Inktober 2020 - After thoughts

Inktober 2020 is my forth year taking the month long daily drawing challenge.  I saw a video about the end of Inktober and doing a recap or critique of your drawing, reviewing you thought process, if any, that when into coming up with a resolution to the prompt. That sounded like a good idea, so here goes.

Generally, I work in ink pens and grey Copic markers for shading. I try to find a twist or humous aspect in the prompt to illustrate, avoiding the obvious if I can. By normal work schedule is to do my drawing in the early evening. Most times I'll get a concept during the day, do a rough drawing before dinner, than finish after dinner. Total time is a max 3 hours.

#1 "Fish" - I thought to channel jack Kirby-like monster in this drawing.  I didn't do any shading on this as my grey markers were rather dry and needed to be refilled.

 #2 - "Wisp" - For this prompt, I first looked up the word's definition and among the result Will of the Wisp was included.  I have a great fairy book to grab have reference from.

#3 - "Bulky" - I remember this was done on a Saturday, I was feeling uninspired by the prompt. I finally decided to use a mattress in the drawing.  After several weak rough ideas, I send to the internet and googled mattress carrying and the photo caught my eye. A quick tracing using my lightbox and the half heart rendering and I called it a day.

#3 - "Radio" - Again, this prompt was so generic it lends itself to so many interpretations.  I instantly thought of the transistors radios of my Boomer youth.   They were probably the first electronic entertainment device could buy with my own money and have total control over.  This was a simple from a photo reference offline.  Again, a 'KISS" ( Keep It Simple Stupid) solution.

#4 - "Blade" - Up to this drawing I felt I was just going through the motions with the prompts.  My first thought was to do my own sword and sorcery character which I used in Inktober 2017 drawing, but then idea hit me to use Blade the character from the Wesley Snipes movie in a fighting pose with a "blade".  I was happy to find he right pose, and actually surprised myself in he resulting drawing. It one of my best Inktober drawings of the past four years and boosted my confidence for this challenge,

#6 - Rodent - With this prompt you can easily go with a host of popular cartoon rodents, like Mickey Mouse, Might Mouse, Danger Mouse and other.  I went with Matthias tthe warrior mouse of Brian Jacques Redwall book series.  I had picked up the first book years ago, I think just because I liked the cover, since I really wasn't into fantasy book, especially one with furry animals.  But, I read it and fell in love with the story and character. It was adapted to a animated TV series the was fair.  I still think it is worth a big budget animation feature. Looking at my drawing now, I think Matthias is a little chubbier than he should be. Next time I'll slim him down.

#7 - "Fancy" It's  curious how one word can launch you down a creative rabbit hole that would make Alice think twice.  Inktober's # 7 prompt was the word "Fancy", as in like something..  Simple, enough but my brain immediately jump to "Soldier Fancy",  which was the folk group of friend back in the 1980's n New York City.  The song is about young maiden who happy offers her "wares" to earn money to offer her boyfriend when he returns home from war, so they can have a better life.  That's very librarated idea for the time. 

#8 - Teeth - This was a generic prompt if ever there was one. But for dramatic drawing sharks teeth would come to mind.  Next to sharks teeth Xenomorph from the move Alien has to have the most terrifying teeth in history.

#9 - "Throw" - Another generic prompt. Thor throwing his hammer gives it more drama.

#11 - "Disgusting" & #12 - "Slippery"  Sometimes you fell behind schedule and need to catch up, you can combine prompt into one drawing.  Slime eel fit the solution perfectly.

#12 - "Dune" - Of course sand dunes are first option to come to mind.  But DUNE the sci-fi book and movie is much more fun. I like to add humorous text to drawing sometimes to add extra context.

#14 - "Armor" - Again, the first thought would be a knight's suit of armor. I thought of a favorite 

                           picture of my son in cardboard box armor as kids. Adding images of the knight adds 

                           a sense of wonder of a kids imagination. I like this solution and I may enlarge and doa                             color piece.

#15 - "Outpost" - For this I pull elements from two old personal art pieces, the title page of unfinished  sci-fo comic story "Outpost 3" and a sketch book drawing of a guy in a battlesuit.  Again, this is one I may work up in to a larger full color version.

#16 - "Rocket" - The possibilities are endless with this prompt.  But I thought of my first toy rocket and the usual fate of launching it.

#17 - "Storm" - Instead of a weather system. I went with the Storm, the X-Men character, played in the movie by Halley Berry.  I again, like this drawing and realize using reference strengthens my artwork.  Plus, I gifted to my friend Larry Huston who was a director on the classic X-Men animation TV series for his birthday.

#18 - "Trap" - Keeping with comic book characters, I went with Mister Miracle and his wife Big Barda. The joke is Mr. Miracle is master escape artist, but man alive can escape the "don't I look fat" trap. 

#19 - "Dizzy" - I chose to use a boxer, modeled on a early drawing from Inktober 2017.

#20 - "Coral" - Coral is tough prompt, but once I hit upon using Finding Nemo characters who live in a coral reef. 

#21 - "Sleep" - I really took a stretch in this drawing.  The quote I used is from a character in the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, a classic adventure movie I saw as a kid.  The quote just stuck in my my mind. 

#22 - "Chef" - It seems Chef Boy-R-A-Dee was the first chef that came to my mind.  The product is item from my youth of the 1950s and '60s. It's still around, but I like thinking of it as atomic fallout shelter food.

#23 - "Rip" - Again, keeping with my superhero theme, Hulk ripping out of his cloth is always exciting

#24 - "Dig" - Again. I like the idea of tapping in the imagination of child during play.

#25 - "Buddy" -  For his prompt I chose guitarist Bubby Guy. In picking reference photos I couldn't decide each one to use, so I used both.  The graphic pattern on the left is taken from old drawing.

#26 - "Hide" - This scene from Lord of the Rings immediately came to mind with this prompt. I might have rendered it darker, as it's not as dramatic as I hoped.

#27 - "Music" - This is a abstract drawing fro, 1971, I wanted to use of this prompt. I'm sure I rendered                            it to full effect, so I'll need to work on it more. 

#28 - "Float" - My first idea was to use the Muhammad Ali quote. "float like a butterfly...sting like a bee", but decided not to use a boxer again,  I couldn't come up with a solid replacement, but the old Ivory soap TV ad kept popping into my mind, so I went with a simple bar of soap.

#29 - "Shoes" - It was easy to want to use some the most famous shoe, the Ruby Slipper of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

#30 - "Ominous" - Noting is more ominous and frightening than a approaching tornado.

#31 - 'Crawl" - This again was board prompt.  Luckily, my wife suggest a caterpillar, and I chose the biggest crawling bug I could think of Mothra.  I felt this was strong ending to the challenge. 

One self-observation from this year's challenge is I need to work larger.  The 6"x8" sketchbook is convenient, but the art then to look rough when viewed on larger in my computer screen. Also I'd like to try some color work, for the first time in decades.  Time will tell.