Pinktober 2024: Week 1
One week into Inktober/Pinktober 2024 and we’re off to a great start! I was a little worried at first, since I haven’t been drawing much of anything these last couple of years, but the first four days of the month have been awesome. I’ve been looking forward to each new drawing as a creative challenge, finding inspiration in the random sketchbooks I have laying around and in photos of friends and family (and of course, myself).
Whew… not gonna lie, though, I have hit a few snags! I mean, yes, I dove right in and filled the entire page on the first day, which was great, but my colored pen situation is pretty rudimentary. I bought a set of 24 drawing pens at the drugstore during Covid along with an adult coloring book (which was one of many coping mechanisms I used to deal with the seemingly never-ending pandemic and being in a job that was making me miserable).
Day 1: Venus, Greek goddess of love
I only took a picture of the final colorized version of my first couple of drawings, but my technique is to first sketch in pencil, then simplify it to an outlined drawing with a fine pen, then fill it in with colored pens. That’s my technique for this month, anyway… I prefer coloring in Photoshop, but it’s called Inktober, not Photoshoptober.
Anyway, as I was erasing the excess pencil marks on my drawing of Venus, I must have overestimated the tensile strength of my dollar store sketchbook paper because I was erasing a little too vigorously and promptly ripped the page almost in half diagonally (you can see the evidence across Venus’ neck). No big deal, though! Rubbing is racing and all that. I scotch-taped the back of the page and continued more carefully. Fortunately, the dollar store paper is actually pretty good at holding up under a shit load of colored ink!
After my first drawing, I realized I might need to invest in some additional, um, “flesh” tones though. After the second day, I took a trip to the art store (shoutout to the wonderful Opus Art Supplies on Granville Island!) and bought a set of five watercolor pens in a range from pinky apricot to pale marble green.
Day 2: Selene, Greek goddess of the moon
The inspiration for my second drawing was an old black and white photo of my grandmother back in her beatnik dancer/ performance artist phase in the mid- to late 1950s. I have some amazing photos of her but the quality is horrible because they were often Poloroids glued into some scrapbook or the back of a door that was later cut and turned into an easel or countertop, then carted from place to place in a converted school bus or camper for decades, suffering from exposure to sun and moisture, while being periodically varnished with some kind of protective sealant (because she was an artist, too!). She eventually became tech savvy and converted many of those old photos to digital formats, and I’ve gone down some serious museum curator rabbit holes trying to restore some of the more damaged ones, like the one above, with varying levels of success. I finally wrestled a clear image out of this one, a feat considering the cacophony of scratches and dust on the original after decades of wear and tear.
Day 3: Arachne, Greek spider goddess
By the third day, with my new watercolor pens, I had some options for skin tones, but the application is a little tricky. The dollar store sketchbook is not really designed for watercolors, but I’m figuring out how to use a lighter touch while still doing a bit of blending and layering. I’m finally starting to feel like all those years I took off drawing haven’t completely destroyed my ability to have a creative thought for composition. It’s all coming back, slowly but surely…
Day 4: Hel, Norse goddess of death
Now this one I’m actually pretty happy with. It only took the first four days to get into an actual groove, but I’m really looking forward to the next month of drawing every day. If you’re playing along, you can follow me on Instagram and post your drawings using these hashtags:
#inktober #pinktober #inktober2024 #pinktober2024