INKTOBER 2018 – DAYS 1 TO 5

Plans? What Plans? As is often the case with these Art Challenges, I had a plan for Inktober 2018, but once I actually started putting pen to paper, me plans went out the window lol

I’ll talk about some of the tings I’ve learnt in a bit, but first, here’s the drawings I created :)

DAYS 1 TO 5

PERSONA 4 FAN ART

DAYS 1 TO 5

lilSOPHiE’S INSPIRED BY OTHER ARTISTS

In total I created ten A6 (9x14cm) ink drawings, five fan art drawings of Persona 4 characters, and five lilSOPHiE‘s.

You can find out more about the five artists I was inspired by, via the following links:

• Marcos Mateu-Mestre •  Miles Johnston •  Mingjue Helen Chen  •  Genevieve FT • Cameron Stewart • 

WHAT I LEARNT?

I’ve learnt, and struggled with, so many things already, but I’ve had the most fun in ages doing these ink drawings. Here’s some of the main tings I’ve learnt so far

• It can Take Ages to find something to draw each day
• You discover so many new Inspiring Artists being part of Inktober
• A neat trick in Photoshop to turn Reference Photos into Ink Drawing Friendly Versions (I show it at the end of this video)
• Ink Drawing is a lot like Realistic Pencil Drawing
• Drawing your own Characters is so much Fun
• Feels Scary knowing you’re Committing to a Line and can’t erase it
• Derwent Graphik Fineliners are Amazing, especially the 0.1
• If you erase too soon, you’ll Smudge the Ink … I still find myself doing this, doh!
• Some of the same rules apply as when using pencils, like Working Top to Bottom and Left to Right (if right handed) to avoid smudging

I talk about them in the following video, but I thought for this post, I’d focus on one ting, and that’s Why I Changed my Plans, and a lil bit about how I’ve generally found working with Traditional Inks for the first time.

PLANS

They didn’t completely go out the window, but I had planned to do 31 drawings of my character lilSOPHIE cosplaying various videogame characters; I thought this would be both fun, and help me practice drawing her, but when I actually started using the inks on day one, I realised…I don’t know what I’m doing lol

Trying to turn lilSOPHiE into a videogame character, while also trying to work with Inks for the first time, it felt a bit too much. So what I did was, keeping the videogame theme alive, I pulled out my Persona 4 Art Book and basically turned some of the art in that book into ink drawings.

This helped, as I didn’t have to think too much, I just had to draw what I saw in the reference image, which allowed me to focus on getting a feel for how the ink behaved. After a couple of these, I glanced at a book on my bookshelf called Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre and had the idea of turning one of his drawings into a lilSOPHiE … Copying Other Artists Work is something I talked about on episode 24 of the So Free Art Podcast.

I did this just for fun at first, as a one off, but I enjoyed it so much, that I ended up doing it for each of the five days, and I will most likely carry on for the full 31 days of Inktober 2018.

Doing these two different Ink Drawings each day worked really well, because there’s a nice balance between them. Copying the reference image requires focus … it’s like doing a Realistic Pencil Drawing … whereas turning another Artists work into a lilSOPHiE uses a different part of the brain; it’s less about focusing on the details, ad more free flowing, like sketching, where you can just play around, trying to capture the essence of the drawing, while still practicing how to work with Inks.

Each day started with 10 minutes of 30 second Pencil Gesture Drawings, using QuickPoses.com, which helped me loosen up, than I did the videogame drawing, with the lilSOPHiE being a reward at the end :)

That’s why I love these Art Challenges though, you get Thrown in at the Deep End and it becomes Less about Planning, and More about Adapting.

THE NEXT 7 DAYS?

Thundercats HOOOO! lol

I’m thinking about doing 7 Thundercats Drawings next :) I loved the Thundercats as a kid, and I think they could look quite stylised with inks; I’m not 100% sure though, as I may do another 7 videogame characters.

I’m going to carry on turning other artists work into lilSOPHIE though, as that is so much fun, and I love how it helps me discover new Inspiring Artists.

I think that’s the main thing I’m taking away from Inktober 2018 so far … there are so many amazingly Inspiring Artists out there.

Thank you Inktober!