October is national pizza month.

It’s also pastor appreciation month.

And, it also happens to be national popcorn poppin’ and national pork month.

Allow me to add to this confusion.

If you’re an aspiring artist, especially one that hopes to work in illustration or animation, you have probably heard of Inktober: a personal drawing challenge that has you create an ink drawing each day in the month of October. The phenomenon started online and has made its way across the globe via social media, lending itself to opportunities for learning artists to brand themselves and get better at inking.

You may have also seen various self-published art books being created under the banner of Inktober. This is just one testament to how the trend has spilled into the lives of creators, driving them to create more and find their style. Undoubtedly, the greatest result of this annual drawing fest has got to be the massive amounts of people who are inspired and encouraged by completing the month-long challenge.

I first participated in Inktober back in 2015. Needless to say, many of my ink drawings that resulted from that year are not much to talk about, but I stuck with it and since that first fateful Inktober my technique has drastically improved to the point where I’m comfortable with adding an extra layer of challenge to this year’s festivities.

This time around, I will be developing some concept art for the musical My Fair Lady, among other things. We’ll just have to wait and see where my pen takes me! At the end of the month, I’ll post a few more Inktober drawings and talk about how I improved my inking skills with this drawing challenge.

One last note, since I love color, you can look forward to seeing basic drawings and shading done in ink, and then brought to life with my trusty Prismacolor pencils, as my current library of inking tools is limited to black and grey.

Is this cheating? Maybe…

Oh well. Without further ado, here are three more of my Inktober drawings from this month:

I ask that anyone interested in perfecting their craft today would grab an ink pen or marker and participate in Inktober. It’s never too late in the month to contribute!

October 14, 2017

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