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| 10/5/16 brush pen (inspired by photo) |
We’re a week into InkTober,
and I’m enjoying the challenge more as I get into it! I’m still on my plan to make a coloring book of
sorts – line drawings in black ink only. I’m mixing it up by using a variety of
pens – my Sailor fude fountain pen and
both hairy and non-hairy brush pens.
The hard part is pushing myself not to fall back on my usual
comfortable habits – drawing from life in a realistic way. On the one hand,
allowing myself to draw from Internet photos or imagination is easier in that I
don’t have to leave the house or look around it for something to draw. And making
line drawings means I don’t have to think about color or shading. But pulling
stuff directly out of my brain and putting it into my sketchbook is not easy for
me.
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| 10/6/16 brush pen (from imagination) |
The Artists Network recently published an article by Jake Parker, the initiator of the InkTober movement, about
how participating in the initiative can change one’s life. It’s not really
about whether you use ink in the month of October, he says; it’s more about
developing a regular drawing habit (that part I already know about). What I found most interesting was that in his own
experience, he tends to do the same ol’ thing for the first 10 days, falling
back on comfortable habits. By Day 11, he runs out of old ideas, and “It’s
usually around this time that I start doing really off-the-wall stuff that
sparks a new flavor of creativity in me and sets me off in a new, more exciting
direction. The first 10 days is all my old tricks, the last 21 days are
exciting and invigorating because I’m covering new ground.” As a huge fan of studying
the creative process, I found his experience fascinating and exciting.
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| 10/2/16 brush pen (manga-inspired selfie pulled from my brain while looking at other manga images online) |
How about you? How’s InkTober going?
So far so good; I'm enjoying the challenge of daily drawing. I've thought about it before but just never committed to myself to actually doing it. So far I'm doing my sketching to start my day before heading to work....today I broke out my brush pen to shake it up too.....
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're enjoying it! It's all about the process for me.
DeleteI don't work well from my imagination, but you seem to do fine. I've tried to dig out all the different kinds of inks and pens that I have neglected and give them some use. But it is so much easier to just go out and sketch like normal. lol
ReplyDelete"Normal" is definitely easier, but it's good to shake it up now and then! I really like the one you did with the glass pen! I have one of those too, but it's super scratchy and weird -- you seem to be doing much better with yours!
DeleteI love your Manga Tina. As for drawing from imagination, there are at least two forms. There's make up non-realistic drawings as you're doing and that's really fun. But there's another kind that can really affect who well you can depict reality. This kind of drawing from imagination trains your visual memory by attempting to draw, realistically, something you've seen or think you've seen. First you'll be amazed as how many questions you have about the 'thing' you're drawing but with enough practice you'll be able to tap into a growing body of visual memories of things to let you draw accurately even when the object isn't in front of you. The bonus of this is that if you start doing it regularly, you'll start looking at everything differently, trying to feed that visual memory bank.
ReplyDeleteSure, I remember discussing that. Probably requires more serious study than I'm willing to give for Inktober! ;-) But I agree that it would be a really valuable skill to learn.
DeleteIt's ironic that as a teenager in high school art classes, I had no shortage of ideas of things to draw from my imagination (also writing poetry and short stories). The only thing that hampered me was the lack of skills and and experience with techniques. I was constantly doodling and sketching, even in other classes and when I was suppose to be doing homework. I wish now that I'd saved my sketchbooks and various class projects. As an adult, I find it increasingly difficult to come up with ideas for sketching off the top of my head, either from memory (cause that's going for sure!) or just pure imagination. It's like my brain, or my inner critic, won't allow it. Maybe if I forced myself to draw from a photo, book, or magazine once in a while it might jar something loose. Just switch things up a bit.maybe some zentangling and playing with patterns. I vaguely remember my high school art teacher (who was very cool about experimenting and squashing your inner critic) assigning all kinds of neat projects to help students express themselves. It's really unfortunate that they are cutting visual arts programs out of schools these days.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I did so much drawing from imagination when I was young (I'd already stopped by high school and had switched to creative writing), and at some point it's like a switch flips, and the inner critic steps in. Or maybe it was just the perception that drawing is "kid stuff." We all had it as kids -- that ability to express freely even without skill -- and most of us lose it. But I have faith that we all have the ability to get it back again -- it just doesn't come naturally the way it did when we were 8! Keep going, Wendi -- it's still in there! :-)
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