It’s October, and to those of you involved in the art community online you’ll probably recognize that as a sign that it is the month of the very popular Inktober challenge! For those of you not familiar with it, Inktober asks that you draw a picture every day in October. You are encouraged to use ink and there is a list of prompts for every day of the month which you can use (but it’s not necessary).
This is my first year doing Inktober and I’ve been pretty happy with it so far. I don’t generally draw using only ink and pens so it’s been really quite nice to push myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve been using the prompt list because I fear that if I didn’t I would just draw the same stuff I usually do! Inevitably I am going to draw some of the things that I generally like drawing, but I am using this month as a push to get me further outside of my comfort level and I am trying to draw some things I normally wouldn’t.
Here are my Inktober drawings for the first week. I’ll be talking about them a little more individually below the gallery. Click on the images in the gallery below to see them in greater detail.
The first day’s prompt was “swift”. At first, I attempted to draw a swallow, but gave up on that quickly. I wish I had followed through with it because I have seen some of my other attempts at doing something different and have been very happy with the results. I should have pushed through that first day, but I didn’t. Oh well. This also was the first day I had ever used Copic markers. I got a set of greyscale Sketch markers for Inktober specifically so you’ll see me using them in every picture this week.
The second prompt was “divided” and I was simply attempting to “divide” the sun and the moon. The Earth seemed like a good thing to put in between!
Day three was “poison” and I went very, very literal here. I was excited about this prompt but just couldn’t come up with anything super original so I just drew a poison bottle. I used some India Ink for the background, which is why it looks a little shiny.
Day four was “underwater” and I think it is my favorite so far. I love the idea of a dark and scary ocean, and animals bigger than we can comprehend, and I was happy with how it turned out.
The fifth prompt was “long” and I really struggled with inspiration for this one as well. I ended up deciding to draw a giraffe’s face and I’m quite pleased with how this one came out as well. I started learning here that doing the tedious little details can really pay off in an ink drawing.
Day six was “sword” and I again went very literal, deciding to draw the sword in the stone. I spent a lot of time on the trees around the sides of the picture and I’m glad I did, I think they look decent. The background is again India ink so it’s a bit shiny.
The seventh prompt was “shy”. At first, I attempted to draw a shying horse but I didn’t like how it was coming out, so I decided that I wanted to draw a woman’s face (comfort zone!) but that she would be covering it up with a sweater. I decided to go all out and give her a winter hat as well, so I suppose she might look more cold than shy. Oh well. Again I tried to concentrate on the details of the hat and how the knitting might look. It’s not my favorite but I’m still happy with how it looks.
And that is the first seven days of Inktober! I will post another update in a week with my second week of prompts.