Inktober Day 10

Well I made it to Day 10.

Happy Monday Everyone.

Today’s prompt is crabby. I went for the crustacean although I imagine some folks may go with a cranky person. I am fond of crabs, both watching them in nature, and the consumption of the Blue Claw persuasion. We used to catch blue claws when my kids were younger. I remember measuring them to ensure they were the correct size. My kids were really good about measuring and tossing back the females and smaller crabs to ensure we had more crabs the next year. Or even just later in the season.

Land and Ghost crabs, on the other hand, are pretty awesome to just watch. I am really amazed that I have seen ghost crabs on every Eastern seaboard beach that I have been to, and that’s quite a few. I have seen ghost crabs on Fire Island, in NY, at several beaches like Cape May and Sea Isle City, and Wildwood, I have seen them on Assateague and on the Outer Banks, (where kids run around the beach at night with flash lights, playing flash light tag with the crabs.) I have also seen them here in Florida. I have seen some pretty cool land crabs along the coast in Jamaica. I don’t remember if I saw ghost crabs but Jamaica definitely had the land crabs digging holes in the grass.

Today’s crab is one I saw on the beach here in Jensen Beach. We were sitting out one evening and this little fellow was doing his thing as the sun was setting, so I snapped a few photos. I love how they dig holes in the sand and how some crabs try to steal another crab’s hole and then there is a little scuffle while that gets sorted out. It’s like, really Dude? Dig your own hole. Ghost crabs a re pretty awesome.

Inktober Day 10 Crabby Pen and ink drawing of a ghost crab walking on a beach
Inktober Day 10 – Crabby

Inktober Day 9

Happy Sunday!

We are up to Day 9 of the Inktober Challenge and today’s prompt is Nest. I opted for the bird’s nest interpretation of the prompt. There are a lot of interesting bird nests out there, but some of the more quirkiest nests are from birds that aren’t real, but imagined. This is one of those imaginary birds that came about from my morning (daily) practice of turning blobs of smeared acrylic paint into imaginary creatures. This blob practice was a little trick I learned from Carla Sonheim. Carla has many little tips for pushing the imagination to produce some really awesome imaginary creatures that I would never had thought of on my own. I have been doing the daily blob exercise for several years now and it has helped me produce many odd creatures.

This funny bird has popped up once before, in one of my Valentine’s Day sketchbooks. I played with him, again, for today’s prompt. They don’t always come out the way I originally sketched them but that’s ok. They become several personalities each time I redraw them.

This fellow is a bit stuffy but he’s a good nest builder and sitter. The Mrs is off scarfing up some insects while the Mr is having a turn at sitting. The nest is a little wild and hairy, sort of like the bird. His expression looks like something may be occurring either on the nest or nearby.

On another note, the Phillies have made the wild card and they have beaten the cardinals to move on to the next round of play, which I believe they are playing Atlanta next. I find it hard to watch my hometown teams. It’s sort of like watching a horror movie peeking from behind my fingers. My daughter says that’s not being a fan. Yes it is, it’s called being a fan of a Philadelphia team. On the bright side, they aren’t the Jets.

Inktober Day 9 Nest Pen and ink drawing of a quirky bird sitting on a nest. His expression looks like something may be occurring either on the nest or nearby. He has a fluffy crest and his tail is alert, similar to a Carolina Wren
Inktober Day 9 – Nest

Inktober Day 8

It’s the eighth day of the Inktober Challenge and today’s prompt is “match.” Now I have to admit, the first thing I thought of to skate by this one was to draw a match stick and be done with it. That was a pretty simple solution. OK, I could have sketched a pack of matches or a box of stick matches if I really wanted to do something more involved. That would have take a little more time but it would have been interesting.

Or I could have just made my life easier, drew the match with a flame burning for the Day 5 post and then been a wise ass today and just posted “see day 5 for today’s “match.” That would have been a little bit simple as well, right? But it would have kind of defeated the purpose of doing each prompt separately and it’s not like we are being graded for these.

I could draw a match with a face and burning hair. (Which makes me think of the burning candle(?) from one of the “Christmas Carol” movies.) Mmmm, a little bit scary? No.

Then I just drew one of my little witch’s and suddenly I thought of two witch sisters in matching outfits so I did a sketch and that’s how today’s drawing came to be. Unfortunately, working with ink means an occasional mishap, and I accidentally smeared this one a little, but it still looks ok. That’s really the only negative about working traditionally is you can mess things up a bit. But some things can be repaired digitally so if I were to take this and scan it, I could remove anything I thought was a problem. White out doesn’t really look good on the text wove paper. Best to leave it and not make it any worse.

Inktober Day 8 Match Pen and Ink drawing of two little witches holding hands with matching outfits and holding pumpkins. They have striped tights and dresses decorated with stars. Their witch hat have sickle moons. Grey ink added for shading and interest. Also show with Uniball vision, Lamy Safari and Kuretake Cambrio pens
Inktober Day 8 “Match”

Inktober Day 7

Today’s Inktober prompt is “trip.” Now this is a word that could be interpreted in a few different ways. For instance, is someone taking a trip? Can you use luggage? An airplane? A train station? Platform 9 3/4? Animal House road trip? Business trip? The word “trip” then takes on a more vacation or travel sort of reference. If I go that route, how to illustrate that? Again, so many possibilities. Car? RV? Fly? Cruise?

Then, there is the another way “trip’ could be interpreted. A psychedelical ’60’s drug trip? Mmmm, no. That’s way out there. A trip as in FALL? That has some comical possibilities. A character falling flat on their face. Wil E Coyote getting handed another can of Whoop ass? Slipping on the proverbial banana peel? (Has anyone ever slipped on a banana peel? Where did that come from?) So many ways to interpret “trip” as in fall-flat-on-the-face, a mishap of some sort, accidental or premeditative (Picture a diabolical cat tripping their owner or family dog) and so on.

I can’t say I was stumped with this one as opposed to the many possibilities and opportunities for ideas being presented here. This could be a fun word.

I was sitting outside listening to the birds this morning while I did my morning drawing and writing routine. This time of year, the birds come back from their vacation up North. So many of the bird calls that were missing over the summer are being heard again. This led me to thinking about how a trip could be for a migration. Migration = bird = trip. So I got to thinking about birds packing for their migration and I thought of a little bird with an aviator’s hat and goggles, rucksack packed and ready to migrate! Voila! Today’s sketch!

Intober Day 7 Trip Pen and Ink drawing of a little bird with an aviator hat and goggles with a backpack on his back and he's obviously ready to travel. Grey ink added for shading and interest. Also show with Uniball vision and Kuretake Cambrio pens
Inktober Day 7 “trip”

Inktober Day 6

Today’s prompt is “bouquet.” When I first saw the prompt, I had a few ideas for what to draw, but sometimes falling back on what’s in your sketchbooks, or previous paintings you have done, can save you a lot of time. A few years ago I attended the Lima Bean Festival in Cape May. There was a florist attending the festival selling bouquets in pumpkins. I thought the idea was so amazing that I bought one and when I got it back to the house, I did a painting of it. The painting sold a long time ago, but I have the scanned image as a reference. I still love that image although sometimes I lament selling the painting. That painting inspired today’s sketch.

This was another sketch that I did in my Plumchester sketchbook first and then redrew it in my Halloween Sketchbook. I should probably post both because sometimes the sketches have more life and spontaneity than the final drawings. The brush pen also acts differently on the Arches Text Wove paper than it does in the Plumchester, too. I should probably experiment more with that as well.

Incidentally, the Kuretake Cambrio brush pen that I have been using to add the grey washes isn’t holding the original ink anymore. I found a way to refill these pens and I am using Herbin’s “Gris Nuage” ink to refill the pens. I have two of the grey pens, one for travel and one for the studio. I really like them a lot and I use them everyday. I love these these pens and I received the first one as an Artsnacks giveaway in NYC at their first Inktober Meetup a few years ago. I met Jake Parker at that meetup (really nice person, too).

I also have a tube of Sailor’s Ink (another grey) that I received from the Goulet Pen company that I will try as well, to see which grey I like better. Now what did I do with that little sample? It’s around here somewhere.

Inktober Day 6 "Bouquet" Pen and Ink drawing of a floral arrangement with a pumpkin as a vase. Grey ink added for shading and interest. Also show with Uniball vision and Kuretake Cambrio pens
Inktober “Bouquet” with Uniball and Kuretake pens used

Inktober Day 5

Today’s prompt is “flame.” Since it is October and the month of Halloween, I went back to one of my earlier pieces and redrew it in ink. I have done a cauldron a few times in October and have done them a few different ways. It has also popped up in my Little Witch Series. October is the Season of Witches so it only makes sense to draw some witch related items, like a cauldron to represent today’s prompt, “flame.”

Just a footnote of a sort, I have been sketching all of my ideas in my square Plumchester Sketchbook from Artsnacks first, before transferring the finals to my Innovative Journaling Halloween sketchbook, using the Arches Text Wove Paper. My Halloween Sketchbook is the Pathfinder size. It’s black with skulls woven into the binding and in the pull loop. I wish I had put red or purple leather inside so it would have a Dracula feel to it, but it’s pretty badass the way it is. I love it and it is the perfect size. The Arches Text Wove paper that Arthur likes to use when making his journals is a really nice paper. It has a little tooth and texture, but it performs well with dry or wet media. I have used watercolor, gouache, and acrylic on the paper. I don’t saturate it but it handles light applications very well. These are refills so when I fill one refill, I pull it out and add another. I can make them myself or order the machine stitched ones from Arthur, which come with a nice soft cover.

I originally purchased the IJ Halloween sketchbook (journal) for my Little Witch Series. There are some in there from last year. Just having this journal that screams Halloween is inspiring somehow. I like how the paper has a little “drag” to it so it slows the pen down for more precise drawing. It holds two refills so I guess I should get cracking and put some Little Witch stuff in the other refill.

Inktober Day 5 - "Flame" Pen and Ink cauldron over wood with lots of flames and some concoction brewing and bubbling in it. Pen and ink with grey wash. Pens shown, Lamy safari, Uniball Vision and Cambio
Inktober Day 5 – Flame
My Refillable Halloween Journal by Innovative Journal

inktober Day 4

Today’s prompt is scallop. I thought about doing some sort of design but I decided to take my mussels “inches” and make them into a larger 4×6 sketch and used scallops instead. OK, so it is a little macabre with the scallops crying over the ones that were cooked. I am not trying to make a statement or anything, my warped sense of humor was going a little in the “Far Side” direction.

If you are not familiar with the “Far Side” cartoons by Gary Larson, they were genius and took everyday things and turned them into humor, like cows, dogs and cats. Some of my favorites are the cows standing around on hind legs and smoking, one yells “car” and they all go back to grazing and doing regular cow things. There’s a frog that sticks his tongue to an airplane flying over and gets lifted in the air, but two of my favorites are the ones about dogs and cats and what they hear. These two are priceless. You need to read the dog one first to really appreciate the one for cats. It’s so true.

There’s also so the cartoon of the kid going to a mentally gifted school and trying to push the door that clearly says “pull.” Something we have all done at one time or another so the humor hits home. Gary had sooooo many cartoons. My coworkers and I used to stand in a bookstore at lunch time and cry over his books. We used to have everyone in the store laughing. We had one coworker who we would drag to the store when he came into the city so we could share the cartoons with him. Yeah, I think we actually bought him a copy, LOL.

Laughter truly is the best medicine and the best way to bring people together. Now that I think about it, we never complained about anything, we’d just go do something that made us laugh. That’s a good memory for me.

Inktober Day 4 - Scallop Pen and Ink drawing of a steaming bowl of scallops on a checkered tablecloth. There are scallop shells crying in front of the bowl because the others were cooked.
Inktober Day 4 – Scallop

Inktober Day 3

Good morning everyone! Today’s prompt is “bat.” Since it is October, I thought bat the animal would be better than a baseball bat. Although baseball still does run for another week or so. I am a Phillies fan so I hope we make it to the wild card game, at least. My husband is a Yankees fan so of course they clinched (eyes rolling). It’s not too bad with baseball and football in our house. I’m an Eagles fan (4-0) and he’s a Jets fan (notice I didn’t put the standings for the Jets), so the Eagles and Bucs are his back up teams. We have a saying in our house, well I do, that the Jets are the kiss of death for any player’s career. I said if I was a kid in the draft and the Jets picked me, I’d stay in school and wait for the next year. So there is a bunch of good natured busting of chops here in the house.

However, hubby is a RANGERs fan. Blech ptooie!!!!!!! I am a Flyers fan so we don’t discuss hockey unless I am gloating when the Rangers lose. I went to a Rangers/Blackhawks game once with hubby and was rooting for the Blackhawks. He goes with my daughter now when they are in Tampa.

For those of you who asked, we are on the East Coast of Florida, below the path that Ian took. We got a lot of wind (60+ gusts) and rain, but we fared well. Unfortunately, the West Coast not so well. I really feel bad for the Ft Myers region folks. Although Florida has hurricane building codes, there are many old Floridian structures that are being wiped out by these storms. It’s really sad to see them being wiped out and sad for the people who lived in them or conducted their businesses in them who have to rebuild. Yeah, they can rebuild, but it doesn’t have the same charm or memories, and when it floods, not even concrete is invincible. Our thoughts and prayers goes out to them.

Inktober Day 3 "Bat" - pen and ink drawing of a bat in a sketchbook using a black Uniball Vision pen and a Cambio brush pen with grey ink, also in the photo. Sketchbook was made by Innovative Journal
Inktober Day 3 – Bat

Inktober Day 2

For Day 2 of Inktober, I am sure that I am not the only one that used a mouse for today’s prompt, “scurry.” Whenever many of us hear the word scurry, we think of mice scooting across the floor. Which usually leads to someone screaming and if you have a cat, mayhem.

I played around with sketching mice for this one and settled on what I chose as my final idea. It was fun drawing mice although they aren’t something I normally pay attention to, unless the cat brought one into the house. My mom used to tell us entertaining stories about field mice when she and my dad were living in California. The mice used to come out of the fire place and duke it out. Now there’s an image, boxing mice. (Trying to figure out what they were doing in the fireplace?)

I was trying to find the post I saw this morning from Jake Parker, the artist that started Inktober. It tells about why he started Inktober (to help artists improve their drawing skills was one reason, and the important one I forgot to mention yesterday) and the ideas behind the challenge. I guess I will have to add the link tomorrow if I come across it again.

Adding my thoughts on ink, as an outdoor sketcher’s point of view, many artists, like myself, draw directly in ink because you want to get what is in front of you on paper as quickly as possible. When you are drawing on location, you don’t have much time if you are drawing something that will change, like people or animals. Or a delivery truck….When one parks in front of what you were originally drawing. Using pencil slows you down because no matter how hard you try not to, pencil enables you to erase marks, and the temptation to erase is too irresistible, inevitably bringing out the perfectionist/procrastinator in us and the subject long gone before scratched on the page with nothing to show for your time. Ink is there, ready to go (unless you forgot to refill your Lamy Safari) and although maybe not the most perfect of sketches, your recorded information in its raw form, has the subject captured on the page.

The other nice thing about ink drawing, all you need is paper and a pen and you can sketch anywhere.

pen and ink mouse sitting up on its high legs, wavy tail Inktober Day 2 "Scurry"
Come on Kitty, BRING IT.

Inktober 2022

It’s October….again….and that must mean it’s Inktober! The month where thousands of artists post mostly inky art to the internet and social media. Inktober started as a challenge for illustrators to take a break from creating digital art, by getting back to their inky roots and inky fingers or other traditional media. Going back to traditional media helps with the creative flow and inspiration. Choosing ink makes the challenge harder because you can’t erase ink when you make a mistake. There’s no “undo” button with ink, so it forces you to think on your feet and deal with what is in front of you.

Inktober has grown over the years and many copycat challenges have sprung up along with it until October is one hot mess of art on the internet. The Official Inktober Prompt List can be found on Instagram at @Inktober, the official Inktober account. If you aren’t into ink, there’s so many other lists out there to choose from like Mabs Drawlloween @mabgraves on Instagram. Mabs does a lot of her art in pencil so she prefers a drawing challenge instead of an Inky Challenge. All you have to do is search for October Art Challenges and you will find a lot of ideas.

Today’s Inktober prompt is “Gargoyle.” Looking at my gargoyle, whose name is “Larry,” I see a vague resemblance to one of the family’s grand dogs. Sorry Charlie, you’re a gargoyle model. (Charlie is a pit bull mix who’s at the mercy of one very bossy cat and a hissy kitty. Two for the price of one.)

Larry is just hanging out. The rest of his kind are usually attached as downspouts on the sides of structures, like Notre Dame Cathedral, or other Churches and buildings. Gargoyles were originally used as gutters to move rain water away from structures to keep mortar and other materials from eroding away. Larry found himself a nice perch in the park and if he stays still, people think he’s a statue. Except for the drool that occasionally comes out his mouth…..those french fries cooking on the food trucks in the park smell so good……

Pen and ink sketch of a gargoyle perched on a column. Inktober 2022 Day 1
Inktober 2022 Day 1 – Gargoyle