Tuesday 7 October 2014

Inktober - Week 1

   You've probably noticed that there's not been much creativity going on on the blog lately, it's been mostly fitness stuff. And to be honest, I'd barely noticed. I've been so caught up with my writing that crafting - aside from completing orders from my Etsy shop - has been completely forgotten. My writing has very much become my world - it always kind of was, but now it's consumed it. I've written pretty much the entire book in the past 6 months, which is ridiculous considering that I started it 18 months ago, and as I was sat down working on the last of it yesterday I thought to myself 'why did it take me so long to write this? What was I doing for that first year?!' - I was crafting, I was drawing, I was baking, and I was being generally busy in other creative ways.
   Well, getting to my point: I've been unleashing my creativity in a very focused way (the way I think I do best, if I do say so myself), and while I've been starting other projects, they never get very far. I have a fantasy ferret type of creature on my windowsill, he's waiting for me to decide on his fur colour before I can start painting him, and somehow it's taken me 2 months to try to decide between black and white (still not made up my mind). But when I saw mention of 'Inktober' over on Rejected Princesses, I thought it could be interesting to try it. Why not?
   The idea is 31 pictures in 31 days, inked. There's no way I can manage that many, though - my book is still very much my world - but when it was suggested that one drawing a week would suffice, I thought it could be managable.
   Like I said: lately I'm starting projects and getting nowhere near finishing them, and because that's been an ongoing pattern I've developed a habit of never telling anyone anything about my projects unless they get finished, because what's the point? So I'm taking a bit of a risk by actually doing this. I do intend to stick to it - that's only 4 drawings (though I'd like to try for 8), but the thing is, while I used to be damned good at drawing, it's been so long now that I've lost a lot of my talent.

   Anyways, here's my first drawing. Since I found Inktober through Rejected Princesses, I decided to participate in Rejected Princess's Amazon week, #nameanamazon. Archaeologists recently uncovered real Amazonian names amid 'gibberish' on Ancient Greek vases, and Jason, Rejected Princesses' creator, thought it would be fun for us to come up with our own Amazonian name and create a drawing to go with it to be posted on his blog. I don't expect mine to be much good even on its own (though I am just proud enough to share it here anyway), so alongside others I think it'll be atrocious, but it's all just for fun, so who cares? I don't intend to make a living out of my drawing!


Her name is Piranha Bite. It's a bit rubbish, but deal with it.
Amazonian Week

   I used a a Faber-Castell PITT super-fine black pen for the lines and ZIG Art and Graphic Twin Tip Markers in black and warm grey and used a similar blender pen for shading and scenery.
   As you can see, my skill with backdrops and scenery sucks big time, and I feel I more or less ruined it by adding the foliage and rocks. And, also, I had so much attention to detail when it came to the fish (peacock bass and arowana) that it kind of slipped up with the foliage, too, but what can you do. She has a diving suit made from emerald tree boa. I have little idea about actual Amazonian women, so I thought 'to hell with it' and went my own way. I've been obsessing over aquaculture lately following research for my next book so I couldn't resist making her a fisherman rather than a warrior.


Other illustrations: Week 2, Week 3

http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober




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