Inktober – Page 3 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Inktober 2019: #5 Build

Today’s post #5 for Inktober 2019 – Build – is a lot easier than yesterday’s was, for whatever reason. In keeping with my promise to myself, this was drawn with homemade iron gall ink. I created different shades with diluting the ink with water, letting it dry, and then adding more ink to layer it into darker shades. It seems to work pretty well. I also used two different pen nibs for the line work – in iron gall with a dip pen – along with an old paint brush I am willing to sacrifice as iron gall is a higlhy corrosive ink over time.

And, if you operate this critter, please excuse my inaccuracies!

Inktober 2019: #4 Freeze

I am having a bit of a problem getting my head around some of these prompts, or maybe I am just distracted by other things and projects. To me “freeze” means to make something frozen, or to freeze action – but that is hard to express. So, perhaps the thaw in contrast with the North Pole will resolve this conflict!

Inktober 2019: #3 Bait

Today’s prompt for Inktober 2019 is “bait” – bait?! Jail bait. Cut bait. Click bait. Take the bait. Switch and bait. Crow bait. All kinds of bait.

I went for the obvious: a fish lure and a mouse trap.

I also decided that I would use my homemade iron gall ink that I made earlier this year. Iron gall ink is present in manuscripts, old letters, and the sketchbooks of yore. It’s something I haven’t done yet, and thought it could be a fun (and very messy) project for the month of Inktober.

So, a fish lure. I didn’t decide on the iron gall ink until last minute, so the initial drawing was done with a fountain pen and the washes done with the iron gall, sometimes directly applied, other times diluted. I am using a throwaway brush because iron gall corrodes things, such as pen nibs, so it will most likely do a number on the brush.

A mouse trap with a really generous bit of cheese – and probably an unrealistic amount at that!

So, baited we are.

World Watercolor Month: July 2019

Communities sometime just happen, and sometimes it takes the vision of an individual to make the community happen.

In this case, Charlie O’Shields has done both. He created Doodlewash, and from there, he has created World Watercolor Month.

This year I am going to try to do a painting every day in July for World Watercolor Month. In the past few weeks I’ve fallen off as I have veered into ink making and indigo dyeing. Now, time to return to a good daily habit. I think daily artwork is like brushing your teeth every day – it makes for a more pleasant start to the day!

I did Inktober for most of the month of October 2018, and it was a wonderful process, and in doing it I learned so much. Pen and ink is black and white and World Watercolor is with colors, in the form of gouache or watercolor – or probably any other water-based medium. I expect I will learn a lot by being focused on this as well. Because I am attempting to learn gouache and improve my poor watercolor skills, maybe I will alternate medium daily – like odds for gouache and evens for watercolor. What do you think?

Use the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth to draw people to your work if you participate.

The Rest of Inktober 2018

I’ve been really running around like a nut of late, going hither and thither, but I haven’t really had time to sit down and do much other than a quick post here or there. It’s hard to believe we are nearly through with November! And, Inktober ended 2 weeks ago. I did a lot of the sketches for Inktober, and it was really fun. It also helped me focus – given subjects – and improve on some of my old skills. So, here are the rest of the sketches I did for Inktober 2018, not in any particular order.