This is my final illustration for Inktober 2021! This one was for the prompt "risk", although I think the real title ought to be "I hate drawing hands".
If you watch the time-lapse below, you'll see a couple of misfires in my sketches before I finally settle on what to draw.
First, I thought I'd draw someone playing Risk (the board game). I thought it would be cool to see the thrown dice tumbling toward the viewer and the board below. After getting started on the sketch though, I just didn't like the way it was looking.
Next, I thought I'd draw a baby reaching up and trying to stand. I don't really like drawing babies though, because the proportions are difficult to get right, so I scrapped that one quickly.
Finally, I settled on the sketch for the finished drawing, but not before considering another idea my wife had about a creature taking off their human mask, revealing a werewolf, vampire, or some other monster underneath (it's Halloween today, after all). I liked that idea a lot, but I didn't feel like doing something so complicated, so I pushed ahead with the hands.
The idea behind this is the risk one takes whenever they express their true feelings towards someone else. It makes me think of my wife - we've been together much longer than when we got married, and it always amazes me how a relationship like that starts with such simple but powerfully charged gestures.
Anyway - there's a time-lapse of this drawing's creation below. If you've been following along with me as I make these each day, I appreciate it, and hope you've been enjoying them!