#005

The Art

The team responsible for sending the Inktober Newsletter in extremely understanding. In there words, it doesn’t matter whether you did every day, missed a few or many, or even just watched from the sidelines, as long as you were inspired. In the newsletter, they sent some of the art from previous prompts that week by other artists. These artists are extremely talented, and I suggest that all reading this would go and search Inktober 24 on Instagram and others such sites. I myself missed nine of the thirty-one prompts, and instead of attempting to draw more and try to make up for lost ground, I decided that it was better to bulldoze my way onward.

Every artist says that in drawing every day, one’s art improves, especially if one is enjoying oneself. This is true. Much of my career as an artist, short though it be, is realizing that all of the corny and trite sayings that all others say on YouTube and in blogs, is true. Things like “practice makes perfect” and “the most important thing is to have fun”. While these things, if portrayed in a movie, would cause oneself to hurl cookies (and in doing so waste perfectly good cookies), in real life they are sound advice. Below I have put up all of the remaining art from the month in one large gallery for your enjoyment.

the most fun I had was coming up with different interpretations for the prompts than I knew most people would pick. Games such as Scattergories are a great help in this. On some days I drew on my pocket sketchbook, others in my spiralbound. A few I drew on the smooth Bristol paper.

• 10/9 The prompt was “Sun”. I thought of the sunniest places, and was reminded of my family’s trip to CA, where we took a pitstop at Four Corners. Sunny, dusty, and windy. Then I thought of those cool posters that are minimalistic shapes and colors depicting a famous view at one park or another. I used brown Micron pens on the pocket-sized sketchbook, and was moderately pleased with it.
• 10/12 That day had been a busy one. My brother and I were driving back from Grouse hunting, and while we were at Perkins before the food came I doodled a small radio/remote with a large button on it. No one said I had to put much effort into this.
• 10/13 I don’t remember where I was or who I was with, but I remember young people admiring my work as I drew. (cousins, maybe?). In any respect, the prompt was Horizon, and I thought almost immediately of the game Horizon: Zero Dawn on Playstation, and then made the connection to VR from Simon Stalenhag’s “Electric State”, in which most people are addicted to VR. And so I drew a lady in futuristic garb wearing a Horizon brand VR headset.
• 10/14 Another late night. I thought of a Star Wars drone. There was no preliminary sketch with some of these, and this was one of those. For not having a guide to draw over, this was decent.
• 10/15 This is one of those drawings were I decided to stick with my premeditated characters. Why D3R3K has “pickles” in his manual is unknown to everyone but those who read it. Also, drawing dogs sitting is not something I am accustomed to, and more practice is needed.
• 10/16 I had written next to my prompt list “pass a grungy droid”, meaning, that the duo plus dog passes another robot while out walking. I decided to draw D3R3K in his emo phase. (My brother pointed out that “grunge” and “emo” aren’t the same thing. Whatever).
• 10/18 I was at my girlfriend’s house, and we were arting in the basement. I took a piece of paper, scribbled some water-based marker, sloshed some water-color, and blended the whole thing togerther. She has a winky-smiley emoji plushy, and I took that as inspiration. Now the prompt was “drive”, so I tossed in a steering wheel and a tire behind him, and a license plate on his chest.
• 10/21 This is the worst one. Rhino is a wrestler, and Sam picked a fight. I put next-to-no effort into it.
• 10/22 Camp. Not much to say about this one, as little thought went into it. You can see the preliminary thumbnail sketch next to the finished piece.
• 10/26 I have a fondness for drawing skeletons. Not sure why; I enjoy their genial attitudes and friendly eyes. The image of a skeleton holding a camera was inspired by one of the pieces sent in the Inktober newsletter over the course of Inktober.
• 10/27 This is my favorite one. On a skeleton high from the day before, I thought of the Scottish song “Loch Lomond”, about two Scottish soldiers in prison, one death row and the other to be released on the morrow. The doomed man comforts the hopeful youth, “I’ll take the high road, and you’ll take the high, and I’ll be in Scotland before ye.” (Read the page I read: :https://ariescape.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-story-behind-loch-lomond/). The joke is simple, yet I enjoyed the wit.
• 10/28 The word is jumbo. I had nearly fallen asleep before I remembered that I still had to draw, blast it. So you see what I made. Frankly I was delighted to be finished.
• 10/29 This one wasn’t too bad. I have a habit of improvising when my sketch is not detailed enough, which usually leaves the drawing not as what it could be. Still, not terrible.
• 10/30 This is the weirdest one by far. In my sketchbook, I doodled some ideas of a monstrous violin, with a gaping may and beady eyes. My original idea was to introduce a love interest playing the violin as Sam walked by. I rejected this. I then dug up this image from my subconscious of a walking, talking violin-homunculus (violunculus; or viomunculus), covered in eyes. Most likely inspired by the Robe of Eyes, a magic item in Dungeons & Dragons.
  10/31 I was tired. But it does count as a landmark to the first Inktober I (mostly) finish. And by calling it a landmark, I made it one.
  

Reversion.

Save the Cat!

In the future, I may need to go to a biweekly schedule for posting, if the rest of life becomes more important. My intention is to begin working on my story (more about it in the future), wringing the kinks out of the plot, fleshing out the characters, coming up with concept art, etc. and the turning around and selling it to you chumps for free. Excuse my rudity. First comes the plot. There is a book, indeed a philosophy, called Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody. Alli Balts, an author and a member of our church, lent it to me when I went to her for advice on book writing. To say the least, it was immensely helpful. The author is extremely witty (my kind of author wink wink), the way she wrote the book had me on the edge of my seat, despite the fact that it was a how-to and not a fantasy thriller.

My first step in writing this story is finishing the plot, the, doing some storyboarding for the panels, then some concept art. I must remind myself that you, dear readers, don’t have access to the knowledge of this story yet, and so I must not assume that to be the case. The concept art will be the hardest—and most entertaining—part of it all. I intend to borrow heavily from every other artist and culture as reference for the artwork. As every artist does, I believe. I’m getting exited just thinking about it.

Salutations in Reverse (Snoitatulas).

This is the end of yet another blog. I am interested to see what it will look like in the future—how it will evolve and morph into the hideously deformed creature I know it must. (Just kidding). Many thanks to you, dear reader, for remaining with me and bearing my wandering fingers over this keypad. I hope this week finds you good fortune and a warm bed. Spread the news about this blog! Tell your knitting circles, your nephews, your cult lackeys, your fellow burger-flippers! One day, Lord willing, people will read my books. Fare thee well.