INKtober - Weeks 2 & 3 (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ink)

I'm not going to lie, I nearly came a cropper less than two weeks into INKtober. Draw something every day for a month? What can possibly go wrong? That was before I caught the worst cold in the history of mankind.

Of all the months in all the years, someone (many thanks and kind regards to you) saw fit to gift me their virus at a time where I quite crucially needed to be on the ball. Eat, sleep, draw, repeat. Yet, as this blog's title suggests, I've made some encouraging progress with my inking over the last 14 days, despite the goo.

As Week 2 began, I continued to use Cass Art's hot pressed watercolour paper in combination with Pentel's Pocket Brush and Derwent's Graphik Line Maker range. I worked on simplifying my mark-making, being careful to avoid cross-hatching, and spent a while considering more carefully the form I wanted to convey. By Day 12 I was starting to feel pretty grotty and actually fell a day behind.

Fittingly, I chose to sketch with a green pencil that day, reflecting the state of my health perfectly.

At the beginning of Week 3 I picked myself up, gave myself a good talking to and started working with Copic markers on Strathmore toned grey paper. This is one of my favourite papers which I've used for a couple of years. The shade of grey is just right for providing a suitable midtone, allowing you to focus on the lights and darks. Also, despite being quite a thin paper, it holds up surprisingly well to several layers of ink.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I've admired many comic book artists' ability to work with markers and although I have a substantial collection, including Copic markers and the Letraset Promarker range, I've never plucked up the courage to use them properly. I've dabbled - mostly unsuccessfully - so in the cupboard they have stayed. Until now. I saw INKtober as the perfect opportunity to give them a proper whirl and so, for Week 3, I focussed on creating greyscale portraits with white highlights. ​In just 7 days, I feel I've accomplished so much but still have an awful lot to learn.

I'll be drawing a few scary characters as we approach Halloween so if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment and come back soon to see how the rest of my INKtober adventure pans out! I'll also have some news on the 2016 Sketchbook.