InkTober Finale

 

This year’s InkTober has been so much fun! While most of my reference photos were pets I had drawn previously with colored pencils as fundraiser commissions, a few were new, like Roz and Nemo. When friends saw me posting the portraits on Facebook, they shared photos of their pets, and I later surprised them. Nothing makes people smile like seeing sketches of their own dogs and cats.

This InkTober may have been a first in at least one way: I used the same Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for the entire 31 days, and I used a white Sakura Gelly Roll for highlights on all but one day. I thought I would use my Sailor Naginata to help with detail more than once or twice, but I didn’t. It wasn’t my intention to be so consistent, but the more I used the brush pen and Gelly Roll pairing (see below), the more I liked them for what I wanted to practice during the month: Fast (15 minutes or less), expressive portraits.

An InkTober first: Same pens all month.

Over time, I found myself becoming more accurate without measuring or blocking (the time-consuming part of the more realistic drawings I had done before). After 31 days, I now feel confident that I can offer this portrait style for commissions and make them in a timely way that also feels satisfying to me. InkTober mission accomplished!

As I always am on Oct. 31, I’m relieved that InkTober is over, even as I enjoyed every day of it. As much as I’d like to take a break from themed challenges, we all know what’s next – Pencilvember! 

The last few years when my InkTober themes were based on human faces,
I always ended with a selfie. This year I ended with a less common pet:
Timmy, the bearded dragon, who is decked out in a bow tie for his parents' wedding!

Inktober, Week 3

 

In addition to being the most challenging InkTober I’ve given myself in a while, this year is also the most enjoyable in a long time. I love drawing pets, and with these practice sketches, I’m under no pressure as I am with commissioned portraits. Even as they’re all challenging in different ways, they’re all pure fun!

With Bailey (above) and Butters (below), both dogs had solidly dark fur on their faces. These are among the hardest for me to draw using nothing but a brush pen. I want to show the form and whatever subtle highlights are visible on dark fur, which means I have to avoid inking too solidly. It’s a fine line between good shading and going flat.

I especially like the way Bailey came out with a graphical quality that evokes comics. Practicing this technique, though, requires reference photos with good lighting and strong contrasts – apparently difficult to come by when people quickly snap photos of their pets doing whatever it is pets do.

In most cases this week, I did an OK job of capturing likeness but a better job capturing the animals’ character (although somehow the cats ended up with more attitude than they appear to have in their photos. Hmmm, maybe that says more about this artist than the sitters).

The reference photo for Dixie Sue (below) was among the worst I have had to work from for a commission: Dimly lighted, a bit out of focus, with almost no contrast. The photo’s saving grace were the lovely catchlights in her eyes that gave her so much expression. I went with a simple line drawing and let the features do the work. (I’m always amused by the slightly worried expression all chihuahuas seem to have!)

InkTober, Week 2

 

For week 2 of InkTober, I tried to up my game by sometimes choosing more challenging reference photos. Like the cats – black cats (my double nemesis, though timely for the season). The challenge is avoiding a solid black face by retaining subtle highlights. With only two tones – black and the midtone colored paper – it’s hard to distinguish between the darkest local fur color and shading on that dark fur. The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen is better at making calligraphic line strokes than hatching large shapes. Poor Ada, a gorgeous cat in reality, took on a grumpy, gorilla look from all my bold brush pen strokes.

Overall, the dogs were much easier; a snout defines the face much more easily than the subtle forms of cats. Except for wall-eyed Fin, my unmeasured proportions are improving. I didn’t choose any solid-black dogs, however. Maybe that will be my challenge for week 3.

I’ve been sticking to my time limit of 15 minutes or less. After I feel confident about that time limit with a brush pen, I might try allowing 20 to 30 minutes and use a fountain pen to hatch. That might be a better approach with black animals.

(All InkTober reference photos were used previously for commissioned pet portraits in the past couple of years.)

Poor Ada... a wolfman cat.

Pet Portraits for InkTober

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m taking advantage of InkTober to practice pet portraiture in a style that’s more time-efficient as well as more fun and challenging in a new way. I’m allowing myself no more than 15 minutes for each portrait, mainly to keep InkTober from becoming burdensome but also as an exercise in speed without sacrificing too much accuracy. Without careful measuring and blocking as I used to do with colored pencil portraits, I sometimes lose proportions, but I’m hoping that will improve over time.

 o far, I am really enjoying the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen alone or with my Sailor Naginata fude de mannen fountain pen (containing Platinum Carbon Black ink). The white Gelly Roll is for tiny highlights only, like the catchlight in the eye, and whiskers. For the cat, I used a light gray Uni Pin brush pen for the shadow that the eyelids cast on the cat’s eyes. It probably wasn’t necessary, but before I put in that shading, the cat didn’t seem to have quite the same attitude. My goal is to capture the animal’s essence more than an exact resemblance.

Another thing I used sparingly was the fude pen to hatch shading or dark fur in some areas. I need to avoid the temptation, though, of drawing in all the fur with the finer pen, which is another reason for my 15-minute time limit!

One of the biggest challenges so far is drawing white or light-colored fur with a black brush pen only (both Oct. 5 and 6). I end up drawing mainly the negative spaces around the light fur. Another challenge will be drawing an all-black animal without ending up with a solid black mass of ink. The first week was a warm-up; I’ll move on to more challenging pets soon!

(All reference photos for InkTober pet portraits were used previously for commissioned portraits in the past couple of years.)

InkTober Finale: Lackadaisical

 

Gel ink

Bic ballpoint

I began InkTober 2024 lazily, and I finished lackadaisical. Less than halfway through the month, I was already bored because I didn’t challenge myself enough, which I regret. By the third week, I was just going through the motions. As I always say, what’s the point of doing any drawing challenge if it’s not actually challenging? It bothered me that I didn’t think of a way to push myself harder (and truthfully, I was so preoccupied with my ongoing downsizing tasks that I didn’t want to spend more than 15 minutes a day on InkTober).

Bic ballpoint

Uni Pin and Sakura Micron technical pens

That’s not to say that I didn’t learn anything. Just as I’ve discovered from all my face-parts series, human mouths are fascinating – the infinite range of shapes and forms – and exposed teeth really kicked up both the fun and the difficulty. OK, so maybe it was a bit challenging – I can live with that.

Sailor Fude de Mannen fountain pen and 
Platinum Carbon Black ink

As always, many thanks to Earthsworld for his daily Instagram photo references (all but Oct. 31) that made finding inspiration so easy.

Edited: I just put all my Inktober 2024 sketches into a Flickr album. I rarely make a series that looks consistent throughout, but I do like the way they all look together in a grid!

My apparent tradition for these face-parts series is to end 
with a selfie. ;-)

Ballpoint Nuances

 

Both sketches made with Bics

I rarely discuss the nuances of ballpoint pens, but if not during InkTober, when? Now that I’m three-quarters of the way through the month, I’m finally running out of styles and unique specimens of Bics – my favorite ballpoint pens for drawing. Of course, I certainly have numerous Bic 4 Colors in various color combos and probably an infinite number of advertising Clics and Stics (or at least I used to; I was merciless during my recent dejunking of drawers). But I thought the challenge would be more interesting if I started trotting out other ballpoints I have.

Oct. 17: Bic; Oct. 18: Caran d'Ache

Although Bic is still my favorite by a wide margin, if I had to choose a No. 2, it would be the Caran d’Ache 849 ballpoint (Oct. 18 at right). I have several, but they differ only in body color. It’s kind of the opposite of the Bic: Overpriced but made of a solid yet lightweight metal body and a quiet, bouncy knock. I wouldn’t own so many just for the varying bodies, though, if I didn’t like the ink (contained in Caran d’Ache’s overpriced, proprietary cartridges, of course). It’s not Bic, but it’s smooth and reliable to draw with (at least for small studies like these). It just takes longer to build up values. One positive quality is that it never blobs like Bic ink is prone to doing regularly.

Worse yet for building values is the Uni Jetstream, which is my favorite for writing but one of my least favorites for drawing. The sketches for Oct. 19 and 20 (below) made a convenient page (almost like a product comparison test) of basic Bic Clic and Cristal pens (Oct. 19) and a Jetstream (Oct. 20). I’ve said this before, but Bic ink is like a graphite pencil in its pressure sensitivity and ability to layer with subtle gradations. My technique is the same in both of these sketches, but the individual lines are more apparent with a Jetstream.

I should also pause here to mention that I’ve been using a white 0.5 Sakura Gelly Roll all month for highlights, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by its good behavior. It hasn’t clogged yet. (I have more than week to go . . . I hope I haven’t jinxed it.)

Oct. 19: Bics, Oct. 20: Uni Jetstream

Two "grades" of Bics used for this one

Upping the InkTober Challenge

Despite my claim of seeking laziness, I was feeling bored and unchallenged by my InkTober mouth theme. What’s the point of doing any drawing challenge if I’m not challenged? It was time to up my game – with exposed teeth! Anyone who has ever made a smiling portrait knows that one of the hardest features to render are the teeth without getting the jack-o-lantern look. It’s a worthy challenge.

I especially enjoyed rendering the unusual
view and lovely backlighting of Oct. 10.

In particular, I’ve become intrigued by the complex values involved in these close-up, small studies of the mouth. In addition to the usual form shadows of the lips, the upper lip usually casts a subtle shadow on the teeth. If the tongue is visible, the teeth may be casting a shadow on it, too. And the darkest value always belongs to the deep cavern of nothingness behind (or between) the teeth.

As always, my thanks to Earthsworld for an endless source of reference photos. Now that I’m looking specifically for exposed teeth, I have to scroll a bit sometimes to find what I need, but I’m still trying to be as random as possible by picking the first one I see.

Lazy InkTober

 

Painter John Singer Sargent once said that a portrait is “a likeness in which there is something wrong about the mouth.” Indeed, with all the portrait practice I’ve done with Earthsworld’s reference photos, I have definitely found the mouth to be challenging. If the head is turned even slightly, perspective and foreshortening complicate matters. Worthy of concentrated practice, the mouth seemed as good a theme as any for InkTober this year.

Despite that inherent challenge, I must admit that my primary motivation in choosing the theme was sheer laziness. As I did last year with noses (and ears for Pencilvember), using Earthsworld’s daily image posts makes finding a reference photo fast and easy. In fact, I upped my laziness game further this year by deciding I would sketch whatever mouth Earth posted that day – no scrolling required!

As for ink, I’ve been using Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and acrylic markers so much lately that I’ve been missing good ol’ Bics. I may change it up later in the month, but for now, I’m just going with that basic of pens. Paper was a no-brainer: October screams for an orange Uglybook.

Happy InkTober to those who are participating (it’s my 10^th year)! I’m posting daily on Instagram, and I’ll report in here on my blog periodically.

Happy birthday, WB!

By the way, Oct. 5 was Weather Bunny’s eighth birthday! Although I don’t always remember to observe her birthday, it was during InkTober of 2016 that I first made the prototype sketch that would eventually evolve into the WB we know today. The organic way in which she developed is one of my best examples of how a creative challenge like InkTober can lead to unexpected and unplanned results – which makes them worth doing, even if the challenge itself might not feel productive.