Gina Lento: Fine Art and Illustration

Inktober Day 10

Good Day!

Todays prompt is fortune. Mack and Lucy can think of nothing better than the good fortune of a huge bags of dog bones and treats. I thought of sketching a fortune cookie with a fortune in it but I had to let Lucy an Mack out to go potty and then they went right to the kitchen for their treat so I decided on the doggie theme.

Pen and ink drawing of a two dogs eyeing up a huge basket/bag of bones and treats indicating that their idea of a fortune is food and treat related — Fortune

As I was sketching, I had the movie “My Life in Ruins” playing in the background. I was listening to Halloween movies all week, but today has a bunch of movies I already listened to and didn’t feel like another round of Twilight, and definitely not into the whole gory and incessant screaming films thing, so I scrolled through and saw that “My Life in Ruins” was on TV. I love that movie so I clicked on that channel. I like Nia Vardalos and really enjoy her movies and her dry sense of humor. Richard Dreyfuss is very endearing in the movie, as well. There are e few scenes that have me laughing out loud. It’s over now and I have Fantastic Beasts/Dumbledore on. I never get tired of Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts and I wish there were more because I was really enjoying Newt and Jacob’s adventures.

But apparently I DO have “The Crown” to look forward to next month. Whoohooo.

Pencil drawing of a large pumpkin with two small dogs trying to figure out what it is. There is a bird on the pumpkin leaning down to get a better look. The pumpkin is carved and it appears to be checking out those creatures that are checking it out.

Today’s Drawlloween prompt is pumpkin. We have this huge (Uncarved) pumpkin that we picked up at Costco and because we live in Florida, the pumpkin isn’t going outside until Halloween. Although it’s been cooler here, pumpkins cook outside because our autumns aren’t refrigerated. Better to keep pumpkins inside until the big day. In the meantime, Lucy has been trying to figure out what it is. Mack could care less. She sniffs it occasionally and so far has met her “I guess it’s ok” criteria.

Inktober Day 9

Good Evening!

Before I move on to today’s prompt, I just want to point out that my Inktober/Drawlloween sketches and drawings maybe aren’t as polished as some of the ones that are on Instagram. I have been doing mine daily and I have been trying to put a time limit on them because I have to get other things done as well. The list for Inktober comes out in the beginning of September. That gives artists plenty of time to work ahead but I wasn’t able to so now I try to get them done either first thing in the morning or in the evening. Then I also do these blog posts, which also takes some time. I am working on two lists this year instead of one because I want the pencil drawings so I can scan them and develop them further in Procreate and Photoshop.

Pen and ink drawing of a chihuahua puppy playing with a ball in a living room setting — Bounce

Today’s prompt is “bounce.” I can’t think of anything more bouncy than a 7 month old Chihuahua puppy, well maybe that same puppy chasing a ball through the house. Lucy loves to play with balls. She has a favorite that looks like a plum. It’s fabric covered, with “leaves” on top and it has a face and Lucy carries it all over the house, chasing it while playing with her other toys. It’s hilarious. One of our neighbor’s from our old neighborhood gave it to her and she has loved it ever since.

She also has doggie tennis balls that squeak and they come in handy when Lucy goes AWOL. As soon as she hears the squeaks she comes from wherever she’s hiding. But she loves that plum colored ball.

Pencil drawing of mermaids swimming among fish and dolphins — Finfolk

Today’s Drawlloween prompt is FinFolk. I just sketched this out spontaneously and I just let the drawing develop. I learned to do more of this after taking Mike Lowery’s course “Getting Paid to Draw.” I don’t know where the ideas come from but I just keep the pencil or pen moving to see what develops. I really enjoy making scenes up out of my head.

Intober Day 8

Good evening….just want to point out that for some reason my Day 7 post did not launch to my website last night and I am just finding this out now, so it just posted. Well, at least my Instagram was timely.

Today’s prompt is “toad.” When you live in Florida, especially south of Orlando, being a vigilant and protective pet parent becomes a priority. Of course there are the usual threats; bobcats, coyotes, extremely large reptiles with lots of teeth, panthers and bears, and if you are a toy dog parent or a parent of a smaller cat, you have to worry about large birds of prey flying off with your fur baby. But in the southern part of the state, there are other threats, huge non-native snakes and an amphibian that is so poisonous, you could lose a small dog or cat pretty quick if you don’t seek instant help.

What sort of amphibian, you ask? It’s a Bufo toad, also known as a cane toad. They are very large when fully growth and extremely poisonous. They are so poisonous that you need to be careful walking with flip-flops at night because they can make humans sick if you touch their poison glands. The poison has been known to kill small pets. These toads are so bad, Floridians have an open season on euthanizing them, humanely, of course. There are actually pest control folks that will remove the toads from your property.

You would never think that you need to teach your dog NOT to play with frogs and toads but that’s one training I would recommend.

The Drawlloween prompt for today is “mushroom. This one is pretty much thinking along the same theme as the fairies from the other day. I could have also sketched a faerie ring, too. I’ll sneak that one in this month. I like mushrooms and I like the thought of faeries who take care of living things, like mushrooms. Mushrooms are also one of my favorite things to eat. I try to sneak them into as many dishes as I can. I love them cooked. I can eat them raw, but my favorite is cooked mushrooms.

Inktober Day 7

Good evening!

Today’s prompt is “drip.” Because it is Saturday, and I had many things to do today, I decided to draw the first and simplest thing that popped into my head. What is the most annoying thing that you can think of? (Aside from a mosquito buzzing by your ear at 2:45AM?)

A dripping faucet.

Pen and ink drawing of an old fashioned faucet with a long drip progressing from it — Drip

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to stop a dripping faucet that isn’t cooperating. On the other hand, a dripping faucet in the middle of the night from a source that can’t be located can graduate from annoying to frustrating, then as the search continues without success, it can be a little disconcerting. If it echos in a place it shouldn’t, it could be a little scary.

And so the scary story would begin in your head. What is it? Where is it coming from? Omigosh is the roof leaking???? What if it isn’t raining? Did a pipe break? As we become adults, the horror story that used to frighten us moves from the scary movies and Stephe King books, to that scary plumbing bill. It’s interesting how our perceptions and priorities change as we grow older.

pencil drawing of a chubby little coneflower faerie. — Faerie

The Drawlloween prompt for today is “faerie. What luck for me that this prompt was an Inktober prompt last year, so I went back to my sketchbook that was full of 2022 Inktober inspiration and I found some ideas. I wanted to draw a tiny fat little faerie and the first flower that popped into my head was the purple coneflowers we used to have in our garden in Long Island. So I made some little coneflower faeries. The cool thing about faeries is that there are no legit photos of a faerie so you can draw them any way you want….unless two little girls manage to take some photos of some faeries.

The intriguing thing about faeries, mermaids, dragons and bigfoot are those legends have been around a long time…..with a lot of artistic representation to identify them over the centuries. Hmmmm

Inktober Day 6

Good day folks!

To catch you up from yesterday, my desktop appears to be running ok today except for the issue that the wallpaper isn’t working and I am looking at a blank screen. It won’t even load any of my photos, which is strange. I’ll have to about that one…sigh.

Pen and ink drawing of two chihuahuas sitting with a genie lamp in between them. Both have wishes for the genie which are in thought bubbles above their heads. — Golden

Today’s Inktober prompt is “golden.” When I looked up the word “golden” on the internet, a whole bunch of golden retrievers popped up. Really? My first thought would be gold jewelry…Beaing an artist, I also thought of Golden’s paint and I was half tempted to sketch a tube or bottle of Golden’s paint. I was playing in my daily sketchbook and I thought of a genie lamp, so I stretched the meaning of “golden” a bit.

Then I wondered how dogs would react if they got three wishes from a genie lamp. I portrayed Mack and Lucy finding a GOLDEN genie lamp and the two of them, being food oriented (what Chihuahua isn’t?) are wishing for food items. Although Lucy is wishing for a ball, too, because she loves to play with squeaky balls. She also likes stuffed toys, but she is stretching her wish list a bit.

pencil drawing of a tree with a face and fangs. there are other plant critters around the tree, — Botanical beasts

In the Meantime….today’s Drawlloween prompt is “botanical beasts.” By coincidence, my blob today is a creature that looks like a tree/broccoli hybrid, hence the idea for my tree looking beast and her plant critter friends. I liked the idea of adding mushrooms and they are a theme I might take further because mushrooms are fun. There is an angry dandelion, a sinister flow and some other flowering critters. Botanical beasts isn’t something I really thought about but I could have a lot of fun with that idea. I may pursue the whole theme a little further, maybe with more blobs to start them off.

Inktober Day 5

What a frustrating evening trying to do this post. My Mac is hosed up and I can’t use it because I lost power in the middle of doing some research which caused my Adobe software to not be able to shutdown properly. Now it’s all hosed because Adobe is a memory vampire. Good thing I have this baby backed up to a portable drive.

I was working on a totally different map but it was more involved than a simple 4×6 and I want it more detailed so I put it aside and did this quick treasure map. Keeping with how the end of the day is going, I tried erasing my pencil marks and I didn’t realize the ink at the top of the map wasn’t dry. That’s why the top left looks smudged.

Anyway, here is today’s Inktober Day 5 complete with smudge.

Also, here is my Drawlloween sketch that I did earlier today. The prompt is Haunted. I did a pencil sketch of two chihuahuas that are demonstrating how to rid your house of ghosts. The ghost has a look of fear of as it is being chased away by the dogs.

Inktober 2023 Day 4 – Introducing Lucy

Inktober Day 4. The Prompt is Dodge.

Today’s Inktober prompt created a little bit of stumper at first because I wasn’t sure how I would portray that. Then I thought of all the times that our Chihuahua puppy, Lucy, dodged Mack to keep him from getting her bones and the inspiration hit me. I did the first sketch in my “dailies” sketchbook, and I liked how Lucy looked where you could see the twist in her body to cut and run from Mack. (Since this is a frequent activity in the house, I could picture it easily in my head.)

Because I am drawing these by hand and not importing them to Procreate, copying and redrawing a subject doesn’t always have the same spontaneity that the original does. Plus I was moving from a horizontal to a vertical format so I had to put Mack on a different angle.

Pen and Ink sketch of two chihuahuas chasing each other for a bone — “Dodge”

I am sure by now you picked up on the fact that Mack is playing a different dog. Lucy became part of our family in May. Because we were grieving from Chloe, Lucy was a big adjustment for all of us, not just Mack. It still hurts that Chloe isn’t with us anymore. Lucy has taken away some of that sting. Mack has been grumpy with Lucy and not very social until yesterday, when we took Lucy to get spayed. Mack looked around the house for her and then sprawled glumly out on the floor, looking a little sad. It was quiet here without Lucy and we all noticed her absence. We almost forgot to give Mack lunch because Lucy stepped into Chloe’s role as official meal tracker. When Lucy came home, the joy Mack had was very clear and he ran up to her. That was a surprise and we are glad he sees her as part of the “pack.”

small thumbnail sketch done in ink with two chihuahuas, one chasing the other and captioned as "little dogs shouldn't steal from other little dogs" — Daily sketch

The second sketch for the Drawlloween part of Inktober is using “Vampire” as the prompt. Lucy is going through a heavy teething phase, like the whole time we’ve had her so far. Lucy’s markings make her look like a bandit, or like she’s wearing mask and the whole teething thing has earning her the nickname of vampire. Today’s prompt was perfect for a drawing of Countess Lucy.

Countess Lucy...chihuahua in a Dracula cape with fangs sketched in pencil — Vampire

Inktober Day 3

Inktober Day 3. The prompt is Path.

I have a photo I took many years ago in an area what locals in New Jersey, call “down Jersey.” Down Jersey is along the Delaware Bay and is not really an area that people go to for getting away. Most folks go down the shore, whether it be the congested northern New Jersey beaches or the southern New Jersey beaches. Being a former South Jersey resident, I can say that the “down Jersey” part of the state is worth exploring and I have done that and painted there many times. There are back bays and lighthouses and lots of marsh. The coastal New Jersey back bays and marshes thrive on stories and legends, including the origin story of the Jersey Devil.

A pen and ink sketch of an eerie woman strolling almost zombie like down a remote path, full moon lighting her way

This sketch uses the above mentioned photo that I took while I was out one morning looking for a painting spot. I have used it over and over for Halloween settings. It just had a feel to it that I liked. Jersey has legends of ghosts that walk highways, this sketch is a play on that.

The second sketch for the Drawlloween part of Inktober is using “werecat” as the prompt. I have never heard of a werecat but I guess all of those Cat People movies from many years back make more sense now. I popped on David Bowie’s “Cat People” song and jammed to is as I did this sketch. I was going to opt for something larger, like a panther, but then, most witches familiars are black cats so it makes sense that a werecat could be a black cat. Notice that I left the dress on the ground in front of the cat.

The second sketch is done in pencil and it is a werecat slinking through a garden after changing from a woman, to a cat, as evidenced by the clothing on the ground.

Ah, those days of going to parties and letting one’s hair down….the tales that cat could tell.

Inktober Day 2

Inktober Day 2. Prompt is Spider. I had a few different ideas about what to sketch for a spider. I settled on two spiders who are close friends. They made their webs next to each other and they are fishing for insects using fishing poles with light bulbs hanging from the poles. Their goal is to use the light to entice insects to the light and then they snag the unsuspecting bug. Now that I am looking at this, I should have added tackle boxes and coolers. Maybe I’ll update this in Procreate or just use a larger size paper. Since this is a small size sketchbook, I am trying to keep my ideas simple. The texture of the paper keeps things sketchy, not crisp so it’s more forgiving with a stray line.

Both sketchbooks are assembled. I did them today so I wouldn’t have to sketch on unbound paper. I decided on a small vertical format using Arches text wove paper torn down to 4.5 x 6.5 per page as my size. (my signatures are 9×6.5 folded to form the 4.5 x 6.5 page).

The second sketch for the Drawlloween part of Inktober is using “witch” as the prompt. I am doing Drawlloween in pencil and I may transfer my favorites to better paper or Procreate to clean them and define them more. Maybe even pull these into Photoshop after Procreate to do the color in Photoshop. Haven’t decided yet but the best thing about doing these sketches is that it gives me more art to create designs with later. Even better, Freeform has their 31 Days of Halloween which I have on in the background as I draw and as I am writing this.

Well Day 2 is under my belt. Wish me luck on finishing the month!

Inktober 2023 Day 1

Pen and ink drawing of a sleeping dog dreaming of an open tin of dog biscuits, the dream bubble vaguely shaped as a dog bone. — Inktober Day 1

It’s Inktober….again….and that must mean that Instagram feeds will be blowing up with ink art the entire month of October. I don’t know how many years I have participated in Inktober. I have lost count. Usually I spend a little time coming up with ideas but this year, October sneaked up on me unexpectedly. It was more like, “Oh crap, it’s OCTOBER already!”

My Inktober drawings are just sketches in my sketchbook and I have to admit, most of them are done with me flying by the seat of my pants. I got up this morning with the intention of getting my Inktober drawing done first thing this morning, following up with a Drawlloween sketch, and here I am whipping through 2 sketches late in the evening while my husband tortures himself watching the Jets play KC on TV. At least the Eagles won.

I am going to try my best to do both lists this year. The Drawlloween prompt list is more Halloween related whereas the Inktober prompt list is pretty general. Until I think of a theme or what direction I want to take with my drawings, I am just going to draw stand alone drawings that ties into the prompt but not a thread, but one will pop up, I am sure.

To make matters even more complicated, I usually have a sketchbook ready that I use just for Inktober. I was using a Bee Paper Super Deluxe 4×6 sketchbook but I filled that one up back in 2020. I bought an Innovative Journal Halloween refillable journal back in 2020 and started to use it, but I used that one up last year. I remembered this afternoon that it’s full and I needed to make more refills so had unpack my paper and clear off my worktable to tear some signatures. I haven’t stitched them yet because I wanted to make sure I got the sketches done first. I’ll probably sew them in the morning tomorrow.