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.

Great Beards

I could never be accused of being smartly dressed. I’m more for comfort. The challenge on Inktober today is dapper. So I’m a little out of my depth. Then I thought of the ZZ Top Classic smart dressed man.

Beacon Hill

Today I visited Beacon Hill, a prominent landmark. It had a stone tower, but I was surprised to learn this was a modern reconstruction. It was probably never used to warn ships of the dangers of the shipwreck coast.

So today’s Inktober drawing speculates of the way the beacon could be powered back then.

Alvin dreams of being a hero.

I’m sure this happens to most of us, dreams of becoming a hero. I must admit that I tackled this inktober prompt before I started on my trip. I could see Alvin with a thought bubble containing him in a Superman suit, more purple than blue. It took no time to create cut out and photograph. I like the simplicity.

It had to sit patiently unviewed in my phone for a few days.

Not What I Expected

I’m not sure whether where the idea to draw this came from. Definitely not something I experienced. Today I was very distracted by touristy things. When I sat down to draw I got this impression of something unbalanced and diagonal.

A lounge is not a seesaw.

Confused Directions

Second day out on the road and a few miles to cover but I was wanting to do a couple of touristy stops. I must admit I was confused how to tackle today’s inktober prompt Confused. The activities of the day soon fixed that. Somewhat unusually for me I wasn’t travelling with maps I had looked the follow trip on Google Maps at home and was pretty comfortable with the best way to go.

I had even downloaded the instructions from the computer to my phone. However, and is a big HOWEVER, I have become used to Google Maps work in its browser. Instead it converted straight away, saying to had use its app it’s Google Maps App on my phone. It didn’t look at the directions I’d prepared and started again from where I was at, my current location. The Sad part is that the Google Maps App on Android phones is really hopeless in rural Victoria. It gives very strange directions with road names that don’t seem to exist. Even though it had point tabs for two lookouts I wanted to visit, the instructions led me to the wrong locations. OK in one area there was new road works but I doubt that is the full explanation.

 So I gave up, didn't visit the lookouts and now I’m just following road signs for the place names I recognise.

Flightless

I’m travelling, beginning a week long roadtrip. Today’s inktober prompt is flightless, immediately giving me the Greek Myth of Icarus to work with, perhaps in the style of a modern Social Media Influencer.

 Something I was able to sketch up quickly at night.

Designing a Contraption

Contraption is today’s inktober prompt, and immediately I was inspired to design something that looked very useful but did nothing. Very much to play homage to Heath Robinson. I did draw lots of things in pencil, only to rub out many because I couldn’t see obviously usage. It took all day on little bursts. I ended up with something smallish that had its own mechanical legs, lots of wires that attach to things not hands and a couple of cameras to see. A cartoon-ish mess rather than an illustrative nonsense.

When I photographed it and uploaded to instagram I realised I had subconsciously recreated WALL-E, as a device that might clean up the mess I make.

Gangly

This seemed like an easy inktober prompt. To me gangly inspired images of tall skinny and awkward. A young giraffe seemed to fit this description. However, baby giraffes are actually quite elegant and move playfully and freely.

So I had to make up my own uncoordinated baby giraffe.

Last Horay

There was an obvious theme to draw for today’s inktober prompt hooray, but its a sad story. Over the last few years the fans of the Australian Rules Football Club Fremantle, also known as the Dockers, adopted unusual warcry/chat, known as Wharfie Time. IT started at their home ground and only occasionally when the fans could see their team overwhelming the opposition. It began to work very well. On a couple of occasions it  full overwhelmed the opposition into not scoring at all. This year Fremantle had been very competitive and made it to the top of the ladder. It was only the second time they had got into the finals of the  AFL. Yet they hadn’t played as well as people expected in the finals but did scrape in to be in the Grand Final playing a tough opposition Brisbane who had won the final in the last two years.. There was much speculation whether they would use wharfie time chat.

It was a close match. One team getting ahead then the other. At 4 minutes remaining Fremantle scored a goal and got 4 goals ahead. It was wharfie time and very loud The the fans could see victory. Whilst getting two goals in a row in Australia’s Football is common enough, Getting 4 in a row in between the center bounces required seemed impossible. Australian Rules Football is played on a big field and there are many players but it can be a fast game. Eventually the noise stopped and the game resumed, Everyone was stunned including the Brisbane coach. Brisbane managed to kick four goals in the remaining four minutes, Fremantle barely touched the ball.

 I suspect this will mark the end of wharfie time.

The challenge was how to sketch the barracking. I choose to draw an enthusiastic crowd, before they lost. My family noticed I had the shade of purple wrong, Sorry to late to fix.

Drawing a Goodtime Girl as a Lady

 

I had the immediate idea of a lady wearing a big hat. The Melbourne Cup is less than a month away and it is still the main opportunity for the ladies of Melbourne to dress up and be seen. They place a lot of importance in their hat choice. I’m not sure of the psychology but it is a tradition that so many embrace. Thus I wanted to include a hat, a big showy hat. Other things were happening meant the inktober drawing was pushed back and back. Eventually it struck me that the definitive lady in a hat was probably, Audrey Hepburn in “A Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. it was an easy image to find on the Internet and I sat down to do it after dinner. It was a quick effort and I probably didn’t do it justice but it meant I could get it up within the right day,

It was then I realised it was a party girl dressed up as a lady, perhaps not unlike many will be at the Melbourne Cup !

My art today focused around Wednesday Wanderers, which I had provided the photo for and for a change had finished on time. It also shows sign of a hurried execution, watercolour in just 40 minutes but I trust it captures the moment.

Looking for Beauty in Flimsy

I got sidetracked in man made things looking for today’s Inktober prompt flimsy. In general even things we make to look attractive by nmaking them gossamer thin, they are weak and don’t last, unlike a lot of nature. For example a spiders web which is actually very strong

Many birds build very flimsy nests from twigs and dries grass, yet they will last and hold the very fragile and often beautiful tiny eggs, safely housing new life.

I’ll Toss You

Once again a lot of obvious subjects for today’s Inktober prompt Toss. Tossing something away, creating a salad, an illegal bowl in cricket, or even a real tosser. 

I preferred the well proven method for deciding who goes first. Even the best way to ensure you get that first choice. Ssssshh!

“Heads I win, Tails you loose”