Inktober 2020 – Week 5

Inktober 2020: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

And we’re done! Inktober can now be crossed off my bucket list for ever. Which is good because even beyond the does digital art count debacle, there was even more drama about this challenge than I realized when I started this year. It does explain why there didn’t seem to be as much activity on Instagram as I was expecting. Trust me to finally get this off my bucket list a year after so many people no longer find this particular challenge cool.

Either way: no more challenges in October ever again. It disrupts my Halloween mojo. 🤣

Correct armor orientation

I decided to try a different angle for the snail’s drawing which also meant the armor plating changed orientation too. I also feel like the new snail gained cuteness points.

However, the tangles are the same as the original (an Ambler variant and Amaze).

Day 26. Hide

It would have been really cute to draw any kind of subject I wanted “hiding”. But…it just felt more morbid to have it be an animal pelt being stretched out to make some useful hide. And it looks so happy too!

For the tangles I used a familiar tangle called Rain all over.

Day 27. Music

I was half-tempted to draw a tuba since that’s the instrument my husband plays, but I also wanted to scratch the itch of cute cat headphones. Like…I want a pair, but whenever I read the reviews I feel like they’re always a substandard product compared to regular headphones. So I just can’t bring myself to do it. Plus my other requirements of must be Bluetooth capable and have a mic for gaming usually eliminate most contenders.

Why can’t I have my cute with quality? :😭

For the tangles I used a familiar tangle called Therefore and a new one called Modern Nipa by Ina Sonnenmoser. I modified some of its dots into a musical notes.

Day 28. Float

So New Zealand was having problems with men getting drunk and going swimming in an unsafe manner which…is deadly. So they came up with Swim Reaper to remind them of their mortality and I freaking love Swim Reaper. So here he is on his pink flamingo floater, scythe in hand. I bow to your life-saving marketing genius, New Zealand! 💕

For the tangles I used a two new tangles called Kensington by Anoeska Waardenburg and Diva-dance by Laura Harms.

Day 29. Shoes

I should have loved this topic because I do love shoes. But I found myself hating it. I drew several different attempts at subjects: heels, sneakers, horseshoes… I hated them all and ended up erasing them. Finally, I waved the flag of defeat and went with simple flats.

For the tangles I used a familiar tangle (Aquafleur) and a new one called Whirls by Suzanne McNeill.

Day 30. Ominous

Trying to draw something ominous when your subject is supposed to be cute ended up being an awkward contradiction. I talked about it with my husband and we came up with a peanut being eaten by an elephant. I mean, I can just imagine the feeling as its trunk heads towards you and you don’t have legs…

For the tangles I used three familiar tangles: Cadent, Crescent Moon, and Yincut.

Day 31. Crawl

I can’t explain why I didn’t go with some sort of creepy crawly subject for Crawl. I mean…I still haven’t done spiders or centipedes or even crabs! Somewhere in my heart I remembered how sloths have to depart the safety of their trees once a week to poop on the forest floor and with the way they are built, well, they have to crawl. Sloths are just cool.

For the tangles I used a familiar tangle called Avreal and Spiral Obsession and then learned one final new tangle called Ypsmi by Hanny Walburger.

Inktober 2020 is over! 🎉

31 little ink drawings. Do you have a favorite? I think mine is the kangaroo rat simply because I struggled so much to simplify shapes and succeeded best there.

Inktober wrap up

Challenge Process

In case you’re curious, here’s how my drawing process went this month. I always started with a pencil sketch of the subject, inked it in, erased my sketch lines, then added more pencil for guidelines and strings for the tangles. Usually the tangles I wanted to use were picked after the subject was done. Finally ink and markers were used to fill in the tangles.

If I used a tangle that was new to me, I generally practiced them a few times in a sketchbook before attempting the tile. My results were always better when I did. In all, 25 new tangles were conquered and added to the Tangle Reference page.

Tools used

• 0.7 mechanical pencil
• Kneadable eraser
• Old set of Staedtler pigment liners (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7mm)
• Dark Grey Staedtler triplus fineliner
• Grey-scale Tombow alcohol-based markers
• A black Prisma alcohol-based marker + some scrapbooking marker.
• Hexagon cardboard coasters. (They’re back in stock, but not artist-grade.)
• Tracing paper

I am rather disappointed that I didn’t finish off a pen during all of this, but my Staedlter pigment liner 0.7mm and the scrapbook marker are getting close!

Confessions

Inktober is called a challenge for a reason. I definitely did not do everything perfectly. There were days when I finished my tile in an hour and went on my way. There were other days where I just couldn’t get started and it took me 3-4 hours. But! I never drew ahead, although I sometimes already had my subject picked before the day started. There were also…

• Four days where I didn’t finish entirely that day.
• Two days that I just missed and had to make up.
• One tile that was completed at the wrong angle (armor). I re-drew it.
• Four different times when I used tracing paper to reposition my sketch.

So…what’s next?

Well, I definitely need to get the final post on finishing Krahula’s One Zentangle a Day book done. Meanwhile I plan to finish these tiles as more than just ink drawings. I’ll keep the Zentangle’s colorless but shade them. Then I’ll add color to the subjects. I’ll have to test the coasters because they like to feather pigment markers so I imagine they’ll be even worse with, say, a watercolor marker.

We shall see. Meanwhile…back to nail art. And obnoxiously telling people to please, please, please vote! Until next time, friends! 🙋‍♀️