Some free stuff

23 Sandy (Laura Russell) just posted a free book you can print and make yourself.

I also wanted to pass on several free downloads from Marc Taro Holmes - these are drawing and watercolor tips. The one called Tea, Milk, Honey is a small one sheet book with watercolor tips.

In the vein of free downloads, I have a free pattern for paper spectacles on my website. There are two versions - one has a few collage elements, another has just a map of Mars and some stars.

And there is a little one sheet book called Dreaming Made Easy you can download and assemble.

Dreaming Made Easy was in an online show Marc Snyder did of free downloadable books.

I love the idea of sending books out into the world this way!

Day ?? Inktober

Another drawing for Inktober. This one was started with a smear of Ziller ink. At first I started drawing faces but then started to see the animal and liked the idea of a made-up skeleton for an imaginary animal. It is partly inspired by the fold out anatomical parts in old books and partly by drawings of Godzilla insides. I also used a copic pen with black ink, a white and an ivory Posca pen. #Inktober #Inktober2017

Continuing with Inktober

I'm falling behind, I had dental surgery the beginning of the week. I'm not sure if it was the medications or my general frame of mind, but I didn't want to draw at all. By yesterday (Thursday) it was fun again. So now I'm trying to catch up. My original goal was to do some experimenting with content. I want to explore the possibilities of seeing imagery in marks. I started with scribbly lines but quickly changed to ink splattered and dropped on the paper. Now my other goal is to have 31 sketches by the end of the month. A few will cover several days.

I won't assign days to the drawings since they are done in groups, its enough to be getting them done. Originally I wanted to draw more than I normally do, but haven't been. It takes time to take photos, edit them and upload. I committed to doing this on Sktchy as well as here, so I am also distracted by everyone else's wonderful drawings.

This is Ogim, my new crush. His photo was found on Sketchy. In order to catch up I am doing some very quick, loose sketches.

Ogim again, more quick sketches. This is out of order, date-wise, but I'm showing the least interesting first.

Very quick studies of cat and dog skeletons. I wanted to see how the legs work, but ended up also really liking the spines.

The image on the right was for day 12, I'm showing both sides of the sketchbook because they relate to each other a little. I'm not sure I like the totem pole effect, but I do like the dog crossing behind.

I wasn't crazy about this one at first, it seems a little too obvious with the wings. But I like it better now. The paper had water sprayed on, then ink dropped on.

I worked on this one for several days and will count it as two. It seems a little scattered to me. However there are parts I do like and could probably make it into two or three drawings. I keep forgetting I don't like 90 degree cross hatching. It makes me think of those plastic net bags we used to get onions and oranges in. I think I need to get out my inspiration books out again. #Inktober #Inktober2017

More Inktober - Day 8 to 12

I'm falling behind in some ways - didn't take photos until yesterday. I do have drawings from most days.
Day 8. This one is from a photo on Sktchy - I do like the painted faces some people post. The Halloweeny ones and many of the Day of the Dead ones aren't so interesting, but the really unusual ones are fun to draw.


Day 9, 10 and 11. The figure on the right was from Sktchy too. I recorded the date wrong, but it was done over three days. I started with the face and three trees and had no idea where it would go.


Day 12. I have been splashing ink on pairs of pages to get a surface to start on. This particular page seemed to have a long nose and eyes, I didn't like the idea of it much so didn't do the drawing. But every time I looked at that page I couldn't see a different image. So I finally decided to give in and do the drawing. The body is from a beautiful photo of a young gorilla.

The pressure to draw every day took the fun out of #Inktober for me at first. Before Inktober I was drawing almost every day, so it seemed like an easy challenge. But thinking of posting, having people see the drawings and feeling like it's an assignment was not sitting well with me. I also found it hard to get the photos taken, uploaded, edited, etc. Once I articulated the problem I decided I don't have to draw every day, don't have to show my drawings to anyone, can upload when convenient and can drop out at any point. And presto! I started enjoying the drawing again and managed to do something most days. I'm not sure about this coming week, but hope to catch up and "get with the program." (As my Mom used to say.) My larger goal here is to explore unconscious imagery. I have been doing this some on my ipad with Procreate and wanted to do it on paper. #Inktober2017

Inktober day 7

Yesterday was very busy and I really really didn't feel like drawing last night. I told myself I could just start a simple drawing and then knit for awhile. Of course once I started I did get involved and finish. Still, I'm not so happy with this one. The inspiration photo on Sktchy was a loosely painted face and fairly like my drawing. #inktober #inktober2017

Inktober Day 5 and 6

I've haven't been able to take the photos every day, but so far have been able to draw at least a little each day. Day 6 was very quick but I am happy with it. I also had to make another sketchbook a couple days ago. I'm using Strathmore Aquarius II cold press paper for these, because of the ink. Also white Posca, Pigma medium brush pen and a copic multiliner, size .3 I like the paper, although it does cockle a little when wet. Still, I don't expect my sketchbook pages to lie totally flat. #Inktober2017 #Inktober

Inktober Day 4

A rough beginning on an intuitive sketch turned out to be not very inspiring, so I decided to try this photo from Sktchy which I thought would be a great challenge. It was, and there are multiple mistakes. Still, it was fun and with a daily deadline I can't dwell on the mistakes or do-overs. Time to take the photo and move on. #inktober #intober2017

Inktober Day 3

A quickie today - Grey squeezy pen, Gelly 08 white pen, some kind of black ink pen I'm testing. The grey pen is a Pentel Arts Aquash Pigment Ink Brush with Light Black Ink. I'm not too fond of it, I have to squeeze a lot to get any ink flow. In a way that could be good - lots of dry brush happens. Maybe I need more practice. #Inktober #inktober2017

Inktober Day 2

I realize my best drawing time is in the evening and my best time to take photos of the drawings is during the afternoon, so I will be a day late most days. Here is day 2 for #Inktober #inktober2017.
I used a squeezy pen that has grey ink, a fine point Pitt pen and a Posca pen that has white acrylic paint in it. I think of the Posca as pen and ink because I keep it with my pens. But technically it's not ink. So I may be breaking the rules.

Inktober drawings

I am participating in Inktober. More info here: Inktober
I am not using the suggested prompts, my goal is to work with scribbly lines until I see an interesting image. Or until I get tired of scribbling. The image is then refined, but I don't want to over-do it with details. My goal is to keep it loose and intuitive. I guess I'm also going to re-learn how to use blogger. More to follow. The tile is Haunted. Sqeezy grey pen, brush pen, felt tip pen. On watercolor paper.

#Inktober #Inktober2017