Graphic Novel

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Inktober 2020 and An Update

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Well here I am, sitting pretty at the end of another Inktober. Did I say pretty? I actually meant PRETTY TIRED...

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But I did it! Thirty-four drawings in 31 days. And no, I’mnot bad at math….I actually did do 34 drawings (to including one full illustration)for Inktober. (One I had to redo, another needed something extra, and the finalwas a submission to an art contest.)

And in case you have wandered onto this page without the faintest inkling (*ahem*) of what Inktober is, it is a drawing challenge created by Jake Parker to help better traditional inking skills. Draw and ink one picture every day in the month of October and submit it online under the hashtag #inktober. Started in 2009, thousands of artists have participated since.

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There is an official prompt list, or you can draw whateveryou like. This year, I decided to draw everything Star Wars—and BOY did I havefun! I’ve always been a huge fan of Star Wars, and it seemed fitting to pay homageto it since my hubby and I were going through The Clone Wars television seriesand couldn’t wait to watch The Mandalorian, Season 2.

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Inktober can be as much of a challenge as you want it to be.There are a few popular ways of participating, as demonstrated in race terms:You can run the “5k” (create one drawing for each week in October), the “Half-Marathon”(create a drawing every other day), or the “Full Marathon” (create a drawingevery day.)

I decided to participate in the full marathon. And yes, itWAS a challenge.

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I had several reasons why I wanted to participate in the full Inktober prompt challenge this year, because I wanted to:

  • Better my inking skills

  • Challenge myself to create high-qualityillustrations in a timely matter

  • Expand my repertoire of current artwork

  • Continue building my audience

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My main reason was to practice my inking skills using the Zebra fude brush pen (up until now, I was tolerating the use of micron pens.) I’ve recently discovered this pen and have seriously loved inking with it. It gives me dynamic line weight, but also suits my drawing style. It holds up to heavier pen pressure and yet still allows me to incorporate a lot of small detail. I could go on about this pen, but I’ll save this for another blog post.

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The other main reason I did Inktober was to see how hard I could push myself in creating high-quality images in a limited amount of time. As an illustrator, it’s good to take time in composing a scene correctly and doing your research, but that only goes so far when it comes to comics. The fact of the matter is that you just don’t have time to give to each comic page as you would a book cover, but it still needs to be well-crafted and skillfully done. I was challenged to “trust my instincts” when it came to creating these Inktober images and not spend too much time on any one of them. Some turned out better than others, and that’s fine. I’m beginning to believe that it is more important (for a comic artist like myself) to create more good-quality art, rather than fewer “perfect” pieces. And composing, drawing, and inking an image every day did just that. I can’t help but think of a weight-training analogy: the first time you pick up ten-pound dumbbells and crank out several reps, it’s going to be hard. But the more often you do it, the easier it becomes.

Same with drawing, the more often you create/draw/ink/whatever,the more confident and better you become at it.

Here are a few of my favorite pieces (I’ll feature the rest of my drawings in my gallery soon. In the meantime, you can view them on my Instagram or Facebook page.)

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Inktober-11-Disgusting_web_800w.jpg
Inktober-28-Float_web_700w-592x1024.jpg
Inktober-6-Rodent_web_700w-641x1024.jpg
Inktober-3-Bulky_web_1000w-714x1024.jpg
Inktober-17-Storm_web_1000w-776x1024.jpg
Inktober-25-Buddy_web_800w-682x1024.jpg
Inktober-14-Armor_web_1000w.jpg
Inktober-23-Rip_web_900w.jpg
Inktober-12-Slippery_web_800w-1-575x1024.jpg
Inktober-20-Coral_web_900w-747x1024.jpg
Inktober-30-Ominous_web_900w-682x1024.jpg
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Now Inktober is done and packed up, I am pleased to announce that I have some new and exciting art updates coming in the near future!

FIRST, take one last stroll around this old site, because it’s about to be packed up and renovated into a new, shiny website! (It’s about time, too.) I will be retiring some of the older art pieces from my portfolio, but I will still have most of them featured on my Deviantart page.

Secondly, I’m getting ready to launch part one on my nextBIG project…..

…INTERSTELLA.

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I am SO excited to share this with you, but I’m going tokeep you in suspense a little longer. Just know that there are some reallyexciting things coming your way!

With that all said, thanks again for everyone who liked,commented, and encouraged me throughout Inktober. I really enjoy it when peopleget excited over the same things I get excited, and especially love theconversations that it creates.

I’ll end with a quote from Jake Parker: “Whatever you haveis exactly what you need to make your best work.”

So go and make good things!

 

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