INKTOBER In OCTOBER Or... You Know, Whenever...
Hello, Friends. Welcome back. It's a rainy day in Manhattan, as I sit here writing this.
I know I have not been really very reliable in regards to writing these blog posts on a regular basis and checking in with you all with any sort of reliability. For that, I apologize. It's not you, it's me. ;0P Seriously, though. It has been me. Things have been queer and shakey and uneven; living in a funhouse that isn't exactly fun. You know that part of the funhouse where the ground you are walking on is designed to shift and tilt, knocking you off balance? Yes. Well, like that, in a way. More answers to come (in future SketchBlog posts.)
Photo: Luna Park, Coney Island
Anyway, moving on.
As many of you may (or may not) know, I used to participate in Illustration Friday quite often. For those of you who do not know what IF is, it was a website (www.IllustrationFriday.com) and was an open weekly challenge for any and all artists/creatives to participate in. How it worked was: on every Friday, a single-word Topic was posted on the site. Artists were then given a single week to create a piece of art based on or related to that topic and then post it on the site before the next Friday when the process would then repeat with a new topic. I loved the excitement of posting my piece for the week and then getting to go and see what other artists have come up with. It was always really cool to see how other creative minds and creative expressions there was each week. It was a fun thing I enjoyed participating in, and I really do miss it since the site was discontinued about 3-4 years ago. It kept me creatively on my toes. When I was stuck, creatively on other projects I was working on, or if I felt bogged down like creating things for others & not for myself, IF Fridays were a way to literally free my mind up out of whatever funk it was in. While I understand why the individual that used to run it, discontinued it, it is still a shame that it is gone. I haven't really found anything else that was quite like it. A unique space on the net that will definitely be missed by me and others, I'm sure.
I have searched for other spaces on the net to see if I could find a similar community to join that had a similar weekly challenge. As U2 would say:" I still haven't found what I'm looking for." However, I am trying other sorts of similar challenges just to see how I feel about them. It is for this reason that I agreed to participate in the Inktober challenge last October (2021). I'm just not sure I have tuned my creative brain to the correct parameters to make the Inktober thing work for me just yet, or maybe it takes a few years of doing it to condition oneself to the intensity of it, but I certainly had never really tried to complete a "just for fun" undertaking quite like it. I'm sure every artist that participates in this has the same complaints. I know what I'm saying about it isn't exactly new, but it is my experience.
I just don't know exactly how to balance it in order to meet a daily challenge. I was originally calibrated to meet weekly challenges outside of my regular push and pull of daily life and obligated work etc, and I knew how to rearrange my schedule to accommodate and have time to meet something on a weekly basis. Meeting a challenge every day was certainly new to me and I found myself drowning in it quite early. Whereas most artists usually are comfortable using ink and just drawing with it, inking was always an intermediate step in my creative process. I ALWAYS begin my creative process by sketching with pencils. Sketching within the comfort of knowing I can erase any and all "mistakes" or "obsolete creative decisions" for better ones. Drawing in ink did not allow this. I found myself doing twice the amount of work for one drawing for Inktober. I decided I would sketch in pencil as I always have, making as many mistakes and corrections as I normally would. I would then take my sketch to my light table and I'd enjoy an evening of inking my sketch. However, I was also trying to daily develop each word topic into an illustrative concept, do visual research for that concept then thumbnail and sketch it in pencils first, THEN FINALLY INK!... As you can imagine, this is not a sustainable formula for a DAILY "fun" art project.
It's OBVIOUS and without any wonder that I would eventually be falling behind in this task. I had so many other things on at the time that were not Art related, and I soon found myself drowning in my Ink-well instead of flourishing, swimming, and, having a good time in it. I DID NOT like how this was feeling. It was feeling WAY TOO MUCH like failing and something that was supposed to be "fun" isn't supposed to feel like a failure. At least it shouldn't, right?! I eventually, regrouped and made a NEW plan to tackle Inktober: I would treat it as a weekly challenge of 7 inked drawings, grouping and tackling several topics at one time, then sketching 3-4 out in a single day, then inking 3-4 of them in one evening. As long as I ended up with 7 drawings at the end of 7 days. Seemed like a good plan of attack, right?
Well, this strategy only worked for about 2 weeks and then I found myself, yet again, drowning in backlogged daily assignments, feeling like I completely failed at something that should have been pretty easy. I was churning out work that I was not too happy with because it was super rushed just so I "could meet the deadline" and I was unhappy with its quality on so many levels. I eventually came to the conclusion, that I could either, just quit, which I deplore. I'm many things, but a QUITTER I am not. If I ever have to walk away from something, it's usually with a very heavy heart. I could pick out only a handful and do those drawings and "pretend" it's a Spooky version of Illustration Friday (which was a better solution.) But ultimately, I decided, "Who the F*#% am I racing?" the answer was "Noone." I'm not racing anyone. I DON'T HAVE to finish these drawings in October if I don't want to. In fact, I don't have to finish them at all if I don't want to. Noone's stopping me from just moving on to something else.
So, I decided then and there that I would extend Inktober out into whatever timeline it naturally fell into. I stopped trying to define it with a deadline and do with it what I originally intended it to be for myself, to begin with: a fun, artistic, and creative challenge meant to give myself a "break" and "escape" from everything else. Some "Me-Art-Time." I began to take the remaining concepts and one by one developed them into something I would normally do for IF Friday and spent as much time sketching them as I wished. Then when I was satisfied with the results, I would take my time Inking each and every single illustration. After this choice, I began to see better results from this series and began to enjoy them much much more than I had. They were no longer just another burden I was carrying, but something that gave me a break from the burdens I was carrying. Perhaps with more practice, I'll be able to distill my creative process into something that can be done daily and I'll be able to meet the original parameters of an Inktober. TBH, I'm puzzled how other artists achieve it. I'm sure it's not their first rodeo, and that maybe their first few Inktobers resembled my own.
In any case, I just wanted to write this little SketchBlog and devote it to my experience and also say a little bit about each drawing.
I did not go by the "official" Inktober Promptlist. I found one that was made and posted by another artist on Instagram @rit.aria. They called their promptlist "Witchtober" which was cute. I just really liked many of the prompt words on their list and preferred it to the "official" list, so I followed prompts for Witchtober instead. Some of the prompts already gave me some interesting ideas that I was excited to work on. I was excited about using Autumn and Halloween, incorporated with whatever the word for the day would be, could "conjure." I had to hold back some ideas because they would involve more planning than could be done in a single day and I eventually had to edit and censor ideas into the most basic form to allow for something that could be done in a day. This often was to the detriment of the final product. *shrug* Perhaps, I'll get better with this the more I try to do it.
DAY 01. Candle.
As soon as I saw this prompt, I knew pretty much immediately what I wanted to do. I could see that scene in Disney's Snow White where the raven/crow has their head in the skull as the Evil Queen is working her evil magic. I loved the idea of candles melting and burning on top of a human skull. A sort of "low-tech" version of a cartoon of someone thinking. A lightbulb was replaced with its predecessor, a candle. I originally planned to have a raven inside of the skull and 2 more placed behind it with more skulls and candles in the BG, but....... Inktober only gives you one day per drawing so ALL THAT was cut. I may go back and draw what I originally wanted, but highly doubt I will.
Day 02. Fawn.
One of the things I missed most about IF Fridays was drawing Animals wearing clothes. I don't know why I enjoy drawing personified as humans so much, but I do. Maybe it was the impact that Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins had on my imagination? Maybe it's something else entirely? Who knows. Point The point is: I LOVE to do it. I had so much fun drawing my little Fawn character in the lovely character Fall Attire that she wore to the pumpkin patch, no doubt. She was a delight to draw.
Day 03. Demon.
Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I LOVE ME a Good POSSESSION or GHOST Story. I'm obsessed with them, but they HAVE to be good. I enjoyed making my own little version of The Exorcist. I enjoyed including my former passion for puppetry into the mix, making my Demon a puppeteer of the poor unfortunate possessed child. I thought to myself, this is a dark subject to make into supposedly child-friendly art. It was a fun challenge to see how I might do such a thing. Could you talk about possession in a children's book? Surely, you can. If you know how to approach it and transform it into something constructive. A fun "exercise" nonetheless.
Day 04. Owl.
The only thing that was coming to mind originally was just to draw a plain owl on a plain branch in front of the moon... very plain. I'm not sure when my eternal love for Harry Potter kicked in, but at some point, my brain decided it would Draw Hedwig dressed up as Harry (because it's Halloween, even in the wizarding world.) I won't say how she came by the Sorting Hat or Harry's Broom. All Hallow's Eve is known to be a night of Tricks as well as Treats...
Day 05. Rat.
Living in NYC, we always will think of the city, subway, and sewer rats. There are countless videos out there showing New Yorkers and tourists doing all sorts of funny jump-dance moves when they surprise encounter a rat here in the city. Last Summer, I saw a woman in hysterics screaming barreling out of my local Rite-Aid with her baby in a stroller as she was being chased out by a baby city rat. She almost hit me as the automatic doors opened and she came screaming out so fast. Perhaps one day I will illustrate that humorous moment in my life. For this drawing, however, I thought of another famous rat, Templeton from Charlottes Web. All I could think about was the fair sequence in the film where Templeton the Rat is having a glorious time singing about all the wonderful trash and garbage he is digging into and rolling around in. I thought that an NYC rat would make their Halloween costumes from the garbage treasures they find. So I give you "RAT MAN" defender of the night. Gotham criminals of the sewers and streets beware. (Gotham is based in NYC for those who are unaware.) Mask made of Double Bubble wrapper and origami. Cape made of the oh-so-common Thank You plastic bag from your local bodega. Bat logo beer bottle cap. He's ready. (was thinking of going back and redoing this one in color because I think that might be fun... we'll see.)
Day 06. Halloween.
Every year, I probably watch each and every single Halloween film made. (Exceptions to this rule: Halloween II by Rob Zombie, and now Halloween Kills... Garbage.) I just wanted to do a fun "kiddie" version of my favorite Slasher Icon, Michael Myers carving out his own Opening Credit iconic Jackolantern.
Day 07. Tarot.
I've been trying to teach myself to read tarot. While the progress with it is very slow (as will ALL my hobbies are right now) it is something that continues to intrigue and enlightens me (about myself.) While the Chariot, Death, or Temperance cards might be a natural choice for my favorite card in the deck (associated with my major astrological chart placements) my favorite card in the deck is The High Priestess. I find myself relating to that energy and archetype so many times in my life. I also love the Smith Illustration in the Rider-Waite deck and thought it would be fun to do my own version of that.
Day 08. Squirrel.
I felt so clever for this one. I love me a beautiful sugar skull, but what if that skull wasn't a human skull. I thought it would be fun to research what a squirrel's skull looked like and transform it into my interpretation of a festive sugar skull for the Day of the Dead... for briefSquirrels. I know it's not Halloween, but it does fall along the line of things that are Spooky and Supernatural. Also, I'm kinda strange like that.
Day 09. Rose.
Last year I fell in love with a Narcissist. They really hurt me and abused me. Not really ready to address that in art (but I will. It's coming,) Roses, a flower often associated with love or friendship, were not something that I felt like drawing. I wasn't happy, which was their plan. Loving them was like being a black rose in a bottle of poison.
Day 10. Mushroom.
I had so many ideas for this topic initially. I ended up canning them or ditching them bc I would either not be in the right mood for whatever idea it was or it just wouldn't be something that could be communicated within a brief daily illustration. Most of the ideas were combining things from Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland. I'm unsure why I was on an AiW kick, but I was. Thinking about the Eat Me Shrooms that either grows or shrink you... I ended up creating a version of the Caterpillar on a mushroom. What is if he was a reaper come to reap Alice?
Day 11. Bat.
For many years, I've often referred to my home as the "Bell Tower." I thought it would be fun to draw some bats flying out of one. I'm not really happy with this illustration for obvious reasons. It was definitely rushed and it has SO MANY drawing problems. It was overly ambitious to try and pull off in a single day... Bat, Oh Well. ;0P
Day 12. Light.
For the concepts of both Light and Day, I began to think about personifying the deities of light and dark into modern-day teenagers; Twins. As someone who isn't religious, it didn't really matter to me which poly-diety religion I used. I looked into them all to see which light and dark dietiesdeities appealed to me the most. In the end, the Egyptian god and goddess of Light and Dark were the most interesting. They were not exactly related, but it's my story now and in my versions, they are twins. While I will not go into a long epilogue of each deity and their history etc (you can look them up on your own. Trust me, their stories are pretty good ones.) Nut is the Egyptian Goddess of Light and the Sky. If you look closely at my drawing, you can find her name written (in hieroglyphics.) The emoji on Nut's sweatshirt is actually her name. When I first saw the set of hieroglyphics, I thought to myself, "They kind of make a funny face if you stack them." And that is what you see as the "emoji" on her sweatshirt. Her leggings also reveal other symbols associated with her. The Sun/Moon conjoined and the stars represented the space over which she ruled. there is a Bull symbol as well. Nut is often depicted as a horned calf. This was the form she took on to carry the Sun God Ra upon her back.
Day 13. Dark.
Part 2. Meet Kek, The Egyptian God of Darkness and Chaos. Nut's mischievous twin. Kek is one of the 4 Gods/Goddesses of Chaos, Night, and Destruction. So, while, not exactly a "twin' of Nut, it's my story so I bent the rules for my own amusement and artistic purposes. Kek was often depicted as having the head of a frog, hence the frog head on his hoodie. Down the hoodie sleeve, you will find his name written in hieroglyphics. I thought if Kek was a modern suburban teenager, he'd be a bit of a skater punk. I'm considering developing these two perhaps into an actual chapter-book series, but we'll see.
Day 14. Moon.
I wanted to draw a moon with a face in it. My own little homage to Le Voyage Dans la Lune (1902.) My moon, however, is dressing up for Carnivale. Also, I'm partial to crescent moons over full moons. Something about the shape...
Day 15. Autumn.
Again, I just wanted to personify things and Costumedraw them. I thought it would be fun to draw the turning leaves in their sharp and stylish "Fall" Fashions. I originally had planned to have 3 characters showing off their "crisp" style, but daily time constraints struck that off the final drawing. *shrug* He came out cute anyway, though, even if he was the only one.
Day 16. Moth.
This was fun to draw and play with a spooky pattern that a moth could have.
Day 17. Victorian.
Drawing Victorian anything is fun. I LOVE me a good Edward Gorey illustration. I had fun just freehanding some Gore-ishly tall victorian man that could be dead or undead or maybe a little of both. lol.
Day 18. Flower.
I have a very good friend that often calls me "Le Petite Fleur" (the Little Flower.) But he really means "the Delicate Flower." I'm prone to illness at times, sometimes too often. On one birthday he gave me a pair of socks that proclaimed "I Am A Delicate Fucking Flower" on them. They make me laugh and think about my friend whenever I wear them. I thought it might be funny to draw someone in a flower costume, non-plussed as if that wasn't their idea, with a little "protest" sign proclaiming the same thing.
Day 19. Skipped.
When I made the decision to carry on outside of October, I decided I would cut a few of the prompts that I really didn't want to draw things for. This was one of them.
Day 20. Fox.
So, here we are drawing these during the "other" holiday season. SO I thought it would be fun to combine elements of those holidays under a "spooky" umbrella, conceptually. One of my favorite films during the Holiday Season is A Christmas Story and I also have a deep love of Wes Anderson's animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox. I thought how funny would it be to dress a Fox up in the costume of another animal that is normally its prey, a bunny. And the most Christmas of Christmas Bunnies is of course the Pink Bunny Costume from A Christmas Story. So, I created a "fox" version of Ralphie's character dressed in that bunny costume and wearing the same horrified and nonplussed facial expression.
Day 21. White.
I had so many ideas for this prompt that my brain broke. I almost skipped it because I really didn't have a single really good idea out of the bunch. Then, for some reason I began thinking about Beetlejuice in some other unrelated area of my life and thought about one of my favorite scenes, where Charles tells Adam (in a ghost sheet costume) that Delia would flip out if she saw that (Lydia) "Cut holes in her $300 sheets." lol So I thought I could make a sheetghost and maybe theme it with Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. My own little Sheet-Ghost-Of-Christmas-Past.
Day 22. Web.
Again, thinking of Charlotte from Charlottes Web. I thought it would be fun to spin my own holiday message into a spider's web. But in my version, apparently, Charlotte will be played by Liza Minelli. ;0P
Day 23. Spooky.
One of the things that Winter makes me think of are evenings spent next to a fire. Thins in turn makes me think of Poe's The Raven. Warming himself by the fireside while there's a rap tap tapping at his chamber door...
Day 24. Skipped.
Day 25. Wolf.
I could have copped out and did some newer version of my Wolf in Sheep's Clothing illustration or just used the inkwork from it and posted that. However, you know me. I never make things easy on myself *eye roll*. I really liked the idea of playing with predator vs. prey as I did in the Fox illustration so I thought it would be fun to continue that with the Wolf. I wanted to create a different version of Little Red Riding Hood by combining it with Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Playing with visual dichotomies. Red Riding Hood is often seen by the wolf as easy prey but finds out in the end how clever and resourceful she truly is. Akin in the Handmaid's Tale, the character of June (a Handmaid) is underestimated and the Wolf-Like characters in the story find out how truly dangerous poking and stirring that fire inside her truly is. So who is the "wolf"? Who is the predator? Who is the Prey? Fun stuff to think about... and draw about.
Day 26. Merchant.
Of all the things I was considering for this particular prompt, I kept coming back to "Fisher Man." I can't tell you why. Maybe I was having some sort of craving to watch my favorite film, JAWS. I often think of Captain Quint as the "Quint-essential" archetype of a Fisherman, both in character and aesthetic. But, to make it spookier, and more interesting for me, I turned the idea of a Fisherman on its head (pun intended.) What if a humanoid/personified fish were a "fisherman" or in this case a "Human-er-Man." THat catches and sells humans for all the fish of that fish-world to eat. I enjoyed drawing that coat and cable knit sweater and beenie. It was a delight to ink and fun to think up! ;0)
Day 26. Plant.
I thought it would be fun to draw a plant from another planet. THis indulged my boyish love of science fiction and old fashion b-horror films. Also, who doesn't love creating another plant that might have come from the same planet as Audrey-II?
Day 28. Familiar.
While the first instinct I may have is to use this prompt as an opportunity to draw a cat, I knew I'd have the opportunity a few prompts down to do that. Originally my idea for this was meant to be winter-themed. As time Marched on and my time to work on these was less so, the weather began to warm and a winter-themed drawing seemed less important. So I just decided to draw a cute little witch and her familiar-fashionable scarf for any time of year. They were a cute and fun couple to work on.
Day 29. Necromancer.
Originally I had different ideas for this. I had thought about drawing another vampire, but childlike, but vampires aren't really quite necromancers. They are undead; the "magic trick" but not the "magician." This thought led me to think of maybe drawing something akin to a kid magician that pulls an Un-Dead Rabit out of his hat (which I may save for Inktober of next year.) But then the idea of blending necromancer with the mad scientist as a tribute to one of my favorite Gothic Novel Character Couples: Dr. Frankenstien and his Monster. I originally drew this around Easter (again, I'm not religious.) I thought it would be fun to include a Frankenstein version of the Easter Bunny. I also wanted to pay a little personal homage to Bunnicula (a YA novel series I was obsessed with when I was younger) by making my own little bunny-monster to add to that sort of fictional universe. This is probably one of my favorites out of all the drawings.
Day 30. Cat.
While there is nothing spooky about this drawing, I can never resist an opportunity to draw my beloved kitties in some fashion. I'm not sure where this idea came from but drawing Peanut Butter as if she were a dog that could catch a frisbee sounded fun in my mind. So I drew her. I kinda cheated on this last, I wanted to make a black and white version of my mixed media illos. I figured that would be ok. I struggled at first to try and capture her essence in a caricature and I drew SO MANY versions before arriving at this final. (see sketches below.) The real Peanut Butter napped nearby. lol.
Day 31. Skipped.
My overall experience of working on Inktober last/this year has been a mixed bag. It was discouraging in many ways but maybe, as I said before, just haven't found my own personal balance to be able to meet a daily challenge that creates something I can be proud of when I'm finished with it as opposed to crumpling it up and throwing it in the trash. We will see. I'll give Inktober a few more tries before deciding it isn't for me. But I think keeping up with it is still very much like training a cat to catch a frisbee. In the interim, I will continue to find a prompt challenge that is similar enough to IF Friday to enjoy again.
Once again, thank you for lending me your time (and "ear") to talk about the art I make and why I make it. I hope you all enjoyed the crazy journey as much as I did. I look forward to sharing more of my new crazy journeys soon. There are more, I promise. I just haven't had time to type about them yet lol. Stay tuned.
Until next time, friends,
Keep dreaming, keep sketching, keep thinking, keep laughing, and most important of all, keep making art.
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