Line by Line

Art Gallery: Inktober 2016

I've known about the Inktober challenge for a few years, but never participated because I didn't think I could do it. I decided to give it a shot this year after a personal/family issue late in September made me take a look at my priorities in life and learn to start getting stuff done.

For those unaware, Inktober involves making one ink drawing every day during October, ideally posting them online as you go. I didn't have time for that, so I'm posting them all at once. Jake Parker has more Inktober info on his site, including an optional list of subjetcs (which I mostly ignored).

Due mainly to time constraints, I tried to stick with small, simple drawings. I set myself some additional rules, such as not making corrections with (e.g.) white paint and not touching the drawings after the day they were finished. I didn't quite manage to draw every day, but I did end up with one drawing for every day of the month.

If these are too hard to see, I have a larger version. For the time being, instead of toggling the size of the image on this page, I'll just link straight to the image. I also have versions that haven't been cleaned up from the raw scans, so you can see the underlying pencil drawing in places: Page one, page two. As usual, you can also see this image on deviantArt.

I hope it's not too terribly self-indulgent to share a short thought or two about each sketch:

1. The lumpy dragon was supposed to be inspired by a jack-o-lantern. (The mouth isn't shaded because it's supposed to be glowing.) It ended up not coming across, but you can still see it in the horns. Also, I forgot to ink part of the eye.
2. The little dragon on the pumpkin was fun and easy, and turned out pretty cute, I think.
3. Gryphon looks cute at first, but I don't like the look in his eye. Or the other look in his other eye. Eyes are hard, you guys.
4. Yep, that's a mermaid scarecrow. The patches are round on the bottom to evoke scales. The soybeans plants behind it are probably a bit more crooked than they ought to be.
5. I don't know what possessed me to design a dragon based on solar panels, but I should have known he'd take a long time to ink. That's why he's the only drawing that spanned multiple days.
6. To make up the extra day, I did two drawings in one day, so I picked simple subjects. This is a sealed letter based on a picture from Wikipedia. The Japanese means "shield," or else it means that I need to stop trusting Google Translate.
7. Folded-up American flag inspired by a recently-deceased veteran relative.
8. I did the candle from imagination, not reference, so the way the light permeates the wax is probably wrong. Still turned out pretty neat, I think.
9. After finishing the key-dragon, I realized it would feel more natural if its tail curled the other way. Oh well.
10. The flower is a Sneezeweed. My mother says it looks more like a cone flower.
11. The dragon eye is one of my favorites. It turned out better than I expected, even if the lower scales could use some work.
12. I did an extra drawing on the twelfth to make up for skipping the eighth. The official prompt for the eighth was "Rock," so I drew...wait for it...a rock concert. (I have no shame.)
13. Not too thrilled with how the nails turned out; the perspective on the heads is a little wonky. Another simple subject to make up a missed day.
14. I actually have that scythe in my house. It belonged to my grandfather.
15. It's not fall without candy corn and candy pumpkins! The pumpkin doesn't look candy-ish enough, but I like it anyway.
16. Dragon looks good, and he knows it. (Don't tell him about his shoulders not matching.)
17. I own this paintbrush, too. It's a Winsor & Newton, even. Using it as reference for this drawing is about the most use I've gotten out of it so far.
18. Broom and cauldron, because It's October, after all.
19. Another small, cute dragon. I think I have a problem.
20. More traditional lead-up-to-Halloween stuff with a black cat and a jack-o-lantern. Good luck getting her out of there.
21. I went retro-futuristic with the rocket ship, just for a change of pace. I wish the fins were the same size and shape, but it kinda works anyway.
22. The key was definitely the result of my watching Boss Keys, Mark Brown's YouTube series on Zelda series dungeon design.
23. Scarecrow politician may or may not count as a "straw man" pun.
24. I'm not happy with the shading on the treasure chest, but the texture turned out all right. I think I have a good handle on wood.
25. Not thrilled with the shading on the peanuts, either, especially how scratchy it is. It has grown on me a bit since I finished it, though.
26. The half-dragon was another make-up drawing. In hindsight, it reads less as "cool and asymmetrical" than as "up against the edge of the paper," which I was.
27. I'm really pleased with how the shed turned out. Grass could use some work, and there are some other nitpicks, but looking at this one just makes me happy.
28. I tried a couple times earlier in the month to draw a retro-futuristic ray gun, and couldn't get it looking right. This time...I still couldn't get it looking right. Probably the one I'm least pleased with.
29. On the 29th, I got stumped for what to draw and returned to the prompt list. The prompt was "Surprise." But you're not surprised, because you knew I was just going to draw a dragon anyway.
30. The crystal is based on enargite, from a book of minerals I was flipping through for inspiration. The reference photo I used from Wikimedia Commons doesn't show all the smaller crystals aroud the bottom, but the sample in the book had them. It's still not a great likeness, though. I'll just call it Handwavium instead.
31. For the last one, I decided to return to the spooky theme, it being Halloween and all. It turns out I actually don't know what frogs look like. I like the hat, though.

This image is tagged with: 2016, art dump, blue pencil, cat, dragon, fantasy, frog, gryphon, Halloween, inked, Inktober, scarecrow, sci-fi, and shaded.

Newer: Inktober 2018 | Gallery | Older: Wet Cat