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”

Noisy neighbors 

This morning, I heard quite the fuss outside and had to go out to tell them to quiet down. But then what can you expect from the local murder?

crows in tree and on the wing
more crows in trees


I got a slow start on NaNoWriMo, but I caught up today — today’s count was 3,744, putting me at 5,262 for the month. Yay for being back on track!

Part of what helped (though not all of it) was checking out 4thewords.com — a gamified site where you defeat monsters and gain loot by writing a certain number of words in a given time frame. If I’m still enjoying the site at the end of the month, I might subscribe — $4/month isn’t an unreasonable price. One more tool in the productivity quiver!

Inktober finale

This post is late, for which I apologize. I actually did the drawing first thing in the morning after getting the girl on the bus to school. No words today, just outline work.

Prompt was “mask.” This Noh mask is in the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison. Done with brush pen. The face is too elongated, but I’m still pretty happy with it.

Drawing:

Photo:

Never lost

I wrote more than 300 words today, adding to the beginning of Troll Tunnels, and I really like the way it’s shaping up. Signed up formally on NaNoWriMo as a NaNo Rebel, too, to finish this up, then maybe start up a novella if there’s time.

If I nap tomorrow to stay up until midnight, however, it’s so I can listen to the final episode of Steal the Stars when it drops, not to get a head start on my writing.

Today’s Inktober prompt was “found.” This tiny white flower was on I found underfoot while at Rocky Mountain National Park, although “discovered” might be a better term.

Drawing:
drawing of small flowers

Photo:
small alpine flowers

It might finally be autumn

Temperatures have been in the 60s for a few days, and it’s been raining all day. Very autumnal.

Friday was trick-or-treating, yesterday I took the boy for an eye appointment (new glasses ordered!), and today was hanging out watching my husband game. But I figured out a new opening chapter for Troll Tunnels, which will make the entire book stronger — and wrote 168 words today!

I’m behind on posting my Inktober sketches. Friday’s prompt was “climb,” Saturday’s was “fall,” and today’s was “united.” So my drawings are a pair of ring-tailed lemurs from the Henry Vilas Zoo, some shergottite originally from Mars that fell in Morocco and is currently housed in the geology museum of the Colorado School of Mines, and a mosaic from an Iowa rest stop along I-80.

Lemurs:
drawing of lemurs
photo of lemurs
Rocks:
srawing of rocks
Mars rocks
Mosaic:
drawing of mosaic
photo of mosaic