#inktober day 30: fit as a fiddle

May or may not have been slightly inspired by this. Apologies for the quality-I was at home for all of 15 minutes today in between a piano masterclass and a football game (a.k.a. marching band show with football on the side, depending on your perspective!) so that didn't leave much time for sketching. But I did it!

#inktober day 29: none of this nonsense please

Two days left! I'm going to miss Inktober but it will be kind of a relief to not post every day when it's done. Have a lovely day, everyone :)

#inktober day 28: dragon

I'm not good at post titles today. Anyway, this one was fun! I went a little looser than I normally do and tried to not be so tied down to my original sketch idea.

#inktober day 27: poofy dresses are fun to draw

This was super quick because today was a crazy day and when I have zero time, I resort to drawing girls in poofy dresses because, well, they're fun to draw. I'm pretty happy with the dress, not so much with her face/hair/entire upper body. Oh well.

#inktober day 26: berlin 1993

We watched an interesting short film in my German class today so I decided to draw a few of the characters. (brownie points if you can guess what film it is! :) )

#inktober day 25: a visitor from the night's plutonian shore

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter 
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; 
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; 
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more."
-The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe

Happy 25th day of #Inktober. . . or should I say #inkPOEber?

#inktober day 24: STRONGHOLD

A little background: I'm on my school's FIRST robotics team, and last week we watched the teaser video for this year's competition. All we know for sure is the name "STRONGHOLD" . . . but the video led to a lot of speculation and crazy theories about the nature of the competition among our team, and it made me decide to draw a knight! So yep.

oh and also I colored it with magic markers because those are what I could find please don't judge me haha

#inktober day 23: that's no moon

Quick Death Star playing around with water effects.

#inktober day 22: audrey 1956

Audrey Hepburn!

#inktober day 21: the future is now (GREAT SCOTT!)

Guess what today is? That's right, ladies and gentlemen. . .it's the day Marty McFly comes back to in the future!

I'm very sad that we still don't have commercially viable hoverboards available for consumer purchase. :( Oh well, I can draw hoverboards even if I can't ride them (yet?)

I've been pretty busy doing a lot of work for my design class (our first client came in and we have a lot of work to do. . .) and doing a lot of master studies to help myself improve. I'm learning a lot but it sure is time-consuming. Still, I figure that because I find time to do the things I don't really want to do but should, I can make time for drawing that I really DO want to do!

I'll even settle for a little pink hoverboard like this one! 

(I'm glad we don't dress like this in 2015 though!)

#inktober day 20: baymax

"I fail to see how flying makes me a better healthcare companion."
"I fail to see how YOU fail to see that it's AWESOME!"

#inktober day 19: the man who knew too much

This was going to be a lot cooler but I ran out of time, so here you go :)

#inktober day 18: "he'e" + guest artist

I have a friend who is on an 18-month mission for our church in Hawaii and in one of her recent letters she mentioned that the Hawaiian word for octopus is he'e, which means slippery. Isn't that awesome?

Did the shading ruin it? Is it better this way? Who knows?


Also, my awesome little brother wanted to do some Inktobering with me so here is his picture too! (It's a jack-o-lantern) :)

#inktober day 17: Captain America

Captain America, as promised! :)

I did some more experimenting with shading techniques here. Capturing a wide range of values with only black and white is challenging, but I'm getting the hang of it a bit more every time I practice. I also worked a bit larger with this one than normal. It's a big step for a person who did most of her drawing in the margins of various worksheets and notebooks for years; I like drawing teeny tiny. Using a whole page for one drawing is still a little scary. But I DID IT!

Version 1

Tried to draw the shield on his back and it didn't work out so well. . .

. . . so I turned it into a star and I feel much better about it now.

#inktober day 16: hulkbuster

One of my younger brothers wanted me to draw the Hulkbuster suit from Age of Ultron. So I did, because although I will always a staunch supporter of Team Captain America (BEST. SUPERHERO. EVER.), I have to admit that the iron man suits are way cool! (that said, there may be some Captain American art in the works now because I refuse to let Iron Man be the only superhero on this blog when I love Captain America way more :) so stay tuned for that. . . )

I don't have a ton of experience drawing robotic mech-type things so this helped me figure that out more. Robots are cool, guys :)

I did a plain outline version and then in a moment of bravery I decided to shade it. Shading with ink is not one of my strengths so although it's not everything I hoped it would be, it was really useful to do and I think it's an improvement from some of my earlier stuff which will hopefully never be seen by human eyes. Anyway. Happy Inktobering to all!

#inktober day 15: almost halfway

This post brought to you by a depressing lack of time to draw and sleep. But I'm glad I'm doing this so I don't mind too much. Keep going, fellow Inktober-ers. Almost halfway there! You can do it! Hope you all have a lovely day. :)

#inktober day 14: Pavlova & a random lady

I started with this one of the great Anna Pavlova, and I didn't love it. . .

. . .so I made this, and I didn't love it either. . .

. . . but sometimes you just have to call it a day and go to bed.

#inktober day 13: bruin

BEARS! I wanted to try this new idea for shading that I had.

The pre-shading version. 

(One thing I'm noticing about Inktober is that it's increasing my ability to crank out super quick blog posts. . . whether that's a good skill or a bad one I can't quite decide. . .)

#inktober day 12: la luna

Shading with only black and white is HARD! How did Dürer do it? Clearly with a lot more practice than I've done at this point, and there's only one way to fix that: keep drawing! :)

#inktober day 11: step in time! UPDATED

I love Mary Poppins! And this shot in particular has been just begging for me to do something with it. So. Chimney sweeps :)

The colors on this are much, much better in real life. And the background is less grainy. But the silhouettes came out pretty nicely, I think!

10/14/15 update: messed with the colors digitally so here's another version with a bit nicer colors!

#inktober day 10: trees

Inspired by the woods behind our house. I love my town in the fall!

So I tried making a process gif. . . didn't turn out great but still fun to make.

Trying to figure out colors.

#inktober day 9: maple leaf

I found a really cool leaf in my yard today and I've been wanting to play with a fun new pen I have, so this happened!

#inktober day 8: Mr E.H. Shepard

I had more time for Inktober today, so I did some studies of one of my favorite artists: E.H. Shepard! He's most famous for illustrating the Winnie-the-Pooh books and the Wind in the Willows-I watched the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh with my little brother tonight, which also sparked the idea :)

Shepard had a wonderful loose style, especially drawing trees and grass, and I love his character drawings as well. So much appeal! So much personality! I tend to be a bit more tentative with ink, so as I did these studies I worked especially at loosening up and not being afraid of the permanence of the medium. I learned a lot making these and I'm pretty happy with them!

The whole page

Shepard's design is quite different from the Disney version most people are familiar with, and you can't beat the Tigger Song (see below), but original book Tigger will always have a special place in my heart because I grew up with him :)

The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber!
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun fun fun fun fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one!

Tiggers are cuddly fellas
Tiggers are awfully sweet
Everyone else is jealous
So that's why I repeat:

The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are marvelous chaps!
They're loaded with vim and with vigor!
They love to leap in your laps!
They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy
Fun fun fun fun fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one!

Winnie-the-Pooh! (this sketch is sadly my least favorite of the lot, but whatever I do will never truly do justice to the great Silly Old Bear himself. So I'm posting it anyway)

Shepard's trees are the best. I had a lot of fun doing these.

Thanks for reading!

#inktober day 7: pumpkin-tober?

Playing around with some ideas and my colored inks. I couldn't find an orange so I layered yellow over pink. . . Merp. Not my finest work but necessity is the mother of invention and when I set a goal, I'm going to stick to it. Oh, and I have unfortunately resigned myself to the poor quality cell phone pictures for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

#inktober day 6

This has been quite the exhausting day, so this quote was a good reminder to me while I was doing it. Marjorie Pay Hinckley was a wise woman! This Inktober has really been a challenge even only six days in, considering how many other things are going on in my life. But it's definitely really good for me and I'm having a lot of fun with it despite the difficulties!

#inktober day 5

A quote from Thomas S. Monson in the most recent General Conference for day 5 of #inktober!

sweater weather + #inktober day 4

It's finally October! And both Momo Q and Nina (they are awesome bloggers and lovely people and artists as well! so go check them out!) tagged me for the Sweater Weather Tag. I've never done a tag before, but. . . it gave me an idea for my next inktober sketch and I love to talk about fall, so it was a perfect match. Here we go!

1. Favorite candle scent?

We have a delicious apple cider cinnamon one. . .but I just love all candle smells. 

2. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

I don't drink coffee or tea, so it looks like the answer is hot chocolate! But wassail or apple cider are definitely tied for favorite fall drink if I'm allowed to elaborate. (of course I am! this is my blog!)

3. Best fall memory?

This is a hard one. Honestly, I have no clue!

4. Best fragrance for fall?

I don't wear perfume too much, so I'm swapping this around and saying my favorite fall fragrance is soup cooking. Fall is the perfect time for chicken noodle soup!

5. Favorite Thanksgiving food?

Lemon meringue pie! My dad's is so good.

6. What is autumn weather like where you live? 

Perfect! There are a lot of trees here and they're starting to change right about now . . . it's usually cold and clear and sunny and absolutely beautiful. Sometimes it rains and that's beautiful too. "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

7. Most worn sweater?

Purple polka dots all the way. I love all my sweaters though.

8. Football games or jumping in leaf piles?

I'm not too into football, but I love marching band with a passion so I have to go with football games. 

9. Skinny jeans or leggings?

Jeans.

10. Combat boots or Uggs?

????? Uggs, I guess. 

11. Is pumpkin spice worth the hype?

I don't know about pumpkin spice specifically, but I adore all things pumpkin, especially this time of year. Pumpkin bread (with chocolate chips!), pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins. . . yes to all of them.

12. Favorite fall TV show?

Hum. I don't really watch TV so I'm going with books. I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a big Anne of Green Gables fan, and those books always make me feel like fall, if that makes sense! Same with Lord of the Rings and Narnia.

13. What song gets you into the fall spirit?

All of George Winston's album Forest, specifically Walking in the Air. And I'm playing an awesome Khachaturian toccata that has that same fall feel.

14. What do you want to be for Halloween?
I love dressing up, but I doubt I'll have much chance this year to make a really great costume. I'm considering a Rosie the Riveter costume because that's easy to pull together! Ideally though I'd love to make myself a fancy old fashioned dress. I don't even know which era, but as long as I'm dreaming my costume board on Pinterest has a lot of options!
15. Hats or Scarves? 

BOTH! Scarves if I have to pick.

16. What's your #1 favorite thing about fall?
This is easy! My church has a conference (it just happened yesterday and today, actually) called General Conference that's broadcast online every six months and I love hearing all the talks right after getting back to school. It's the perfect way to recenter my life on what really matters. I want to do some illustrations of quotes from it for inktober later.

And I tag Mandarin and Kelsey Hammersley, if they want to do it!

Thanks for reading, everyone! You guys are the best.

sketches & stats: september 2015 + day 2 of #inktober

I'm combining my sketches & stats for last month with #inktober for today! So here are some sunflowers to brighten your Saturday. . .

. . . and a few lined paper people-watching sketches from school.

September stats
sketchbook pages: 38
sketchbooks completed: .38 (not a huge improvement, but still a bit better than last month. October will hopefully be better. . .)
finished pieces: 2 (I'm excited to show you guys one of these pretty soon!)