With Inktober having now come to a close and 31 drawings later I have to say I'm pretty pleased with this years outcomes. There were definitely some times when I felt I could have done better but on the whole I'm happy with the artwork I produced, that and the fact I actually managed to complete the challenge!
This year I opted to follow the official daily prompts set by Inktober for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's nice to be part of the community of artists creating artwork all based on the same starting point but all vastly different in their executions. Secondly, it gives me more of a steer in what to draw everyday, as part of the difficulty of Inktober is having inspiration for all 31 days of the challenge. Following the prompts takes a bit of the guess work out of things and you always know what the theme of your drawing is going to be in advance, meaning you can do a bit of planning before hand. However, there were a number of times when I was still stuck for an idea right up until I had to sit down and start a drawing, but for the most part this wasn't an issue. I chose to follow these prompts because of the mess I made last year trying to create my own themes and then not even following them, I wanted to have more of a streamlined approach, where the prompt for each drawing was taken care of.
I'd like to share with you some of my thoughts on a handful of pieces I produced over the 31 days. I'll start with the drawings I felt were not so strong and end on a high talking about the ones I think were most successful and why. I'll also discuss my ideas going forward based on these artworks.
Weak Outcomes
So the first drawing I have an issue with is day 8, Star. The idea for this drawing came to me after looking at a lot of monochromatic space drawings, which are pretty popular at the moment. What I found was a trend to have space within objects, creatures or liquids which makes for some pretty surreal outcomes. I figured, given the nature of the Inktober challenge I could do something which reflects the 'ink' side of things and incorporate space into this. Now my main problem with this drawing is how loosely this ties in with the theme of 'Star', yes there are stars in the drawing but I feel as though I missed an opportunity to do something more with the idea of a single star or more heavily focused on stars rather than space, ink and a bottle. My other issue with this drawing is the lack of harmony between the dot shading and solid black areas of shading, I feel I missed the mark on finding a middle ground for the shading technique. The shading isn't necessarily bad, I just feel it's inconsistent. However, with all of that said, I was talking to a good friend about some of these drawings and some of my doubts surrounding what I felt were weaker outcomes and he told me that this 'Star' drawing was his favourite from the entire set. So goes to show that what I feel and see as the creator isn't always what is conveyed to the viewers.
The next piece I feel is weaker than some of the others was day 21, 'Drain'. This is one of the examples of me not knowing what I was going to draw right up until I had to put pen to paper. I was racking my brain all day (and for several days beforehand) about what I could do for drain, my ideas included waterfalls, water soaking into the earth, and aged face, a landscape through a grilled drain and a few others. I felt that these ideas were wither too ambitions to achieve in the time I had or would be poor executions. What I decided to draw was a bit of a cop out, I took the prompt all to literally and drew a drain and did what I often do when struggling with a concept, add flowers. Again, I feel the quality of the drawing was fine, I just feel that the concept was weak and could have been much stronger.
Strong Outcomes
I feel for the most part that the outcomes were pretty strong, following the official prompts helped with this, it allowed me to be a bit more creative with concepts and the drawings that are less obvious but definitely tie in with the prompt I feel are the strongest. Also there are a handful I feel may not be the best concept but the drawing itself was very strong.
An example of a drawing I am really proud of for both the concept and the execution is day 1, Poisonous. I really wanted to start on a high and do something that would set the standard for all the drawings to come. This drawing has a really nice blend of texture and shading on it, specially on the snake scales. Also the composition itself has a nice balance, although I would have drawn the snake a little longer if I was to re draw this one. Something else I really like about this piece is the reflection within the bottle. I tried hard to replicate how objects bend and distort when viewed through glass and how the textures would change. This was a great start and a good example of great concept and decent execution.
The next drawing I was really quite proud of was day 4, Spell. I was a little stuck on what to do for this one as typically magic, spells and things of that sort are quite colourful or formed of light waves, which is a little difficult to get across when using black and white, especially using the dot-work style I've adopted. Additionally, hands are something I used to avoid drawing due to their complexities and how if you draw any part of it disproportionally it becomes extremely obvious. On the other hand, I did draw a fair amount of hands throughout this challenge and I must say, I've gotten much more comfortable with it and quite confident in my skills to do so. What I am most pleased with on the drawing is the use of lighting, I took special care to ensure the lighting was correct, so there was a clear light source and depth created with deep shadows. I wish I could have been as consistent with this kind of lighting throughout the whole of the months drawings but it is extremely time consuming, and time isn't something I have an abundance of.
The last drawing I want to draw attention to is day 15, Weak. I really struggled to think of a concept for this prompt so I did what I normally do when I don't know what to draw and draw something nautical, typically an anchor. I did this same thing last year when I was running low on ideas so drew a sunken treasure with an anchor resting on it. I took a slightly different approach to the drawing style on this one, instead of drawing outlines then shading using dots, I decided to not outline the anchor and just use dots to create the silhouette of the object. I really liked this technique and think it gives a subtle texture and gives a slightly more realistic look to the piece. Coupled with this slightly different style I was pretty pleased with the concept I came up with, it's subtle and you wouldn't notice the link to the prompt straight away but becomes clear when you take a moment to focus on the drawing.
A few other honourable mentions include days 11, 13, 20, 22 and 23 (see below). If you would like to see the full set of 31 drawings you can see them all on my Instagram.
The Future
Lastly, I would like to talk about where I am going to go from here and my ideas for next year. Because I feel that some of these drawings could have been a bit stronger given more time to develop the concept and refine the compositions I'm planning on revisiting some (after a well deserved break of course). I was finding that I couldn't full recognise some of the concepts I wanted to do due to time restraints, which both pushes me to finish drawings but also adds a cap to the amount I can do. No that I don't have a time limit I can really refine some drawings and spend as much time as I need to get them perfect (or to least to a point where I'm satisfied with them). Some of my ideas included revisiting the ship in a bottle, the spilled ink in space and the killer whale. All of these I feel could be explored further and create some really interesting outcomes.
Thinking forward to next year, I might take a radically different approach. I'm considering doing character designs, perhaps in a sci-fi or fantasy style. I might even go as far as having them all on a single page (something I've seen a number of amazing illustrators do for inktober). If I am to do this it will take a fair amount of careful planning and an extremely different art style which I will have to look at developing between now and next year.
I loved taking part for the second time and as expected it was a pain in the ass but equally rewarding to have all 31 drawings in a sketchbook. Can't wait to attempt something different next year and to develop a suitable style in the mean time. Also, thanks to everyone who was liking and following my progress on instagram, I've steadily increased the amount of attention my artwork is getting and I really appreciate it. Lastly, a massive thanks to my girlfriend who not only put up with me being antisocial every-night while I finish a drawing but also coming up with a lot of the concepts for drawings.
Until next year...
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