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| 10/1/17 south Seattle |
For the third consecutive year, I’m participating in Jake Parker’s annual initiative to
encourage people to draw daily in ink for the month of October. During my first year, I gave it a try without
any theme or goal beyond making the daily sketches (you can see them all in this Flickr album). Last year I started out with the theme
of making my own coloring book – simple line drawings with a black brush pen. But
I had also hoped that the challenge would encourage me to try some sketches
from imagination – something I rarely do. At some point during the month, my
cartoon character Weather Bunny evolved spontaneously
from some imaginative doodles I had been trying – and she continues to report on the weather occasionally to this day.
(See my sketches from InkTober 2016.)
I’m pleased that InkTober helped push me in a new direction.
A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about what I
wanted to do for InkTober this year. My first impulse was to reach for my two
great drawing loves – fountain pen and brush pen – especially since my focus this
year on colored and graphite pencils has caused me to use ink less lately, and
I’ve missed it. But then I remembered that the impetus for Parker’s initiative
in the first place was to encourage people to challenge themselves – and
falling back on comfortable, beloved tools might allow me to be too lazy.
Just lately I’ve been watching the work of Richard Johnson reporting on Hurricane Maria’s aftermath in Puerto Rico. Former Washington
Post news illustrator Johnson has long been one of my urban sketching
heroes, and he is famous for using nothing but a lowly ballpoint pen for most of
his drawings from the trenches (literally). So for InkTober this year, I
decided I’m going to challenge myself to work in ballpoint. I’ve used it now and then, but ballpoint
hasn’t grabbed me as a sketching medium of choice. One of the interesting
things about ballpoint ink, however, is that values can be built up gradually in much the same way as graphite. So I’ll be practicing skills similar to
those I’m using in my graphite drawing class,
even though it’s a very different medium. Ballpoint is also an ideal medium for
practicing my very rusty hatching skills, which I haven’t worked on much since my pen and ink class.
Tell me what you’re doing for #InkTober2017!
I agree that sketching in ballpoint would be a challenge. To me it is challenging enough to get a sketch done in ink each day. Is that little red car done in red ballpoint?
ReplyDeleteYes, the red car was in ballpoint, too. I have a 4-color ballpoint pen I'm going to use all month. It gives me little touches of color when I'm not planning to use any other media.
DeleteI would love to do this, but I don't know how/where to post my sketches!
ReplyDeleteI will use a brush pen and ballpoint pens.
Glad you're joining, Cathy! You can post to any social media you are already on just by using the hashtag. Or if you don't use social media, just do it anyway! The important part is taking part, even if you can't share online.
DeleteI'm trying the EDM challenge, next October I may join the Inktober
ReplyDelete- Nadja
I'm in the "Happy to manage a drawing that is recognisable" a day school. Two days in and enjoying it. I'm using Copic Multiliners, Micron drawing pens and from Derwent Graphik line painters and line makers plus Baron Fig Element squire for the green - and reading your post I realised I can add a multi-colour ballpoint as well if I need to. I'm having a go at the prompts, though I may not do all of them.
ReplyDeleteYay! Have fun, Jan. I'm not planning to do the prompts, though if I'm out of ideas I might look at them.
Delete