So, why am I doing Inktober? I am doing Inktober for many reasons. Firstly, it is an interesting challenge to post on social media! I recently got Instagram so doing Inktober is a great excuse to post every day ha-ha! I love creating new, creative content for my Instagram and this blog! Any excuse to draw every day is good enough for me! I feel like I am on a roll at the moment in terms of art, I just started my GCSE art course and it feels like I am drawing every spare minute! I'm loving it though! Taking my art sketchbook home is fun to develop my school work and then I draw my Inktober things to create a personal sketchbook! Unfortunately focusing on drawing means that I am doing less of other things such as: fashion design. Sorry that I haven't posted a fashion design post for a while but I will try in November once the challenge is over!
Another reason I am doing Inktober is to build up a 'stash' of drawings that I can then edit! An example of my edited ink drawings is on the right! Here's an edited version of the owl ink drawing I showed you above! I started by scanning it and then taking it to Photoshop where I cleaned up the lines, removed the white background and coloured it in. I then saved it as a png. I then went to PicMonkey (an editing website) on the design feature where I made a background and then added the owl as an overlay. I like to take my ink drawings into digital art because it progresses the simple drawings into professional-looking art. I then use these as Inktober posts (which is cheating but oh well)!xD
The main reason I am taking part in Inktober is to improve my inking skills. I don't think that 'inking' is my strength in art so doing Inktober has helped a lot. In my art course, you get higher marks for experimenting (using different mediums, techniques, etc) so using ink is a skill I need to be skilled at. I do think that doing Inktober has been an effective way of developing my skills with biros and fineliners. You can see that this drawing on the left is much more comlex and 'better' (I mean more detailed) than the owl drawing at the top. This is actually my favourite drawing so far. This was my first time experimenting with the cross-hatching technique and I think it worked well! It took me a long time (until I thought of putting this in the bin) but you have to put time in to see improvement! You can clearly see the development so I think this has been a useful challenge!
The last reason I am doing Inktober is so I can improve my blog! You will have seen my new Halloween background that will be here for October. This was actually made with the skull drawing I showed you above! I have decided to make all my blog backgrounds since the pineapple one I had last month, by myself! This will improve my blog by making it unique to me! Another way Inktober will improve my blog is because it has helped me get used to drawing often! This means that I will be able to produce art faster in the future so I can post my art more often on here (remember I am aiming to post every week)! I am enjoying improving my blog content, I wonder how it will have changed this time next year? It's these sorts of wonderings (this isn't a word is it) that make me look forward to the future!I hope you enjoyed this post full of my Inktober art! I recommend that you do any daily art challenge (it doesn't have to be Inktober) because it gives you the results that you want and sparks your creativity!
Over to you...
Have you ever done an art challenge such as Inktober? How did it go? Let me know in the comments! If not, would you ever try it?
I loved reading this post so much Megan!! It was super fun participating in Inktober this year with you! :D (You gave me so much motivation throughout the month too! <3) I really liked how you came up with a great combination of Halloween and autumn themed drawings. :D It was also nice to see that you were combining Inktober with your school art project - such a unique idea! Speaking of which, gosh, I'd love to be able to do an art GCSE. xD
ReplyDeleteI loved the owl drawing from the first day of Inktober! It's super, super cute, the eyes, the feathers and the design as a whole!
I also thought the Photoshop version looked amazing! There's a nice, night-ish colour theme there and it looks really sparkly and eye-catching! 8D (That reminds me, I used to take my traditional art to edit it digitally but I haven't done it in such a long time... maybe I should!)
Something I noticed while looking at your drawings throughout the challenge was that you'd improved SO much as you went along! The skull drawing has to be one of my favourites... I adore the cross-hatching, it looks so detailed and the efforts must have been time-consuming! I also looks super realistic - just like a real skull! (I wonder what a Dia de Los Muertos sugar skull would look like in your style... probably totally awesome! Not that you have to do it, of course, I can just see you're really talented at that kind of thing! <3) How did you make the image transparent? :D Ahhh I know that kind of I'm-going-to-put-this-in-the-bin art rage! I just try to remind myself in such situations that if the art is causing pain and stress it means I'm improving somewhat haha. xD
Last but not least, I love how you're designing the blog backgrounds yourself! It's a great way of unique customisation. :D
You're such an inspiring artist and I'm always loving your works! And it's excellent that you have a weekly schedule - keep it up and someday soon I'm sure you'll be an art senpai! ^^ <3 That's a great question! And "wonderings" is a great word, haha! xD
Another thing I wanted to mention about Inktober is that sticking to a daily schedule has helped me avoid procrastination and be more productive - I made more art this October than I've ever make in one month just by completing the challenge! xD
Than you Kenza, it was a great experience to do the challenge alongside you as well! I agree with you that seeing each other gave us motivation, whenever I felt like giving up on the challenge I saw one of your amazing Inktobers and thought that I should carry on so one day I might be as skilled as you are. <3 I've really been enjoying my art GCSE so I thought that I'd involve some of my school drawings in the challenge. I enjoy looking at GCSE sketchbook pages on pinterest for inspiration, so i hoped to create the same sort of effect.
DeleteThank you so much! I wanted to start by drawing an owl to remind myself that I was doing this challenge to improve my drawing skills. I did an owl to sort of re-do my owl drawing that I posted on scratch. I know that it got featured and I was delighted! But to be completely honest, every time I look back at that tutorial, I feel a little embarrassed. It was only a quick drawing that I needed to make fast for a magazine so it wasn't my best so I aimed to improve it in the first day! I'm happy with the improvement too. :D Thanks, I enjoyed playing about with the effects on PicMonkey to create it. Maybe you should, I'd love to see how you'd digitally change your drawings.
That means a lot that you think so! I'm so glad that you recommended the art challenge and that I decided to give it a go! I had previously been in a bit of a bad patch in terms of art. I was hardly producing any personal art but since doing Inkober I am feeling ready to put my all into improving my art! I'll be using November as a bit of a catching-up month though because in October I left no time for writing letters, fashion design or anything. But December should be another art-filled month! :D
The skull was in my top 3 drawings I think: the skull, the cauldron and the second pumpkin. I had hoped to draw a Dia de los Muertos skull but unfortunately didn't. Sorry! I had planned to do all sorts on the 2 days. I wanted to do a colouring page in the Thanneya book (which I did), a mask that I coloured in(which I didn't), a photo of my day of the dead cup (which I did but late), an edited photo of me as a sugar skull (which I didn't) and a drawing of a sugar skull(which I didn't). But I wasn't very realistic when I planned to do all of those things on my Instagram within two days. I felt like being lazy those days after the phew feeling of finishing Inktober! Thank you, I suppose I've had practice at skulls since I studied sugar skull drawing (insired by Thaneeya McArdle) in yr 8. Ha-ha that was actually an accident (making the background transparent)! xD I uploaded a png file (that I later used to create the background of this blog) instead of a jpg (png files take up more space than jpg).
When I read the 'I'm-going-to-put-this-in-the-bin art rage' line I had to hold back my laughter (since mum was on the phone)! xD I'm going to have to use that phrase to describe my art rage! Thinking that you're improving because art is causing you pain and stress is such a 'healthy' way of thinking about art rage.
I'm glad you like them, I enjoy seeing my art every time I open my blog, I think it shows what to expect from my posts.
Hearing that I'm inspiring from you means a lot! You inspire me so much as well, I can tell from your art that you're such an experienced artist. I'll try to keep up the schedule but unfortunately I missed last week! I'll write one this week (probably tomorrow since it's dinner time now). Wow, I hope that one day I do become one! XD Ha-ha I wasn't sure if it was a real word but is seemed to fit in the sentence.
I agree! Procrastination is something I often struggle with and this has helped so much! Same here!