is how I felt when I struggled with it. Support your relatives and friends who are struggling with it! It means a lot!
Made by: Autodesk Sketchbook
Cont. to work on BnW illustrations, I wanted to focus on making the reflections have a realistic quality. I struggle with clouds, but I felt I was most refined here. My BnW's seem to have so much more life and expression than my paintings. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
In July of 2022, Brianna Grier died falling out of a moving police car while having a mental health breakdown. Since Brianna passed, I have been heartbroken for her twins and family but also reflecting on my struggle with mental health. Mental health needs compassion and empathy, not police and punishment. The brunch strokes are purposeful, but I completed them with empathy in mind. I want to keep the composition simple but filled with meaning. The color theme represents vastness and loneliness, but also kinetic energy found in warm orange tones.
"Pisces Koi" is a bold and intricate black-and-white ink piece that blends symbolism with fluid motion. A koi fish, known for its resilience and transformation, weaves through a bed of blooming roses, creating a contrast between movement and stillness. The fine details in the scales and petals bring depth, making the composition feel alive.
The upward motion of the koi echoes the legend of perseverance—where a koi swimming upstream becomes a dragon—mirroring the Pisces spirit of adaptation and ambition. The roses introduce another layer, possibly symbolizing beauty, personal growth, or challenges that shape us.
This piece captures a sense of quiet strength and fluidity, speaking to those drawn to themes of transformation, water energy, and the balance between struggle and grace.
Aka Seraphina H. I redrew her the most. Out of all the variations I love this one the most tho it won't be her final look. I struggle with the face and fitting it into the body. Her outfit doesn't suit her because she borrowed it from a family member for a costume party.
Our Dining Room is my favorite room in the house. Every family meal we eat at home happens there - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Meal times are our sacred family time to share our day, our thoughts, our struggles, our successes, etc. We do have a breakfast area. But aside from homework, projects, or reading the newspaper, the breakfast area doesn't get much use unless needed for overflow from the dining room when we have visitors.
Fineliner sketch depicting the unruly world that is the press, i struggle with many news outlets and the odds they use to sell and manipulate people. It can cause real suffering, real negativity, real bigotry. Blood is on all there hands.
The theme was 'tension' in which we had to create a work of art using brown paper bags. In the midst of high school drama and stressful testing seasons, I created this mixed media drawing of a woman screaming and pulling at her hair. The hair is made of the brown paper bags to give it depth and texture. The drawing was created on brown paper with white pen highlights.
Gouache painting. I've been trying to paint more abstract references quickly and loosely, but I'm finding it a struggle. I'll keep trying. I finally got around to scanning this. This was painted May 15, 2020.
Every person chooses his/her own path. Somepeople help others. Some people quit. Some people settle for less. That's the theme. I always loved the textures of insects so chose it as main thing to look at. And then trekking is easiest way of seeing struggle. That's about it.
Voyaging deep within forest realms to consume flesh of children hiding. A beast delighted, but a struggle to find them. What horrors emerge to confirm nightmarish awake?
These are watercolor and pencil and ink drawings. They are 5 of 10 images of my hand from a child's board book from which I peeled the laminated pages and exposed the underlying cardboard. I have always struggled with a very large Port Wine Stain birthmark, and periodically make art about that, this one of two books this year.
I had something bum me out a little bit today. Nobody’s fault but it is what it is. So I decided to draw this up. I’m ready for fall and fall beers! I love to sit out under the moon once the temperature drops a bit and have some marzen lagers and other fall drinks. I felt like this captured the moment perfectly. I am excited for music fest in @havertownlife havertown tomorrow. I heard @levantebrewing will be pouring at brick and brew so I’ll be there sucking back some suds. I’m glad I forced myself to learn #adobeillustrator I’ve come a long way. Since then I have been able to help other artists that don’t use Illustrator or vectors and I am pretty proud of that, because when I was in their place it always felt like a huge struggle.
So some of these images are concepts covers for Monster. I'm done setting dates. When I finish it, I finish it. But until then, concepts.
Monster is going to be story based on mental health with a mix of religion. I have stories inside and they are scratching to get out. But the struggles are real and I'm trying to get the images out and onto the screen, paper, and ink.