Inktober 2017 - Week Four

We are nearing the end of the month, and with it, the end Inktober challenge. Only a couple more days to go. I'm not complaining when it's over, this week, it really is becoming a bit of a struggle now.

Day 22: Dip pen & ink

Day 23: Ink

Day 24: Brush pen, pen

Day 25: Fude pen

Day 26: Fude nib fountain pen

Day 27 & 28: Dip pen & ink

Thoughts and insights:

• Our brain and how it works is absolutely fascinating. And slightly scary...
• Drawing with dip pen and ink is so different than with pens. Somehow it makes you draw differently. And it certainly looks differently. Or is that just because of the ink?
• The same colour can look completely different from one manufaturer to another. Just look at Rohrer & Klingner's and Senneliers bistre. Both are nice colours, though
• It's useful to make some sort of ink colour charts for reference
• It's also useful to find a system to remember which nib is which...
• It's becoming a bit of a struggle now. 

Inktober 2017 - Week Three

It's the third week of Inktober and I'm still keeping my daily drawing habit up. In fact, it's becoming easier, and more and more day, I'm looking forward to the evening, when I can sit down and draw.

Day 15: Dip pen & ink

Day 16: Fineliner pens

Day 17: Pens

Day 18: Dip pen & ink

Day 19: Pens

Day 20:

Day 21: Dip pen & ink

Thoughts and insights:

• Did I mention that I love dip pens?
• Crosshatching is a bit like watercolour - it looks easy and simple, but it's not
• I wish I was better at drawing from imagination and didn't have to rely on reference images
• But then I guess that's part of trying to get into the daily drawing habit
• Because of copyright reasons, it can be really difficult to find reference images for some subjects
• Some drawings therefore just have to remain practice pieces only, without being shared
• But then, not everything always needs to be shared
• It's all about practice in the end
• And about enjoying it

Inktober 2017 - Week Two

Another week of daily drawing.

Day 8: Pen

Day 9: Dip pen and ink, and pens

Day 10: Pen

Day 11: Dip pen & ink

Day 12: Dip pen & ink

Day 13: Dip pen & ink

Day 14: Dip pen & ink

Thoughts and insights:

•  I figured out how to change the setting on my scanner so that it now scans the entire page. Yay!
• Stippling is so much fun with a dip pen!
• Inks are so versatile, you can use them for drawing, washes and even mix them together
• I love dip pens!
• So many different nibs! I'm going through the ones I have, adding ones, and throwing out the ones that don't work for me. No point hanging on to them. I only want what works
• An excuse to go to the art shop :)
• Drawing every day is good, but finishing and posting a drawing every day is quite stressful.
• But I'm not giving up
• Done is better than perfect

A walk in the (Tier)park

A visit to the nearby wildlife park is always a great way to spend an afternoon. Many years ago, the park started to rebuild the outdated enclosures of the past to make them bigger and resembling the animals' natural habitat. This means that you not always see the animals. Which in turn means that there's always a good reason to go back again and again. Because you never know what you are going to see. All of the animals are, or have once been, native to this country.

The horses are some of the few animals that you always see. They are part of a programme that re-introduces the wild horses in Mongolia, where the became extinct decades ago. We were lucky to get to the fox enclosure at feeding time. A family of five, two adults and their three youngsters. Seeing a bear is always a privilege. My favourite anmials, though, are the moose, which this time were too far away in the woods for my camera this time.

But even if you don't see that many animals, a walk in the park (and a hot chocolate in the café/restaurant) is always a pleasure. There is so much else to see, if you look closely, and for every season, nature has a special display. And autumn is certainly one of my favourite, even if it was a bit early yet for the full autumnal colours.

Inktober 2017 - Week One

I'm taking part in the Inktober challenge this year, for the first time. It's been around for a few years, and I've wanted to do it before, but something's always come in between. Usually holidays. Which, of course, is a nice thing, like last year, when I spent the first week of October in art retreat in Scotland (I can't believe that that was already a year ago!), and the second relaxing in lovely Dorset. But this year, there's nothing on in October, my holiday is already over, and it's high time to get back into a regular drawing habit.

I decided to start a new sketchbook for the challenge. I went through my (far too big) stack of new sketchbooks and found a Strathmore one, about A5 size, with thick mixed media paper that should take bottled ink and ink washes, and with enough pages for 31 double spread, should I decided to do that. To prepare for the challenge, I did a warm up page on the last day of September.

Front/Warm up page: Pens

Day 1: Pens

Day 2: Dip pens, brush, inks

Day 3: Pen

Day 4: Brushpens

Day 5: Dip pen and ink

Day 6: Dip pen and ink

Day 7: Dip pen, ink, pen

Some thoughts on the first week:

• It's good to try out something completely different
• Sometimes it takes a LOT longer than you thought it might, and it's perfectly okay if you don't finish it in time
• Some inks just don't work very well on (certain) paper. It's worth taking a bit of time to try out what works and what doesn't
• Bottled fountain pen inks make lovely washes
• Even if it looks like rubbish at one stage, don't give up but keep working until it starts coming together. It usually does
• Some days, it just doesn't work, and that's fine. Just splash some ink on a page play around instead
• Dip pens are great to draw with, it's fun trying out the different nibs and inks
•  Finishing a drawing, then scanning and posting it every day is had work, and sometimes it might just be too much
• My scanner is driving me mad, it tries to scan individual images instead of just the entire page, and I don't know how to change that
• The most important thing is to draw, and to have fun