Catching up (again)

Some days, it’s hard to decide what to draw. My son suggested a tower for “guarded”; I added the octopus tentacles in the moat. Since I already did a clock for “cruel,” I did a water clock for that prompt. “Weak” became a mouse, and “angular” a detail from one of Escher’s works (the angles aren’t quite right on it, and I may try that again sometime). I couldn’t think of anything for today’s prompt of “swollen,” so I went with the Cooktown orchid witch instead.

I still don’t know if I like my style of drawing, although some of the pieces I’m fond of. I think if I practice more and refine my technique, I’ll probably like it more. That’s what happened with my writing, after all — I don’t beat myself up for not writing descriptions or exposition or characters the way other authors do; I’ve improved the way I use words in my own style (though of course I have more to learn. Doesn’t everybody?) — this insight courtesy of Sahil Lavingia. Continue reading

So not a morning person

I was having trouble deciding what to draw today for Inktober. The prompt was “cruel,” and I thought about torture devices, like a rack or stocks. Or pretty much anything separating me from chocolate.

Then my son, on his way to bed, said he’d see me “dark and early” in the morning, and I knew just what to draw. Continue reading

A touch of delicacy

Actually getting the drawing up the same day I did it! Today’s prompt was “flowing,” and the October garden prompt was “jasmine,” so I put the two together and drew a portion of a jasmine plant from the picture on Wikipedia (original photo by i_am_jim • CC BY-SA 4.0)

Precious, precious tea

Quite the busy three-day weekend — Fall Fest at Moravian College, gaming with friends (Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate!), daughter’s soccer, short story completed, card games with the kids, helping my son start his college application process, and falling behind then catching up on Inktober. Herewith, more drawings. (Yes, Monday’s is bad.) Continue reading

Yes, I’m doing Inktober again

Sorry I haven’t posted these yet. I’ve been doing the work after I left the computer for the day, and then not thinking about it when I got back to the computer in the morning.

I initially had high ambitions; I gathered several lists of prompts, and each day’s drawing was going to be a picture with setting, characters, and a hint of story, with all 31 together making a cohesive whole. That didn’t even last to the first day, although some of them are closer to that than others. In the captions, I mention which tag (like “botanicalwitches” or “octobergarden”) I pulled from on Twitter to get the prompts.

ink drawing of aconite flowers

October 1 — official prompt “poisonous,” plus octobergarden prompt “aconite”

drawing of woman with sprig of blooming rosemary

October 2 — official prompt “tranquil” + botanicalwitches prompt “rosemary witch”

woman's portrait plus a table with a roast

October 3 — official prompt “roasted” + Aussie botanicalwitches “blue quandong witch” + simplycuteinktober “sunflower”

portrait of woman with a scroll

October 4 — official prompt “spell” + botanicalwitches “henna witch”

drawing of a barred chicken

October 5 — official prompt “chicken”