Procrastination at the End

The final day for Inktober has arrived. The topic is Flex. There are probably many options flexible, so many modern terms end in flex and it is often used in modern slang. Too many options and I just went back to thinking about the traditional flexing your muscle. I think the modern world might say show us your guns, but back in my youth flex would undoubtedly mean showing strength in an arm muscle.

So I had a subject to draw. I looked back at my most popular Instagram posts this year. Not only was the quality a bit disappointingcompared with last year the number of views was way down. Clearly to be popular it needed to have colour, Further I don’t think people liked me showing the pens I used either. However all this fitted in with my objectives this year. Have fun, try out a range of techniques, show my working and the tools I used. Yet I also wanted to honour what I thought was the objective of inktober to have an excuse to practice your ink work, So I’ve tried a more tradtional ink line work for my final drawing.

It wasn’t till nightime that I actually got to finish this.

Congratulation to all those artists that participant in Inktober this year, no matter how much. Especially to those that managed to draw every prompt everyday. Hope you all had fun.

A Biscuit for the Second Last Day

It’s the second last day of Inktober and the prompt is cookie. Australians of a certain age I would never use the term. They have biscuits.

My very favourite biscuit to have with coffee is an Anzac. It’s a very flat oat based biscuit, that supposedly dates back to the First World War. It was largely made to a special recipe that wouldn’t go stale and on the long ship journey to the combined Australian and New Zealand Troops overseas. When I was a kid the tradition lived on and every family had their own secret recipe. They all used golden syrup. A sugar syrup much lighter than the equivalent molasses, but with a similar taste.

Are Three are better than One?

The inktober prompt is Tusk, an elephant is the most obvious thing to draw, but I’ve drawn them a fair bit before in previous inktobers. Anyway there are lots of other animals that have tusks, both alive and mythical.

Hmm...... what would be something different? Then it struck me I am a geologist I should draw a dinosaur. However I thought for a long while and I couldn’t think of only one Triceratops. So it was a three tusked extinct animal I roughed out and inked in with the aide of the net for reconstructed images.

But wait they where not tusk at all, actually they where horns. Turns out there was awhole family of horned dinosaurs.

This Years Inktober Pen Trophy

Inktober last year also had the prompt trophy and I had decided to draw a little gold statue to be awarded to my favourite pen of the round. The pen I had used and enjoyed most. It was the little faber castell Pitt Pen which uses pigment ink. I have a few fixed sizes and a couple of brush tips. They are a very reliable sketching pen and the ink permanent underwater. I had loved them for few years.

This year I’ve been trying out the Tombow Pens. One is water based but others are permanent ink. So far I’ve focused on using the brush tip pens. I’ve had them since last Christmas, the sample pack was a gift. They have proved very reliable and are still going strong, one of the grey ones maybe running out. I’ve got two black brush pens and I’ve used them interchangeably but for some reason I like the blue one best, perhaps it’s maintained it’s brush shaped slightly better over time.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed during October this year, is last year's illustrations are way nicer, much better controlled line work and more detailed stippling and cross hatching. I’m not surprised, I’ve had a lot of eye trouble and my vision is still not perfect in my right eye. What I can say clearly is I’m having trouble with my hand-eye coordination I just can’t put the nib of the pen exactly where I think I’m putting it on the paper. At this stage I think I just need to practice more hand-eye coordination by drawing more. I shouldn’t blame the pens. I do like the brush pens particularly for the style of expressive artwork. They’re also great for my cartooning efforts.

He sure plays mean pinball

Today’s Inktober topic is Dumb. Something othersinktob would probably find offensive to draw and no obvious subjects. Then I had an inspiration to use another favorite pop tune. This time it’s The Who, Pinball Wizard.

That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays mean pinball.

Watercolour and Pen this time

Broken ZIPper

The intober prompt is Zip, and zipper is the obvious thing to draw. I was thinking along the lines of a broken zipper, you know when the teeth get separated and you get an almond shaped opening. I may be a little obsessed with seeing at the moment but it looked a lot like an eye. Had to draw that.

I also wanted to see if I could do better capturing the gold fiber pen on the teeth and clasp. Not really

A Day Late

Yesterday there was a bit of a “tedious” uninterrupted drive home in the rain, fog, drizzle and thunder. Not pleasant, especially for my vision. The Inktober prompt was fracture and I had to put it aside to concentrate on the road ahead.

Home now and I have a classic little black tea pot. I imaged it fractured and repaired in the Japanesse style of repairing precious things with gold, Kintsugi. The teapot worked out ok but the gold fiber pen doesn’t really show up well in either the photo or a scan.

The Lobster Treat

Yesterday I went to the local fish packing warehouse with the idea of buying a lobster to barbecue. Despite looking good it was way too expensive, but the person behind me bought three! Oh well such is life.

Today for lunch I was at a local restaurant who had a lot of taste samplers, one of which was a baked Southern Rock Lobster Pie. It was affordable and yummy!

I definitely had to draw it for today’s inktober prompt : Bake.