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

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

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space. Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation . Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ). While they sound highly soph

Book Review: Brand It Purple by Ashley Knoote-Parke

Ashley Knoote-Parke. Image: Facebook It seems almost redundant to review Brand It Purple given you probably won't find a hard copy edition without digging into the second hand market. The book's author and publisher, Ashley Knoote-Parke, seemingly, disappeared off the face of the Earth around about 2015. Which is a story in itself. However, the book is still a very informative guide and, while not specifically targeted at women, many may relate more to a book written by an experienced female entrepreneur. Brand It Purple is a personal marketing and branding guide released in 2009 by then, star on the rise author, Ashley Knoote-Parke, an English born, South African expatriate, who made Adelaide, South Australia her home. There she started her own publishing company releasing a photographic, coffee table book of South Australian sights, along with books showcasing female, then male, entrepreneurs. As well she published 'Brand It Purple'. I came across the b

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch

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

Movie Review: Force of Nature - The Dry 2 (2024) No Spoilers

Eric Bana returns as Detective Aaron Falk in Force of Nature - The Dry 2 , and that's the only real connection between this and 2020's The Dry . This is an all new mystery set in a new location. I will say, given that it's either wet or rainy, with the incoming threat of a major storm for most of the movie, the filmmakers really missed a trick in not renaming the film, The Wet. Back when I reviewed the first film I noted that I would love to see the second book made into a movie too, and here it is. This time Aaron and his detective partner, Carmen (Jacqueline Mackenzie), head into the mountains to investigate the whereabouts of a missing informant, who disappears on a workplace, team bonding retreat. All the performances in this film are easily on par with the first, though I do think some pretty outstanding actors really didn't have a lot to do here. In terms of mystery the first movie was better constructed as a who dunnit film you could play along with. Here you mo

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog