October Recap
For Inktober this year I kept things easy and low-pressure. I’ve been taking Laura Horn’s Creative Blend Art Program and was really inspired by one of the modules where she uses ink and a brush to draw some very cute, loose, little birds. I love that I couldn’t be too precious with this technique. I chose an old bottle of Winsor & Newton Peat Brown that had separated, and I limited myself to no more than 15 minutes per drawing. As luck would have it I used up the very last drops of ink on the very last drawing! Nevermind me not putting the lid on properly and some of it spilling out inside my bag too. 🙈
I found it really interesting how the red pigments stayed towards the top and yellow ones collected on the bottom. You can see the color separation in some of the drawings and there was quite a color shift between the first and last.
I cut an old sheet of Strathmore drawing paper I had lying around down to 4.5x6inch pieces. Partway through I switched over to Bee mixed media paper and it really changed the shininess of the ink! I’ve heard Laura talk about how much paper matters, but I didn’t realize how much it could change the final look of the materials too.
This was a really great warm up exercise and the smallness of it meant it wasn’t too overwhelming when I missed a few days in a row. I could still catch up in under an hour. I’m happy to report I completed all 31 drawings (if not on their corresponding days of the month). And it’s my second time completing an Inktober in general. W00t!
Also this month I took a quick trip down to visit my dad. He made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce and while he was cooking I drew all the ingredients. He sent me home with a couple jars and I’ve been eating it for lunch or dinner every day for the past … 12 days! I think there are a couple more meals left too. Thanks, Dad!
Over the summer I went on an art retreat in Spain with Rebecca Green, where she taught us about limited color palettes. And try as I might, I’m still struggling with them a bit and decided to take a little multi-day diversion and indulge myself with … another color chart. I just really enjoy the mindlessness of making them :)
In sketchbook news, I visited Guilder cafe and sat upstairs with a good view of their coffee roaster.
Limited color palettes also came up a lot in Rita’s Summer Camp this year. She had a great class on mixing interesting greys from two opposite colors. For my grey I went with Daniel Smith Blue Apatite and Sennelier Chinese Orange. I have to say I did not love this combination, and I ended up throwing some greens in there and my go-to PWC Opera Pink and yellow for the skin tones. Am I just incorrigible at this point?
Anyhow… I learned about Opera Pink for skin tones from Roisin Cure’s wonderful The Urban Sketching Handbook - Drawing Expressive People. There is a good exercise in there on mixing skin tones and that combo just stuck for me.
Well, if you got this far, thanks for reading! I’ve historically really struggled with feeling “good enough” or “ready” to share anything. But my mantra lately is: start where you are and just keep going. Like everyone, I’d like this all to look a little better, but maybe the process is interesting too. I always love seeing other people’s processes.