#001

Salutations.

Welcome to the first post. I suspect few will see this, so what I say will probably not effect the course of history. Now that I am actually sitting at the computer, words fly from my mind like startled seagulls from the road. I suspected this would happen. This week is the same week I finished tweaking the website, which meant adding all of the art on the home page. (Those were drawn by me, by the way). This being the case, I decided I had had quite enough of coloring for one week, and decided to mount a previous piece to the board.

Who is he? what is he? Why are there ducks? What’s with his head? No clue. The inspiration came from a number of home screens from some wallpaper app I had previously tried. They featured a character with a white block–much like the character above’s–for a head, and wearing a bulky jacket. All of the images were washed in sepia grays and browns, reminding one of the apocalypse. I was slightly fascinated. And so, in my usual fashion, my brain went to work lore crafting. Please excuse the shallowness. I have not spent much time thinking through all of the things.

No-one knows who he is or how he got there or what he did to be locked up in that tower. Some say he was a god, or the child of one; some whisper that he was a powerful sorcerer, a time-traveler and dimension-hopper. The legend goes that many years ago, before the town was built, there was a great battle fought. A powerful wizard fought against the abomination now trapped in that tower, battling foe against fiend, until at last the square-headed thing was weak enough to trap it for eternity.

Inkbeard’s lore

The Beginning of Inktober

As some of you know, Inktober begins in October. What it is is a challenge sent out to all artists to draw every day for the month of October, drawing inspiration from a provided list of prompts. I have attempted this mighty deed it times past, and the farthest I got was about half-way through before giving up. (What? I was like fifteen). This time around I have decided to try again. I will invent to new characters and the dog to accompany them through the prompt list. Every week, I will hand you my favorite from the batch as the week’s new post. At least that’s the plan.

There is something called Inktober 52, where the team at Inktober creates one prompt for every week of the year (all 52 of them). This is accessed by their newsletter, which I subscribe to. In the newsletter, every week they introduce a new Artist of the Week, in which they pick one artist from the world of Inking to give a brief introduction of themselves, in an effort to grow their audience. (Kind of a leg-up, if you will). I always enjoy reading about the new artist, seeing their work, being inspired. Remember this: the one of the best ways to improve your art and your style is to copy (not forge) the style of the artists you love. I draw much of my inspiration from artists such as Albert Monteys, Cosimo Galluzzi, Sinix Design, and others. Many other artists agree on this, and in fact I first learned it from Sinix Design on YouTube. (Check him out, and tell him I sent you).

Herald.

This post draws to it’s end. But fear not, as many more wait in their cue to follow. The plan is to have a new post fresh from the oven every Monday morning, although this could change throughout the years. I am at the beginning of my life as an artist; the phoenix is still shaking the ash from it’s feathers before it can rise in blazing glory. If you like what you see, if you are a nice person and want me to continue to grow, or if you like the art, or even if you hate this and want to punish your enemies with homework, please share this with friends and foes alike. I will make it worth your while, with more of these posts, and eventually with some comics hopefully. I do intend to write and illustrate my own comic books. However, those take a long time to make. You will be the first to hear of it’s arrival, or of it’s foretelling. I twaddle on. I hope you enjoyed this first of posts, and that you will return.

Ciao!