I successfully completed 31 drawings for Inktober 2017! They were made in the Sketchbook Project sketchbook that I will be submitting to the Brooklyn Art Library for 2018. The highlight of my Inktober, was on Halloweeen when the Mütter Museum reposted my Inktober sketch of conjoined twins that are on display at the Mütter Museum. My Inktober sketches are mostly cartoons of robots, aliens, and skeletons, with a few other things thrown in there. I used a dip pen with Liquitex Ink! muted colors for several sketches, but I fell back on my old standby, the brush pen, for most of the drawings. As this was quite a challenge, this was my Create-A-thon activity for the entire month. Here are all 31 sketches.
Inktober 2017
I've made it through the first week of Inktober 2017, my fourth year participating. The materials that I've been using are a selection of several brush pens - the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, a Kuretake No. 8 Brush Pen, and a Sakura MB Medium Brush pen. I've also been using several dip pens with Liquitex Ink! in several colors along with Prismacolor pencils for a touch of extra color. I am working in a Sketchbook Project sketchbook that I plan to submit to the Brooklyn Art Library when finished. The paper is somewhat light for heavy inking so I've been creating some of the drawings on bristol paper and taping them down to the pages with permanent double-sided tape. I've mainly been using my old sketchbooks as a source of inspiration along with the official daily prompts for some days.
I was on vacation last week so completing each drawing every day was pretty easy, but it will be more challenging when I go back to work tomorrow. I've already got my bag packed with an assortment of daily inking supplies so that I can tackle this challenge on my lunch hour each day.
Inky Explorations
Week 20 - Experimenting with ink using an inexpensive bamboo pen, a stick, and ink wash with fountain pen details. I picked up a two pack of the bamboo pens at Hobby Lobby, and the stick from our backyard.
I was inspired to get out the bamboo pens after seeing a video from one of my subscribed channels on YouTube. I used photos of Egyptian Art that I had taken at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore for sketching ideas. I found drawing with the bamboo pen allowed for some variation in the lines and sometimes distributed blobs of ink that were unpredictable, but I like the results. I especially liked the Liquitex Muted Inks with these pens. I have four of the five colors in the line - violet, turquoise, green and pink. I may pick up the last color, gray, at some point.
My niece is studying to be a graphic designer and she showed me one of her college projects made with stick and ink, so I thought I would try that out. Drawing with the stick was even more unpredictable than the bamboo pen and it was easy to make loose, random strokes with it. I held it high away toward the end of the stick, allowing for a less controlled line, the effect is very sketchy. I also liked the Liquitex Muted Inks better with the stick.
I only tried one wash and ink line drawing, the last of the day. This exercise was described in the book, Art Before Breakfast, by Danny Gregory, a great book filled with creative ways to get you drawing more. I like the results with this as well, and may experiment with that technique using different colors of ink.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017, a year long creative exploration - Derwent Inktense Pencils.
Liquitex Ink!
Week 5 - Liquitex Ink! in Vivid Lime Green, Red and the new muted colors of Pink, Turquoise, and Violet. I also have Transparent Raw Umber and Dioxazine Purple, which I didn't get a chance to make drawings with this week. I made all of the drawings with a Speedball nib holder and drawing pen nib on Canson XL recycled Bristol Paper. I really like the muted colors and will probably get the other two colors in the set. I think that I need to get a little more practice getting a consistent line with the drawing nib, but I kinda like the uneven quality of the lines in these drawings.
Next up in Create-A-Thon 2017, Reeves Gouache Paintings on Kraft and Black Papers.