My sixth year of Inktober
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Well it looks like we have reached the doledrums of Inktober already. Every year artists are excited for Inktober, people work very hard and are anticipating sharing their love of what they have been working on for over a month. The first week is great, then people start complaining that it’s too hard and that people are cheating, breaking nonexistent rules, grouching about the moderators, etc. and then apathy kicks in an no one even bothers to look at other people’s work. It happens every year and I always forget, I know more than anyone after six years of doing this. I have the same amount of followers as when I started, no matter how much I have improved.
There are no winners of Inktober. It isn’t a competition. Deep down it is about getting better at your craft and becoming a better artist. You have to do it for yourself, even if no one sees it. Social media is hard, especially for artists. The deck is stacked against us, but do it for yourself. What are likes and followers anyway? It’s all meaningless, fake nonsense.
I have to make art. It is what makes me happy. I will trudge on. Anyway, enough winging. Carry on and ink on!
Inktober 2021 day 8 - watch:
“Filthy watch monkeys!” grumbled Edward Von Oliphant. They were always climbing up and down his mobile watchtower for shift changes, bathroom breaks, food runs and for shorts burst of exercise. Monkey people did not make ideal watch men. They just had too much energy, plus they threw their banana peels everywhere.
Being 40 feet up a watch tower elephant, it really was not a great idea to throw slippery banana peels around the creature that was responsible for their safety. Edward trumpeted his anger and trotted on. They were on the lookout for forest fires. Hopefully the banana trees didn’t burn down . . .
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Inktober 2021 day 9 - pressure:
Too much pressure!!! Harvey’s new pressure washer was a beast! He had bought it off of his oldie neighbour, Moe, who was a little long in the tooth to say the least. He said that it was a little too powerful for him, but Harvey thought that he could handle it as he wasn’t 100 years old.It turned out that he couldn’t. The pressure that shot out rocked him around like a bucking bronco after too many sugar cubes. All that he had wanted to do was clean the mildew off of his driveway and now his life was in danger. A broken hip was imminent! The question was: how did his geriatric old neighbour pressure-wash his own driveway as well as his even older neighbour’s car without dying?!
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@Doodleworx If you don't mind me asking... What kind of inking techniques are you using on your images? Markers, brush pens, etc?
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@Frogpunzel I use ink pens, some copic multiliners, and copic pens for the tone, last year I just used a paintbrush and ink that I dipped and watered down.
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Inktober day 10 - pick:
Today was the day. The hens had reached their limit. They had hatched their plot a week and a half ago and they had bided their time. Patience was a chickens greatest attribute, next to egg production and a beautiful singing voice. They clucked and scratched around the coop as if nothing was abnormal, but they were poised and ready.Helga had the knife. Bertha had the bat. The rest of the girls had sharpened their claws. They might work at a ‘U-pick your own eggs’ farm but that didn’t mean they would let a weasel pick their eggs! That’s where they drew the line and if that rotten little weasel tried something he was gonna get it!
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@Doodleworx Pigma brushpens from Japan are my favourite
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Inktober 2021 day 11- sour:
Gummy worms were good, sour patch kids were ok, but Sour gummy ants were Esmerelda the anteaters favourite! They were almost too good to share. Chocolate Ants were a close second, but eating 35, 000 ants a day made a really mess.Esmerelda’s pup wanted some too. It was tough to find an anthill big enough for two, let alone a bag of sour gummy ants big enough for both of them. Maybe he would like some candied termites?!
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Inktober 2021 day 12- stuck:
They were stuck. Really stuck. Roscoe and Josephine raccoon had thought that they had planned out a good heist. Halloween always had good eats and tonight they had anticipated a candy bar pig-out. Wilbur, their cousin had told them that the humans hid the really good candy in the carved pumpkins that were called jack o’ lanterns (for some strange reason). The first set of pumpkins that they found, the two siblings recklessly jumped inside.Pumpkins were easy to climb into and much tougher to clamber out of. If worst came to worst, they would nibble their way out, hopeful. It was awfully embarrassing though. “Wait! What was that sound?” Growled Roscoe from deep within the Jack o’ lantern. “Was that Wilbers laugh from the bushes?!”
“When we get out of here we’re going to tie a firecracker to your tail Wilber, you little jerk,” growled Josephine.
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Inktober 2021 day 13- roof:
Oda the Namahage had been on the roof for quite some time. It was the great Namahage festival in Japan and it was time to scare the children. Every year, people dressed up as demon-faced ogres and went door-to-door to scare lazy, misbehaving children and unmotivated Daughter-In-Laws. He even had his ‘Naughty or Nice’ book ready to take notes on how the parents wanted their children to behave better in the New Year.He hoped that there were lots of mochi (rice cakes) and warm sake. It had taken a lot of work to climb up on the steep roof, on a cold, dark night. But Oda really wanted to do a good job as it was his very first time being a Namahage. He was going to jump down into the courtyard to scare them when the family went out to view the full moon.
Oda hoped that the kids were good, as he’d forgotten his brush and ink and it was a long, climb down. Oh dear, was that the bark of a big dog? Did they have a guard dog?! Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea . . .
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Inktober 2021 day 14- tick:
Werner Feist’s cuckoo clock was his pride and joy. It was intricately hand-carved, with wood came from a walnut tree from the Black Forest. It was a German made marvel of intricate clockwork. It’s smooth, soothing tick-tok and cheerful hourly cuckoo made his neighbours jealous, well, he was constantly complaining of the noise, but he was really just terribly jealousy.But the real kicker was the cuckoo! It had been give to Werner by the Entomologist society in recognition of his appointment of honorary member for life. The cuckoo was special because it was actually a giant tick; Werners favourite insect! It came out every hour with its top hat and cane and tap danced merrily. Werners heart leapt with joy every time that he saw it. If only they could be so large in real life! He would definitely have one or two and sick him on his annoying, grumbling neighbour!
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Inktober 2021 day 15- helmet:
Helmets were very handy price of equipment in a soldier’s line of work. If someone wasn’t trying to drop a rock on your head, or shoot you with an arrow in the eye, they were swinging sharp implements at your brain box. When you were made of marshmallow, it wasn’t a big deal, except for protecting your brain from being bonked into oblivion.Today Hachi was stuck on guard duty with Iku. It was always a helmet competition with that guy. He was always trying to one up you with his intricate helmet collection. Today he had on a pretty nice one, Hachi wasn’t going to lie. But his was better. Besides, everyone knew what matters was your kanabo (studded samurai war club) collection! Hachi’s was definitely bigger!
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Inktober 2021 day 16- compass:
Z-21 was online and inbound. His gyroscopic compass eye spun in its socket, searching endlessly. It was always oriented to his target. Z-21 was a intergalactic bounty hunter and he was on his targets six. The creature wasn’t far off now. He had been planet hopping on the hunt for his bounty for 17 cycles.His targets name was Epsilon Earl. A minor criminal, gun runner and smuggler and a . . . hamster. It was a type of Earther rodent of the cute and fluffy persuasion. His space hamster ball was rolling around the blasted landscape of Zucchini 5. It was only a matter of time until Z-21’s compass eye target him. Then the fur would fly!
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Inktober 2021 day 17 - collide:
Bee jousting was a good way to gain the Queens favour. It was also a test of martial combat to keep the young knights from hacking themselves to death over perceived slights, love triangles or just overtly high testosterone levels. It kept the violence to the weekends and imposed supervision and rules. In the very end, it actually helped to keep the knights in fighting trim in a time of peace.Mounting their honey bees, hornets, or bumblebees, their squires would solemnly pass them their blunted lances and curved shields. After several warm up buzzes the two adversaries would rocket at break-neck speed towards each other and collide together in a flash of yellow and black. Often a knight would fall to the ground unless his mount could rescue him. It was not a good way to go, but those were the breaks in air to air combat. If you didn’t have wings of your own, flying was probably not the best idea.
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Inktober 2021 day 18- moon:
The moon viewing festival, or Tsukimi, was alway held in Japan during the mid autumn harvest moon. It’s a time to gather with your family, drink a little sake (if you’re old enough that is), eat soft, delicate mochi (rice cakes) and enjoy a quiet, serene night viewing a full moon.Asuka loved to watch the bright, ghostly moon with her Akida dog Yuki. They ate sweet, soft mochi, sipped green tea, and cuddled
while they looked for the rabbit that was on the moon (an old Japanese folk tale). Yuki was a great companion and Asuka loved him ever so much. It was really the time spent together under the moonlight that mattered. If you don’t enjoy the fleeting moments in life, they soon pass you by. Love really is about who you chose to spend those moments with, even if it’s just looking at the moon and eating delicious mochi! -
Inktober 2021 day 19 - loop:
Brigid was a tagger; a branch of Celtic Druidry. They were the wise people, judges, healers knowledge holders and holy people all rolled into one. In Celtic law, Druids had to learn everything by rote, having to memorize all of their vast knowledge and be able to recite it word for word. Written knowledge was banned in the Druidic faith, as it risked secrets falling into unwise hands . Druid law would not allow their insight into the seen and unseen world to fall to greedy people like the Romans.Brigid’s sect was a little different, as a ‘tagger,’ her specialty was carving the sacred runes of their faith onto enormous stones. They were signs of power, and only other Druids could decipher them. She used her stag staff to incise the infinity loop rune deep into the sarsen stone. Winston, her owl familiar, hooted at her twice to warn her of nearby Roman patrol. They had been wiping out the Druids, one by one, to weaken the Celtic people.
She had best be on her way. Brigid had other stones to tag. The people needed to know that they were not alone, that the Druids were not all gone. They would persevere, they were eternal . . . Infinite.
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You know that it’s been a long Inktober when you forget to post your picture!
Inktober 2021 day 20 - sprout:
The seedlings were about to sprout! It had been a long, cold, blustery winter in dormancy. Thankfully the ice had finally began to melt and Father Winter had released the world from his tight, frigid grasp. Spring had finally come with its warm breathe of air and nourishing rains. The dry earth had soaked up nature’s lifeblood and new sprouts drank deeply. Incubating in the warming soil, plant life was renewed as the tirelessness earthworms tilled and replenished the awakening soil.Little sprouts would soon stretch their very tiny, curling arms up to the mother suns powerful rays, drinking, drinking, growing, growing. It truly was a majestic time of year, until they all started crying at the same time. Sometime being Mother Nature was a ‘B.’
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Inktober 2021 day 21 - fuzzy:Old Mrs VonHoots hair was a right mess. She couldn’t do anything with it no matter how hard she tried! It was just a bloody, fuzzy, hot
mess. It was probably her genes. Her mom had frizzy, barn owl hair and her dad was a hoot owl with a mop of his own. She’d gotten the double whammy from both sides of her family! How could two owls with such bad hair get together?! What had they been thinking?Hopefully Flo could do something with it. She had tried every other hairdresser and none of them could do anything other than break their feather combs in her unruly hair. Oh well, if all else failed their was wigs. Or maybe she would just ask Flo to shave it all off and she would move somewhere warmer. It worked for chihuahuas.
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Inktober 2021 day 22 - open:Larry the worm couldn’t wait for Harvey to open his gift. It was a real surprise that he wouldn’t be expecting. What do you get the worm that has everything? Well, a human in a can of course! Larry had bought it at a gag gift place and he had picked out the ‘salt and peppered humans’ flavour, as he knew that Harvey was a picky eater.
Larry was quivering with anticipation for the moment that Harvey would open his gift. Inside was a powerful spring that would shoot out the flailing human and hopefully scare the poop out of him! Larry was a real jokester, that’s why everyone loved him! Just wait until they tried to use the compost pile and found out that he had put Saran Wrap on top of it!
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Inktober 2021 day 23 - leak:
Mopbot 3000 was having one of ‘those days,’ as his master called them. He was following his assigned, daily, programmed schedule of mopping the observation tunnels. It was also his duty to constantly check for leaks, as they were in plastic tubes, 1200 fathoms below the oceans surface. An underwater lair required a lot of maintenance and there were always leaks to mop up on the daily.It was certainly an anomaly from his usual day, according to the graph that he had been plotting on his off time in his maintenance closet, where he recharged at night. Most days it was the same protocol day in and day out. Today at 9:22 hours was an exception: there was a tentacled, sentient creature, swimming in a unusual, fluid-containment device that hovered above the ground wandering down the tunnel. It was large eyed, excited, had a ‘fanny pack’ and was leaking it’s own fluid that it had brought with it, in a trail behind it.
Mopbot 3000 followed the mysterious creature as it meandered down the tunnel. The curious sea creatures outside the tunnel peered inside and watched intently. Pulling out his trusty mop, Mopbot 3000 mopped up the fluid leaking behind the creature and followed the unusual being. Today was certainly an aberration in its protocols, he would have to update his graph tonight!
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Inktober 2021 day 24- extinct:
Humans were extinct. The experiment was over. First they had tried Dodo birds as the first sentient beings on Earth. The Humans had been the backups. Unfortunately, right off the bat, the humans killed the dodos and ate them. Regrettably, Dodo birds had actually been incredibly wise and serene creatures, but they had been overly trusting and couldn’t comprehend the pointless violence of humans.Plan C was raccoons. They already had thumbs, which was half of the problem solved already. They were being prepped and fitted for their tiny space suits. Unfortunately, they would have to find another planet as the humans had botched this one. Once they could get the raccoons out of the garbage cans, they would rocket off of this planet.
