Inktober Week 4

What a month it’s been! It hasn’t always been easy finding the time to do these drawings but somehow I’ve always found a way. Often I was many days behind, but I tried to just focus on the day that I was working on and not where I was supposed to be. That was a challenge in itself!!

The following are the drawings for week 4 of my Inktober Challenge and a bonus video at the end of my entire Sketchbook Tour. Enjoy!!

Day 22- Ghost. Just a bit of fun with this one. Believe it or not, I was stuck on what to draw and just started doodling on the TV Guide of our newspaper. What I learned- just start somewhere!

Day 23- Ancient. A combo of influences went into creating this one- Native American, Folk, Aboriginal, and Coptic Designs. I wanted to create an ancient design using lots of symbols and animals.

Day 24- Dizzy. Here the shredder was my friend! I used colorful magazine pictures that I had shredded and glued onto a bright background to create a dizzy Jackson Pollack-type piece.

Day 25- Tasty. A Caterpillar nibbling on a tasty leaf. Painted on a watercolor ground with pen drawing on top.

Day 26- Dark. My dark dog, Cash. Named after Johnny Cash. The dog in black!

This started off being about Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors- but it turned into a woman in a big flowing housecoat fleeing or summoning someone? You never know where your drawings will take you!!

Day 28- Ride. Here I experimented with some printing techniques. I had fun with the composition of the page as well.

Day 29- Injured. As I was thinking of the word for this day, I kept thinking of the Prayer of St. Francis. So I decided to do some word art with it on a printed background.

Day 30- Catch. I now understand why my husband is so possessive of his baseball glove. They are such a complicated, organic, almost breathing thing!

Day 31- Ripe. I had a lot of fun creating this pop-up page of ripe fruit. I took pop-up mechanisms from old greeting cards and springs from pens attached to paintings of fruit. I wanted my last page to have a little celebration!

I’d love to hear your reaction to my Challenge. Which drawings were your favorites? Which ones would you like to see reproduced in a card, sticker, or print?

Inktober- Week 3

It’s now week 3 of my Inktober Challenge where I am using the official prompt list and creating a drawing every day this October based on it. (See week’s 1 and 2 as well.)

Working on these drawings this month has been a rollercoaster. My brain has been working overtime to come up with ideas for the prompts. I’ve really tried to make this challenge a creative exercise by using various art materials and styles. I’m also trying to think “outside the box” with the words.

Some days are better than others. Sometimes I feel like I’ve reached the summit and am riding the coaster down in a joyous ride. Other times I feel like I’m slogging around twists and turns, wondering where I’m going.

But all in all, it has been a fun ride and I’m happy to share my progress with all of you.

Day 15- Legend. St. Patrick, who drove the snakes out of Ireland. In my drawing he seems to be saying to himself, “Why am I doing this?!”

Day 16- Wild. A fun assemblage of wild flowers. Wild in every sense of the word!

Day 17- Ornament. A watercolor rendering of the beautiful ornamental interior of the Basilica at The University of Notre Dame. It’s my husband’s alma mater and we try to get there for a game or two every year.

Day 18- Misfit. A marker drawing of a little girl trying to fit into her mother’s shoes.

Day 19- Sling. This was my first time drawing a kangaroo and I learned what a funny animal it is with short arms, long feet, and a pouch that almost reaches the ground with a 40 IB Kid in it!

Day 20- Tread. A peaceful walk along the beach with my extended family over New Years last year.

Day 21- Treasure. Every day is a treasure. This was sunrise over Brand St. as I was running my son’s missing lunch to him one morning last week. Driving the car while taking the picture reference wasn’t easy (or safe), but it was just the inspiration I needed!

I’m a few days behind in my prompts, but I’m hoping to catch up to finish this challenge by Halloween. You can follow my daily progress on Facebook and Instagram.

Tune in towards the end of next week when I will publish my last post in this series. I’m also hoping to create a video of my entire sketchbook where I’ll have a few more tidbits to share about each drawing.

Back to the drawing board! See you next week!!

Inktober- Week 1

For the 2nd year in a row, I am participating in a drawing challenge called Inktober. Inktober is a month long art challenge created by artist Jake Parker that is focused on improving skills and developing positive drawing habits. Every day for the month of October anyone participating in the Inktober challenge creates an ink drawing and posts it online.

Here are the week’s worth of drawings and the prompts that sparked them. Enjoy!

Day 1- Ring. I had a vision of a Mexican Church ringing it’s bells in the style of a Mexican Muralist.

Day 2- Mindless. A quick watercolor sketch of ducklings mindlessly following their mother. Reminds me of my own kids!

Day 3- Bait. I’ll do anything for a handful of peanut M&Ms! My son who is a Disney lover but loves chocolate posed for this picture. As his shirt says, he’s a True Original!

Day 4- Frozen. Inspired by a photograph on my studio bulletin board. Would that I could unfreeze it and see you again, Dad.

Day 5- Build. I had so much with this one! It was like playing with blocks of paper.

Day 6- Husky. The unforgettable, husky voice of Janis Joplin. The anniversary of her death was just this past October 4th, 49 years ago!

Day 7- Enchantment. I’m a big fan of Day of the Dead imagery, and I thought having a skeleton band in that style might be a fun way to depict the word.

So there you have it. Week one. I’m having a lot of fun with it while allowing myself to be creative both with the subjects and the styles.

Which one is your favorite and why?

I look forward to bringing you more drawings next week!