Inktober 2018

[Sal]

It’s that time again: the air is cooling. The pumpkins are spiced. The skeletons are ready to rise. And the side of my dominant hand is covered in marker smudges.

It’s Inktober!

...What’s Inktober?

Inktober is a month dedicated to using traditional media to make art in a digital age. Specifically, inks of all kinds - India ink, marker, acrylics, gel pen, and so on.

There’s an official prompt each day, and this year, the prompts are:



I’ve actually attempted Inktober for the past three years, but I’ve ended up changing jobs and moving and having other life stuff get in the way for the past three years. But no more excuses! (Hopefully!) I’m going to try and do something for each day this year.

My goals with this are: (1) To commit to making time to practice with different tools and (2) to learn something with every drawing.

So yep, that’s Inktober. I’d love to see what everyone creates, because I know there are definitely some artists among us. Even if it doesn’t fit the themes, if you make some traditional art during the month of October, feel free to share it so we can all ooooh and ahhhh over it!

[Sal]

Sal’s Tools

- Prismacolor Premier Black Fine Liners (.08 - .005 mm)
- Sharpie Pen Black (1 mm)
- Sakura Black Archival Ink Marker Pen (1 mm)
- Pilot G-2 .07 mm pens (assorted neon colors)
- Crayola Super Tips (50 count assorted colors)
- Ohuhu Watercolor Brush Pens (assorted colors + water brush)
- Daler-Rowney Acrylic Artists’ Ink (white) + refillable pen
- A handful of various alcohol-based dual tip markers, mostly in neutral tones
- Whatever we keep in the junk drawer that can be considered ink.


Sal’s Week 1 Finished Prompts (Collapsed for your scrolling convenience!)

Show ContentSpoiler:

10.1 — Poisonous - “Golly gee willikers! How DOES Miss Dart always take the blue ribbon at the county fair bake-off? Why, with her killer apple pies, of course!”

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go with a poison dart frog theme or a poison apple theme so... both? Sure. Lessons learned: Crayola can be blended on paper made specifically for markers, although after about two coats, the paper takes on a... texture. Ew. WATCH OUT FOR SMUDGES!!

Recommended listening: "Bubblegum Bitch" - Marina and the Diamonds

---

10.2 — Tranquil - In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the... Well, lions live more in the plains than the jungle. So it's a panther. It sleeps tonight. Or today; they're nocturnal.

I knew I wanted to do something in the blues and greens you'd find deep under the canopy of the rainforest, and the word 'tranquil' made me think of watercolors, so that's primarily what's been used here. Lessons learned: It's really hard to push/pull color values; work on that more. Maybe invest in proper watercolor paper since the mixed media paper is not doing its best. DO NOT APPLY MARKER IF YOU DON'T THINK YOU'RE DONE WITH WATERCOLOR.

Recommended listening: "Shine" - Sam Padrul

---

10.3 — Roasted - I’m allergic to carrots but I love the way they taste, so this is just a fantasy fulfillment piece complete with rosemary and pomegranate garnish.

I had a long drive to and from a community meeting tonight and didn’t get home til almost 10:00pm, so I knew I wouldn’t want to draw anything tonight and thus we have an Office Supplies Edition. I only used a black, orange, purple, and green Pilot pen and a yellow Sharpie highlighter.

I learned that purple and yellow can actually produce a nice result when mixed and doesn’t always come out as sad brown.

Recommended listening: ???

---

10.4 — Spell - A little witch-in-training has learned the levitation spell, and maybe got a little carried away and levitated everything in her room, but she hasn't quite figured out the reversal yet. Oops.

I want to color this one eventually, but didn’t get around to it last night. I don’t 100% trust the tools I have to make it look decent, either, so I’ll probaby make a copy.

Recommended Listening: ”Magic” - Mystery Skulls

---

10.5 — Chicken - The biggest foe Chicken Warrior faces is the hungry human members in his party. Stay away from that campfire, Chicken Warrior.

I just wanted to draw something other than food. That seemed too obvious.

With this one, I practiced light coming from a source in front of the subject. I'm not thrilled by the results, but next time I will look for a better resource.

Recommended listening: "Winged Hussars [8-bit remix]" - Sabaton

---

10.6 & 10.7 — Drooling & Exhausted - Sleepy pupper.

I foresee myself combining prompts for all weekends since I tend to be on the go more during the weekends. Time will tell. Luckily, these two prompts were mashed up super easily.

Anyhow, I've been practicing with single-line drawings (exactly what it sounds like - not picking up the pen as you draw) and wanted to try it out on a non-human subject. I think the dog I referenced was a Frenchie. Or a pug. I don't really know, they kind of all look the same from the below-chin angle.

Recommended listening: "The Dog Song" - Nellie McKay

[Sal]

On track for Week 2! So far, I’ve made it way further into an Inktober than I’ve ever managed before. Not halfway there yet, but this is still something.

Sal’s Completed Week 2 Prompts (Still collapsed for your viewing pleasure!)

Show ContentSpoiler:

10.8 — “Star” - Space Barbie.

Watercolor galaxy scenes are kind of my go-to when I don’t know what else to paint, so imagine my delight when the prompt aligns with my favorite thing. This one is technically unfinished because I want to add stars, but I haven’t been able to find a white gel pen. So it’s as finished as I can make it for now.

And I did get this finished yesterday; I’m just late posting it.

I learned a lot about shading larger areas with cheap Crayola ink (minus the skin tone which was Prismacolor) and about using water-on-marker to get some interesting effects.

Recommended Listening: ”Astronautti” — Pariisin Kevät

---

10.9 — “Precious” - I mean, I was obviously going to draw kittens. These are summer camp kittens. Or something.

Tools: Prismacolor Premier Fine Liners, Crayola Super Tips

Lessons learned: I really REALLY need some less saturated colors. Uh. I like the bushes and the grass. And slingshot kitten came out well. I need to work on planning colors out better beforehand; ice cream kitten’s bandana ended up being almost the same color as the bush. Oops.

Recommended listening: ???

---

10.10 — “Flowing” - Legend has it, following the Rapunzel River upstream leads to a most peculiar and wonderful source. But, of course, that’s just a legend.

This one, as well as “Tranquil” and “Star”, was one of the only prompts where I’ve known exactly what I was going to doodle as soon as I read it. The execution was definitely the more challenging part.

Warning for side boob and buttcheek eclipse, I guess?

Tools: Prismacolor Premier Fine Liners

Lessons learned: How to do rocky cliffs better. I really like the part of the cliff left of the water.

Recommended listening: “Even the Darkness Has Arms” - The Barr Brothers

---

10.11 — [No prompt] - Okay, so the prompt this day was “Cruel”, but that felt quite dark and meh. I wasn’t feeling it. What I WAS feeling was the spirit of autumn. The weather FINALLY turned, and yesterday was grey and blustery and my pumpkin spice powers were at their peak. So instead of something cruel, have these two cute cats on a date at the fall festival. :3 She’s excited about the spooky haunted maize maze, and he just wants to sample all the sweets.

Tools: Prismacolor Premier Fine Liners. I’ll probably color this one later, but in colored pencil for sure, so I guess that doesn’t count as ink.

Lessons learned: I’m terrible at backgrounds and “staging props” in a way that looks like the characters are actually in the same plane as the items, but I think I did okay with this one. I think you call that composition, but I’m not sure.

Recommended listening: All Hallow’s Eve Festival ASMR - Goodnight Moon

---

[url=http://i.imgur.com/LQjwJxD.jpg][u]10.12 & 10.14 -

[Sal]

WEEK 3 DID NOT GET OFF TO A GOOD START but I may go back and redo some of my lazier ones.

Show ContentSpoiler:

10.15 — 10.17 - You know, I did one picture for these days, but it was super lazy and I hate it and I’ll redo these days.

---

10.18 - “Bottle” — Just one drop and the potion will be complete....

Finally, for the first time in like a week, I made something that I’m decently happy with! Hooray!

Tools: Prismacolor Premier Fine Liners, Crayola Super Tips, Pilot G-2 pens

Lessons Learned: This one was done with a really similar intent as that of the “Chicken” piece with lighting etc. This one with a light source below/in front of the subject.

---

[Seperallis]

Well since this is long behind me and I won't feel like I'm interrupting, these are all fantastic and you should do it again. And more. MORE.