I've never participated, but this year two friends decided to give it a try, so I joined in the fun. I wanted to get into a daily drawing habit anyway, and this should help. So far I've done it every day, and I've been trying to do different things -- location sketching, working from other people's photos, working from my own photos, using just ink, using ink and watercolor, doing stippling, using sepia ink or various shades of gray ink -- whatever I can think of to mix it up.
For Day 1, I did a drawing from the book Fair Is Our Land, a pictorial survey of the U.S. published in 1942 that I found at the Friends of the Library book shop. All the photos are black and white:
This one appealed to me because I love drawing birch trees.
Then I chose to add watercolor -- I'm not sure which version I prefer. I always take a photo of ink drawings before adding color just in case I totally ruin them, which is a good strategy!
On Day 2 the local sketch group went to a vineyard/winery, so I did an ink drawing there and added watercolor (and forgot to take the pre-color pic):
On Day 3 I went back to Fair Is Our Land, where I found this lovely New England church in Winter, which I drew using four different shades of gray ink. I really like the way this one turned out.
Day 4 was another picture from the book, of pueblos, which I drew using sepia ink:
Then I added color, which I think was probably a mistake. I prefer the simpler version above. Oh, well. The idea is to learn stuff as you go along with the challenge, and that's what I'm doing!
On Day 5 I thought it might be fun to highlight a specific pen and ink technique called stippling. Stippling is nothing but little dots, applied farther apart for lighter areas, and closer and closer together as you get into darker and darker sections. I learned the technique during the Scientific Illustration certificate program that I completed back in 2006, and it is often used in natural science illustrations. I chose a pumpkin display that I found at a local nursery:
It's an incredibly tedious technique but quite effective. I spent three hours tapping my pen on the paper making little dots to create that drawing. My neck and shoulders were a tad sore afterwards.
I wanted to see what the pumpkins would look like with color added, as they were quite vibrant, but did NOT want to ruin the stippled drawing. So on Day 6, I drew the scene again with simple line work:
And then I added watercolor -- so much watercolor that I pretty much obliterated the line work. I could have just painted it directly without any ink. As I said, I'm always learning!
So that's InkTober 2019 -- a successful drawing every day. Now I just need to do it for another three weeks...oh, goody....
In other, and much more important news, PIPPIN HAD A BIRTHDAY!!!
Here is Pippin Pup, my sweet adorable dappled longhaired dachshund, when I first got him at ten weeks old:
And here is my sweet, adorable Pippin Pup on October 1, his SECOND birthday!
He is one happy, friendly, outgoing and funny little dog and I feel very lucky to have him in my life.
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