InkTober 2017 - Draw One Ink Drawing Every Day in October

My day 2 InkTober drawing.

This year I've decided to participate in InkTober. If you haven't heard of it, InkTober began in 2009 and is a 31 day art challenge to draw one ink drawing everyday in October. Challenge creator and professional illustrator, Jake Parker, started the event as a way to improve his traditional inking skills and it just grew from there.

There's no prize at the end, it's just a personal challenge to get you drawing daily and hopefully improve your own inking skills in the process.

By including the hash tags #InkTober and #InkTober2017 with wherever you post your work online it can also help get your work in front of more eyeballs. This annual event has grown to include thousands of artists worldwide. There's even a T-Shirt you can buy (which unfortunately doesn't ship in time for day 1 but mine should be here soon).

I'm participating in the challenge using the 'digital ink' of my Parblo Coast 22, pen display tablet and a copy of Clip Studio Paint EX. Limiting myself to only the simulated ink tools of that software.

Some people, including creator, Jake Parker, feel that digital inks aren't in the spirit of the challenge (yet the official site has a partner promoting digital ink as an option - go figure) because they believe digital inking is easier in the sense that you can easily erase lines just by hitting the 'Undo' button. There's no commitment to a line once you've drawn it therefore it's not as challenging.

Fair enough but I've been inking traditionally on paper for close to 40 years. There's probably things I could still learn but it would be wasted because I just don't draw with inks professionally anymore. Virtually everything I've drawn in the last two years that looks like ink has been digital. I have no interest in traditional inking... not even for the nostalgia.

Digital Inking with Vector lines. Those points
can be adjusted endlessly.

Despite that, my digital inking isn't anywhere near as good as what I can do traditionally. I rely heavily on the fact that Clip Studio Paint lets me ink with Vector lines that can be adjusted endlessly into an entirely different drawing if you wanted to be that extreme.

I usually digitally ink by drawing all my lines in really quickly, then I go back an edit every one of them into place. No commitment to any of my lines and it makes inking take longer than it should.

What I would like to do is draw a line once and move on, no editing, just like traditional inking. It'll save me a bunch of time with my art moving forward.

With that in mind I've created my own additional rules for InkTober to make my digital experience as much like the traditional one as possible. It includes things like not using the 'Undo' button; not magnifying the page to draw detail; not using the selection tool to resize or adjust scale; and more. (see image)

You'll notice I do allow creating a pencil sketch first as this is allowed according to the official site - and I don't know too many professional artists that don't work from a pencil sketch, either inking over it directly or tracing it with a light box.

If you feel like you don't have enough inspiration for 31 consecutive drawings you can use the optional list of daily themes. I did consider this list, and I may look to it if I'm really struggling, but I think I could easily pull 31 characters from my previous 30 years plus of sketch books to ink if need be.

At the time of this article I had completed my first two days of InkTober. If you would like to follow my progress you can see all my drawings on my Instagram or, if you want to see me actually drawing, visit the playlist on my The Extraordinary Tourist Youtube channel. I've also embeded my Youtube playlist in the player below to save you leaving this page.

My InkTober 2017 playlist

Click the menu in the top left to see a list of videos.

Update November 2, 2017

To complete InkTober 2017 I created this one minute video (below) to showcase all 31 InkTober artworks in under a minute. View this if you would just like an overview of all my artworks. If you would like to know about any specific artwork in more detail, find its individual speed draw video in the playlist above, where you can hear commentary about the work as I draw.

Comments

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

TV Series Review: Wonder Man (2026) - Disney+ No Spoilers

F or those of you that aren't adverse to your superhero content being a little more character driven and a lot less big action set pieces then Marvel's TV series, under the 'Marvel Spotlight' banner, Wonder Man , is a real underrated gem. Wanna-be actor, Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a suspected superhero in hiding who believes, he was born to play the title role in a new superhero movie, Wonder Man. A chance meeting with fallen actor, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), formerly known as 'The Mandarin', at an audition, puts them both on a path to success but, everything isn't quite as it seems. While you will certainly relate very quickly to Trevor if you know his past from the movie Iron Man III , or, to a lesser extent, Shang-Chi , neither are essential viewing. You get all you need to know about Trevor as the series unfolds. That said, Ben Kingsley must have jumped at the chance to play Trevor a little less as the comic relief, and a little more ...

Jimmy Barnes, Working Class Man 40th Aniversary Tour - Barossa Valley, Peter Lehmann Wines

D espite being in the middle of Summer, and experiencing some record temperatures across the state, we got a perfect day for the South Aussie leg of Jimmy Barnes' Working Class Man 40th Aniversay Tour. Lightly overcast. Almost no chance of rain. The cloud cover taking all the edge out of the sun, which was still quite fierce during the brief moments when it did break through the clouds for a little while. Guest artists supporting the show included, Jon Rooney, Kate Ceberano, Ian Moss, and Ice House. Unfortunately, while my partner and I had every intention of being at the concert when the show actually started, so did quite a lot of people. We didn't quite anticipate the traffic getting into the venue, Peter Lehmann Wines, Barossa Valley, and we certainly didn't expect the 5-10 minute hike from the carpark to the concert area itself. Kate Ceberano By the time we found our seats, Kate Ceberano was already part way through her set. Prior to this concert, I certainly knew w...

The Lego Man - He's got all that!

Who would have thought that owning one of the worlds largest, private Lego collections could take you so far. Tom Lucieer of Angaston, South Australia, not only has met the Queen (of England) but is a frequent guest of her majesty and family when they are in Australia. He's also met Prince Charles, Lady Diana and Camila Parker-Bowles. Not only that, he grew up with TV Vet, Dr Harry, and is a friend of the Irwin family (yes, that's Steve Irwin's family). Tom will happily tell you all this as part of the guided tour of his collection, which, aside from Lego, includes much railway memorabilia and colourful anecdotes about days gone by, his achievements and more. Frequently he will finish each particular monologue with the phrase, "Have you got that?", just to check that he hasn't confused you because, as he points out, his display and the stories behind it are a lot to take in at once. In the photo you can see Tom holding a special award, which I think is for bei...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

New TET Painting: Cat Amongst the Pigeons - Prints Available

Cat Amongst the Pigeons by TET 2026-02-22 Original Acrylic Painting on Canvas (15.5" x 12"). I n my previous post, Painting Whimsical Cats (and probably other stuff) Again After Almost a Decade Away From Traditional Art , I, obviously, mentioned I'm painting cats again. It wasn't an empty promise. As you can see I've created my first official, new cat painting - since the previous one was actually a test piece - titled Cat Amongst the Pigeons . This painting features two firsts; the first time I've painted a cat with pigeons, and the first time I've broken the edge of my white border with the image. (In case I'm not explaining that well, the cat's ears extend into the white border that is usually masked off with tape during painting). I just didn't want to clip the cat's ears! WIP Collage of Cat Amongst the Pigeons painting. Images from sketch to finished art. What Does It Mean? While this can mean anything you want it to mean, I was think...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog