Inktober 2024

For many years I have looked at so many artists online and never really had the confidence to put my quick sketches out there online.

For the majority of artists that I have spoken to online, in person we are all a little self conscious of what people think of our art. This is normal. Since the beginning of 2024 I have made a serious effort to "put myself out there". 

This October I have finally taken part in Inktober. So you might wonder what is Inktober, how and what does one take part. 

To join Inktober, simply commit to drawing with ink everyday for the month. You can use any type of ink from traditional fountain pen ink, markers and ink to paint.

There is no specific themes or rules, @Inktober the official sight on Instagram will give daily prompts and you use your creativity and go for it.

This is the official list of prompts, now this normally lands a week or so before October, which was kind of good for me as I am a bit of an over thinker. This gave me time to research what I wanted to sketch, and if I wanted to use any inks for colour or just sketch in line work. The surface that I used was rag cotton landscape sketchbooks, I finished one sketchbook and began a second, in hindsight I wish I had done the whole month in one sketchbook, but it's alright, just a bit disjointed for me (a little OCD here!)

In case you are not aware of what rag cotton paper is, here is a quick info on it. Rag cotton is made from the cotton used for cloth that is shredded down and added to water to make a pulp. 

A screen is made to with a fine net like base so the water can be squeezed out, a cloth is placed over the screen  to separate each new layer. 

When the layers are made, the excess water is squeezed out and the clothes are removed from each layer and the paper is hung to dry outside. Once dry, the paper is rolled through a press to a smooth out any buckling from the drying process.  

The paper is environmentally friendly and also vegan as so many artists are leaning towards this these days.

I enjoy using rag cotton but one thing that you can not do easily as you can with other 100% cotton paper is to erase a pencil mark as although the paper is quite thick it is very soft to touch. 

It also does not blead, this can happen with thinner watercolour paper weights and for me this can destroy sketches on the reverse pages and make a sketch book not very economically in its use. 

The inks that I used were Winsor and Newton Inks they come is small jars and there are a wide range of colours. While I was in my last year of University I managed to collect the full collection that I used in one of my project's and I hadn't used them since then so they were just sitting in box gathering dust. this is why I decided to use them in some of the prompts.

To use these little pots of colour  you can use them straight from the jars, or if you would like you can add some water and create more of watercolour effect with them. Since the beginning of Inktober I used these to create colour in the sketches. 

To outline the sketches and to do the line work I use micron fine liners from .005 to the brush sizes as these are also waterproof.  Getting in as much detail as possible and making the sketches somewhat realistic was my goal as this is my style.

For my sketches, I put a time limit on myself of a max of 3 hours, at that time I needed to have a good sketch but also with my style. Looking back now some worked and some didn't, but for me that's okay.  Possibly, I took too long deciding or the idea and reference was too complicated for the 3 hours.

So lets start,

Day 1 was Backpack

The inspiration for this was my grandson Ben who loves anything dinosaur related and green for a time was a colour that was predominated with the many things he had.

Day 2

Discover

The magnifying glass was my late mum and dads both used it differently my dad for photo negatives and my mum when looking up words in the dictionary. A fond memory.

Day 3

Boots

Again, my grandson came to mind as he is 16 months and loves like any little boy to splash in puddles. I used pictures that his mom sent me and although he did not at the time have wellies I improvised and added them to the sketch.

Day 4

Exotic

The inspiration for this day was from birds that I have not yet painted, but I wanted to see if I could sketch it out with the fine liners and see if I could bring the bird to life by adding subtle tones of coloured inks to it. I think it sort of worked, but I know I rushed it a bit as some of the ink bled into each other.

Day 5 

Binoculars

This was my take on binoculars as many other artists went for the norm of binoculars that we all know I went for memories of a child, and how we used to beg our dad to use these public binoculars while on holidays around Ireland.

Day 6

Trek

On this day, I wanted to try and create movement in my sketch and thinking of someone trekking up a hill or mountain came to mind, and By using the coloured inks this also allowed me to bring textures into the sketch.

Day 7

Passport

Rather that going with the norm or a country's passport, I decided to look at what a passport was too many people, in my opinion it is a freedom to explore the world and different cultures.

Day 8 

Hike

On day 8, I played around with shadows against a snowy backdrop. I used a more painterly effect with just black ink as I felt it gave a more dramatic effect to the sketch.

Day 9

Sun

The inspiration for this painterly effect of the sun was driving with the low October sun, and how not only can it be blinding but it can create some beautiful shadows.

Day 10

Nomadic

This was such a quick sketch as I first though of a camel in the desert and then the handler. From the many pictures that I saw online the camel was what popped up, but I felt I needed to add the human side.

Day 11

Snacks

This day I did struggle, although we all like sweets and treats with so much in the shops this month I wanted to think outside the box. If I eat an apple a large one, I'm kind of satisfied, so this half eaten apple was my thoughts. Many of the colours bled into each other and it looks more rotten than appetizing!

Day12

Remote

Long winding tumbleweed roads of Arizona came to my mind of remote. 

Day 13

Horizon

My thought process of this sketch was that the tree was on the horizon line, but I feel that what I missed was possibly to make the foreground taller and it may have worked better.

Day 14

Roam

I actually enjoyed trying to give the impression of a person roaming the shore alone, but as I look back now at the sketch, the placement of the rock behind the figure looks like a surfboard! That was not my intention.

Day 15

Guidebook

On day 15, I went for a bit of fun, and used a picture of somewhere in Italy and used that for my inspiration of a typical landscape, with far in the distance  terracotta  buildings and popular trees. The play of sunlight was a happy accident. Adding typography was probably the most difficult part having it all even.

Day 16

Grungy

By day 16, the majority of the coloured inks were dwindling. I felt with grungy I would use just the micron pens, different sizes, strokes such as stippling, cross hatching and a few squiggles to give and effect of a very old car that has a feel of being grungy. This sketch from start to finish took about 3 hours.

Day 17

Journal

Journals for me are my sketchbooks. Many artists, I know always has a few that are well battered and worn. To have a pristine journal is kind of rare. I stacked up some of my journals (sketchbooks) and sketched them out adding a little bit of shadow here and there.

Day 18

Drive

As I had already sketched a car, I felt that when I think of driving  I need my keys. I put  my car keys down on my table shone a lamp in their direction to create a shadow as it was a very wet and grey day. This was such a simple still life but effective. 

Day 19

Ridge

I am drawn to ridges of snow capped mountains. They are not only beautiful to look at but also give climbers space to view their surrounding and resting spaces.

Day 20

Uncharted

When I saw this prompt, Space came to mind, but I sat and thought for a bit "How do we as humans search the uncharted space?" I thought of radar's, I had a look up online for some pictures as I had never drawn anything like this before but wanted to try.

By using the fine liners I found it easy enough by just looking at the shape an eclipse, four poles and shadows...

This after I posted it online. I was quite proud of it as I don't actually ever sketch metal objects.

Day 21

Rhinoceros

For quite some time, I have wanted to draw a Rhino, but I was not too sure what medium I wanted to use. I was so happy when I saw this prompt, and I knew that using the fine liners I would be able to create a realistic, textured rhino skin. I feel for my style of art it worked, but I think later this year I might combine fine liners with watercolours or just acrylics to redo this picture. 

Day 22

Camp

There are so many images that came to mind for this one prompt, but I thought of a campfire. 

Day 23

Rust

Drawing an object that has a texture or a reflection is something that I am drawn too. The rusty links in a chain evoke many childhood memories holidaying by the sea. By using only fine liners and different sketching effects, I feel that I brought the image to life.

Day 24

Expedition

Kayaking on a river with a weir is always a bit of an expedition as the waters are moving with quite a rush and for many weirs there is not always a lot of water flowing down. Personally, I feel that the expedition doesn't have be on unknown waters. It can be where you live but noticing the environment around you more closely.

As inktober, was drawing to a close, I went off the beaten track and sketched a whimsically version of a scarecrow. I like gardening and looking around all the empty pots I thought of how I could sketch a scarecrow by using them as the inspiration. The chair is a sketch of some in my kitchen, so I combined the idea of using both to come up with my own scarecrow.

Day 26

Camera

As an avid photographer, I wanted to rather than draw a camera I want to show how camera's film has developed over time.  

The first film roll the 120mm  (the large tube) which is similar to the old box camera, then 35 mm film although it was very popular from the 1930 for colour right up to the early 2000's before digital photography was available to everyone. 

The 110 mm were introduced in the 1970's, it was made for people who would shoot and snap a memory. The quality was not great. I do remember that my first camera was a 110 mm within a few years I had my first 35mm film camera a Praktica  it was so heavy to hold but the lens could be changed which began my love of photography.

The SD card that we all know today actually came about in 1989 but production did not happen commercially until the early 2000's.

Day 27

Road

Day 28

Jumbo

Rather than drawing an elephant to depict the prompt for the day "Jumbo" I thought of jumbo prawns. One food that I really love. It also reminds me of Christmas...(oops I said that word!).

Within the drawing I used many different techniques to bring the texture of the prawn to life.  It is only when you look at the drawing closely that you can see all the details. The drawing took about 2 hrs to complete.

Day 29

Navigator

I do remember that this drawing prompt I was stumped for a bit. Looking online the meaning of the word helped me come up with dial. From looking online at different images which were mainly watch faces, I did a few sketches in a sketchbook and came up with this as I like drawing stones and pavements. 

Day 30

Violin

For violin I just took a section of one of the violins in our house and using it as reference to draw the details of the wood pattern. The violin has many bumps and scratches on the surface which I felt that I captured with this sketch. Having it near allowed me to see how shadows fell in different areas.

Day 31

Landmark

For the final prompt of Inktober I chose to draw the sculpture Sphere within Sphere  which is found in Trinity College Dublin.

As a child I grew up in Dublin and I remember when walking through Trinity College this landmark sculpture I remember fondly. It was sculpted by Arnaldo Pomodoro he donated it to Trinity College in the 1980's. The official name is "Sfera con Sfera".