Inktober 2019: day 28 - ink and water

In principle, divination can be done with anything that has an element of chance. Even throwing rocks and dust in the air.

Fun fact: I didn’t clean my waterbrushes properly after using them for silver paint, so this one is slightly sparkly in real life.

Inktober 2019: day 27 - fineliners and grey pens

I was handing out minicomics featuring Patience at MCM, so I thought she could join in Inktober too! She’s the last character I can think of for the ‘girls looking straight ahead’ set, so I’ll have to come up with something else to do on busy days next year.

Inktober 2019: day 16 - gel pens

Spider starts to feel a bit sick if Nettle spins him around too much.

I don’t think I’ve done this picture in gel pens before? I’ve drawn it every Inktober so far, but I was at work and couldn’t check which inks I had and hadn’t used.

Inktober 2019: day 12 - brush inking and coloured ink

The way Nettle’s hair waves around when she uses her powers is a sign of poor control.

I wanted to practice using those rigger brushes a bit more, so I drew something pretty simple. They’re so hard to control! You can get more ink in them at once without losing the fine tip though.

Inktober 2019: day 7 - ink and water

Nettle is not renowned for her masterful control of her temper.

I wanted to have another go at blending only part of the picture like on day 1, but it didn’t work quite as well this time, it came out too dark and flat. In hindsight maybe spot colour would have been better, but hey ho this is how we learn.

Inktober 2019: day 5 - dip pen and liquid ink

Isaac doesn't always know how to pass the time at night

I had the idea for this one a few days ago, but had to save it for the weekend because I knew I wouldn't have enough time on a workday. In hindsight I could have pushed the lighting even more, maybe I'll give it another go later in the month.

This is also a turnip pen instead of my normal mapping pen. I've been having trouble finding replacement mapping nibs (although I've finally tracked down some that I like) so I've built up a small collection of alternatives.

Inktober 2019: day 3 - Fountain Pentel

Divination can be done with almost anything if you know how. Aichmomancy would normally be done with a knife or a spear, but a sharpened pencil will do.

I stayed within my time limit today, this one took almost exactly one hour. I'm already developing a much better grasp of how long it actually takes me to do something.

Inktober 2019: day 1 - ink and water

Spider often 'falls asleep' in lessons, but he isn't always sleeping.

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It's finally time for my favourite art challenge of the year, Inktober! I've started doing cover pages in my sketchbooks since last year, so I did one in preparation yesterday. I also go a full-time job since last Inktober, so this year will be a real test of my skills. I'll have to do each piece in the 90 minutes I can squeeze in before work, how is this going to turn out?

I'm never sure if people know what I mean by 'ink and water' - it's a drawing in water-soluble ink which I then move around with water. I've never tried to do it on only part of the picture before, how does it look?

Inktober 2018 : Day 25 - ink and water

Augury is the practice of divining the future from the flight of birds.

I have still been doing these, I’ve just been away from my scanner again! I don’t think I’ve ever been this busy during Inktober, I can count on one hand the number of full days off I’ve had this month. I’ve had to scrap some really nice ideas because I just didn’t have enough time to get them done.

Inktober 2018 : Day 23 - fineliners and felt tip pen

I usually try to avoid using the same medium two days in a row, but yesterday’s fineliners were plastic nibs and these are normal fibre nibs, so it’s okay, right?

I think I have one more character I can draw for this set, as long as I can think of another way to ink her.

Inktober 2018 : Day 16 - ink and water

Lena sometimes doesn't remember her prophesies if nobody was around to hear.

Inktober 2018 : Day 14 - Pentel Pocket Brush

Spider trusts Nettle not to drop him, but he still gets nervous when she sends him too high.

I've drawn a version of this scene for the last 4 Inktobers, so last year I decided to keep going and see if I ran out of pens or ideas first. I did have to think harder than last year to come up with a new one! I can't believe I never thought to change the perspective before.

Inktober 2018 : Day 11 - brush inking and ink wash

Levitating is Nettle's equivalent of fidgeting.

I only have a short shift at work today so I hoped to do something more impressive, but I was so tired that this was all I could manage. I did try to ink with a brush though, which is something I still want to practice more.

Inktober 2018 : Day 10 - plactic nib fineliner

Lena is showing her friends how she can see the future in a bowl of water, but one of them is more on board with it than the other.

I haven't had a full day off work since September and I think I'm starting to make mistakes in these.

Inktober 2018 : Day 7 - ink and water

Spider is a powerful telepath, but his telekinesis is weak and he’d like to develop it, so he spends a lot of time trying to bend spoons. Sometimes he can do it and sometimes he can’t.

I didn’t draw him in his usual woolly jumper because I had a sudden desire to show you all that he’s kind of hairy.

Inktober 2018 : Day 5 - cartridge pen

Lena's prophetic trances come on involuntarily and without warning. Her friends have seen it before, but it doesn't stop being frightening.

Inktober 2018 : Day 1 - Fountain Pentel

When Nettle loses her temper at school, the sports field is the biggest casualty.

It's finally time for Inktober, my favourite art challenge of the year! I was out of the house for the first three days and didn't have access to my scanner, but I did do the drawings.

This year I want to try to use some of my more uncooperative pens. This one is a Fountain Pentel which is a bizarre soft-nib pen that almost acts like a brush. (I think it might be designed for writing kanji.) It splatters horribly when I use it, but it also makes some really nice, scrappy lines. I'm sure if I practice I can get something really good out of it!

Coloured Ink

 Lately I ordered some nice pen accessories, including a cartridge converter for my Rotring pen and some coloured cartridges for my cheapo £5 cartridge pens, so I drew Nettle and Spider while I was messing around testing them. I’ve never done spot colour with ink and water, it looks pretty nice I think.

Having said that, I’m not a fan of this ink. It’s a weird colour called Bilberry that can’t decide if it’s blue, purple or black. (I tweaked it in photoshop to make it more purple.) They do one called Imperial Purple that might have been a better bet. Ah well, next time.

Inktober 2017 - Part 3

Day 21 : fineliners and felt tip pens - Eventually the school agreed that Nettle should just sit out of P.E. lessons.

Day 22 : mapping pen and brush pen - "It followed us home, can we keep it?"

I was hoping for this one to have a more scary feel, but the Mirror Twins seem to be too cute and are taking away from the horror of the black dog. I'm pleased with the composition though.

Day 23 : G-pen - Tree fairies of his type don't usually venture very far from their home tree, so Sweetpea has never seen a sweet chestnut before.

Day 24 : brush inking and coloured ink - I regretted not using coloured ink for the flames on day 1 every time I opened the sketchbook, so I finally relented and did a new version of the same concept, this time with coloured ink.

Day 25 : cartridge pen - Lottie is fairly sure she shouldn't talk to the Crow Boy, but she doesn't really want him to leave either.

Day 26 : mapping pen - Sweetpea's ear frills, like the leaves on his tree, turn brown and fall off in Autumn. Also like the leaves on his tree, they tend not to go at the same time.

Day 27 : fineliners and grey pens - The next three were all done while helping Sammy at MCM! It's very hard to find time to do anything else while at a convention, so I feel quite proud of myself for not falling behind. While we were on a bus Sammy requested some more pictures of Poppet's friends, 'with a musical instrument', so here are the two we didn't see in the teacup picture earlier.

Day 28 : brush pen and ink wash - Louise's house also plays host to a slightly alarming type of house fairy called Lob-Lie-By-The-Fire. He looks a little more frightening than most house fairies, but he just wants to sit by your fire and help with the washing up.

I still can't quite believe I managed to do this one after spending 9 hours selling comics in a packed convention hall, and a further 45 minutes on a bus.

Day 29 : fineliners and felt tip pens - I caught con lurgy so this was one of the hardest ones to do all month, I felt dreadful while I was drawing it! It's also very hard to draw when one has to stop every 5 seconds to blow one's nose. Still, it looks pretty good I think.

Leilus has a lot of features he could choose as his 'I am a demon' warning sign, but the tongue is the obvious best choice because it can be hidden inside his mouth. The stereotypical spaded tail would probably be the worst.

Day 30 : ink and water - Well, it seems I finally ran out of steam and had to settle for one that I really wasn't happy with. I wanted to draw Nat one more time because it was the last day, but I was still ill and didn't have the brain power to get him on model or work out a good composition. I probably should have used a different pen too, but I'd hardly used ink and water at all! I should have been sensible and opted for something with less risk, but these are the lessons we learn in Inktober.

One of the reasons Nat keeps his hair so long is that it's usefully prehensile.

Just a Hallowe'en picture still to come!

Part 1, Bonus Picture, Part 2, Hallowe'en

Inktober 2017 - Part 2

Day 11 : fineliners and grey pen - If you didn't want to share your fancy tea with the house hobs, you shouldn't have left it unattended.

Day 12 : brush pen and coloured ink - Demons aren't allowed to walk around in human shape without at least one tell-tale feature.

Day 13 : ink and water - If only it really were just sleep paralysis

Day 14 : G-pen (and a brush for the black) - Shasta's face is not the most comforting sight to see looming over you when you wake up in a strange, dark world.

Day 15 : mapping pen (and others) - This one is a bit of a hodge-podge, it's mostly mapping pen, but I used a brush pen for the black and the effects on the ribbons, and a fineliner for the string.

A bundle of oak, ash and thorn twigs tied with red string will ward off fairies, both good and bad.

Day 16 : gel pens - Wipe that glamour off your face Trispin, Ely isn't impressed. I have a super-fine gel pen (0.25) that I rarely use, so I gave it a try for the hatching on this one. I like it but it's just so scratchy! I had to keep stopping to pick paper fibres out of the nib.

Day 17 : fineliners and grey pen - Lottie's 'friends' snuck up on her while she was reading. Partly inked on a moving train!

Day 18 : brush pen and ink wash - Isaac knows a lot of sung prayers, but he doesn't remember where he learned them. This one was partly inspired by Heikala's lovely process videos, I'd never seen someone get such a fine line out of a Pentel Pocket Brush and I wanted to try it myself. I also found a spare waterbrush pen so I've filled it with diluted ink, which means I can use ink wash when I'm out of the house as well.

Accurate skeletal hand brought to you by A Colour Atlas of Clinical Anatomy, since I was drawing this one at work at the medical library.

Day 19 : cartridge pen - I draw Lena in shiro-lolita a lot because it looks cute, but in reality she and Lucas don't have a lot of money and this old, eyelet lace dress is the only party frock she owns. This is another one finished on the train because I was determined to go to bed when I got home.

Day 20 : gel pen - Oof. This one is definitely in the 'why have I done this to myself' category. I sketched it in the morning, but didn't have time to ink it until late in the evening, and it took until 1:30am! What's worse, this sort of cross-hatching looks like absolute arse until it's nearly finished, so for most of that time I didn't even know how it was going to turn out. Thank goodness it looks okay.

Someone walking past might not see the shadow, but it's there.

Part 1, Bonus Picture, Part 3, Hallowe'en