My 1st 'Inktober'

[Masato]

Hey all

So I have all kinds of weird hangups and issues when it comes to drawing... I draw for a living but not for fun. Doing cracker jack work for clients doesn't pressure me, but exploring my own style and drawing for enjoyment is usually an anxious experience. Hence, I don't draw outside of work. Always anxious about what will come out, having standards perhaps exceeding my skills etc

Recently in life I have made some resolutions to change that, trying to take those first big steps outside of my comfort zone etc... I used to always bring sketchbooks on vacation but never touched any of them, lol. This last trip to Brasil I actually sat down and started sketching, maybe for the first time in my life.

Then I came home and this 'Inktober' things kicks in, and I fucking hide lol. All kinds of guilt etc. Voice inside KNOWS I should just do it but I avoid the first 3 days.

Then I discover some cool pages to get inspiration like this:




Each one would have a different theme; cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, space-age, urban teen, etc etc - a GREAT idea! Every day you have the assignment (I always freeze up deciding WTF to draw)


Anyways today I had a window of time and instead of squandering it doing something useless I saw down and did my first Inktober.

Since I missed 3 days already I did the first 3 characters off the list, hoping that counts as 3

1. The Old Man
2. The Forest Witch
3. The Dryads

[Masato]

A good friend of mine from college is now maybe one of the best artists I've ever come across, and he swears the secret is pure VOLUME. He's been making a digital painting every day for like 4 years now or something and is goddamn incredible.

I've been avoiding this for too long. Like starting BJJ again when I was almost 40, maybe some wisdom kicks in late ;D

Looking forward to it, I'll try to post each day. I'm sticking to the list.

[Masato]

[Masato]

#4: 'The Ancient Wizard'

I rushed this one, went to inks way before I had a plan, lol. Learning a new respect for inking styles, I think I will learn a lot over the rest of the month studying and trying to apply

[Masato]

#5! I'm back on track

Now just 1 per day. This one was fun... I'm somehow both rushing things and over-doing things at the same time, lol

Took just over 1 hour, freestyled:

[Masato]

#6 - 'The Ancient Robot'

[Edge Guerrero]

- I thought iNk was slang for tattoos, boss.
Cool cartoons!

[Masato]

^ it is. But 'ink' is also just 'ink' too

Learning lots...! mostly by mistakes, lol This is fun. I definitely have some things I am trying but failing, I want to study good inkers now and see if I can figure out a few things. Hard to get textures and the illusion of lights and darks when you can actually only use 2 tones (I am being a bit cheap using too much grey marker, my goal is to make good inks with just ink). Crosshatching etc I think looks messy, I admire the inkers most who can achieve a lot with little.

Its amazing how often my brain wants to press the 'undo' button

#7: 'The Woodsman':

[Masato]

Also having more fun than I thought conceptualizing characters..!

What does 'the Woodsman' look like, etc? What kind of a character? What kind of a drawing can I make that sort of invites a story? Having fun with all of them so far, that page I found with the challenges for each day was a score. I am starting to feel like the characters are all from 1 world, part of a specific story/mythology etc. That the characters would cross paths, have back history etc.

Really fun.

I am still 1 day behind though, lol

[penxv]

Very cool.