Inktober2025 25-31

inktober 24 inferno — Inktober 24 inferno

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober is at an end for another year

The goal this year was to follow the prompts, something I don’t usually do. Normally I’d just do my own thing.

I gave myself the chance to opt out if I couldn’t think of anything but surprisingly I managed drawings for all 31 prompts.

25 inferno – a lupin by the name of towering inferno. They’re fiery orange red in colour, very pretty.

26 puzzling – a blue footed booby feeling very puzzled indeed

27 onion – onions have really pretty flowers

28 skeletal – if you leave poppy pods in the garden they slowly degrade and disintegrate till all that’s left is the skeleton.

29 lesson – birds learn their songs by listening to each other and adding the new song to their old one.

30 vacant – empty shell, vacated by it’s last owner.

31 award – awarding myself a trophy full of flowers for completing the challenge.

Most were drawn on cereal packets in the sketchbook I’d made a few weeks ago. The grey card worked well with ink and the back was painted with black acrylic.

Eventually though I ran out of pages so other cereal packets were needed. These were more of a beige colour and they weren’t quite as easy to draw on.

Some of the prompts were difficult to say the least and I wanted the drawings to resonate with me and the style I work in. For that reason some of the links to certain prompts were less literal and even a little tenuous.

Overall I’m very happy with the drawings I’ve done and it’s always nice to see the interesting ways other artists interpret prompts.

To catch up on previous weeks

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Inktober2025 18-24

Hi there, how are you?

More from the world of Inktober. This week numbers 18 -24

it’s been an interesting week; the prompts as they stand are not really my cup of tea so I’m trying to think outside the box for some of them.

18. Deal – little red devil complete with a contract. The red ink was so transparent I couldn’t see it on the black paper so I painted it white. unfortunately that turned it pink, not quite the look I was going for. Many coats later he was finally red.

19. Arctic – A little polar bear standing on a tiny iceberg.

20. Rivals – It started with chess pieces and ended as knights.

21. Blast – Himalayan balsam is an invasive plant found on wasteland and around hedgerows. It’s illegal to propagate and distribute.It is a really pretty plant though with pink hooded flowers. The seed pods explode and blast the seeds quite a distance.

22. Button – Button quail. I didn’t know these were a thing? They are really tiny birds usually kept as pets. The chicks are as small as a penny, so cute.

23. Firefly – Bugs in a jar. I tried using a thin layer of gold ink for the lights. It looks OK in the sunshine but is terribly hard to photograph.

24. Rowdy – The green parrots in London are loud screeching and squawking, they even bully the local pigeons when there’s food around.

A few tenuous links to prompts here but overall very happy I’ve managed to stick to the prompts.

Not many to go now.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Inktober2025 11-17

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober is still going strong and I’m happy to say I’ve managed to keep up with all of the prompts so far; these are prompt 11-17.

11 sting – (above) went with the obvious, bee’s sting. The hexagonal background is quite abstract which I really like.

12 Shredded – the talons on this owl were made for shredding its food. Tenuous link I know but it’s near enough.

13 Drink – blossom tea. We bought one of these teas once from china town. The bud is placed into a glass pot of boiling water, gradually the flower opens up and the flavour is released. Very pretty.

14 Trunk – elephants have trunks. I had thought of a tree then last minute changed my mind. Very pleased with this one.

15 Ragged – this is a wild flower called ragged robin, they have really pretty pink flowers. I used a different warmer toned paper for this one and the ink didn’t react too well to it.

16 Blunder – an iris flower. There were lots of blunders (mistakes) on this one as I experimented with white ink on black acrylic background. It was an interesting effect.

17 Ornate – a gold encrusted beetle. I supposed it could be worn as jewellery if you were so inclined. Not sure I would though.

Some tenuous links here, just glad I managed to keep on prompt so far although there are some tricky ones coming up.

I’ve decided to do what I can and make something up if I have no ideas at all.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Inktober2025 1-5

inktober-1-moustache — Inktober 1 moustache Inca Tern

Hi there, how are you?

Inktober has begun. The goal this year is to use the prompts, even though some of them are pretty awful.

The sketchbook I’m using is the one I made a while ago from cereal boxes, I like the colour of the card; the back of the pages have now been painted black which I may use for some of the prompts.

1. moustache – this is an inca tern, they have lovely curly moustaches.

2. weave – weaver birds weave intricate nests from local grasses. They are built by the males and have an entrance hole underneath. If the female doesn’t like it she’ll move on to a better one.

inktober-2-weave — Inktober 2 weave, Weaver bird.

3. crown – this is a Victoria crowned pigeon. They are blue with maroon chests and a head of lacy feathers for a crown.

inktober-3-crown — Inktober 3 crown, Victoria crowned pigeon.

4. murky – one of the weird ones. I ended off doing two thin misty forests on white watercolour paper as they wouldn’t show up well on the toned paper.

inktober-4-murky — Inktober 4 murky, misty forest.

5 deer – not sure what kind of deer this I just liked the look of him.

So far so good.

Time is short at the moment so I’m trying to keep everything simple, lets see how I do with the next batch of prompts.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

A Small Folder For My Sketches

folder closed outside cover

Hi there, how are you?

Normally when sketching I use a sketchbook but sometimes I want to draw on different paper or even coloured paper. The loose papers are usually misplaced or end up in a heap somewhere and it’s all a bit of a jumble.

I decided to make a little folder to keep my sketchbook and some loose sheets of paper together.

For things like this I make what I call a prototype out of something found in the recycling bin, prototypes are nearly always discarded pretty quickly so I don’t usually bother about what they look like.

The folder was made by scoring and folding up the sides nothing fancy, made out of a corrugated cardboard packing envelope.

The idea was to use thread or elastic through some holes that a sketchbook or folded loose papers could be pushed through I suppose a bit like a travellers notebook.

The open side and top of the folder are not sealed; I thought I could use that part to keep even smaller papers so they wouldn’t get lost.

folder sketchbook inside — A sketchbook inside the folder

After painting the ceiling in the bathroom I used the left over paint to cover the outside of the folder (not one to waste paint.) this looked a bit scrappy so I decided I would decorate it.

I had no clue what to paint so the first layers were just random splashes of different colours, then I found a home-made stencil of leaves, more splashes.

Finally after looking through an old sketchbook I found an idea and painted tiny white bunnies all over the outside.

folder outside cover — Bunnies on the outside cover

The inside was painted with left over paint from one of the outside layers and a stencil of bigger leaves plus another of little wrens together with freehand poppy pods.

folder inside — Wrens on the inside of the folder

It’s taken a few weeks to complete, wondering if it was even worth the bother but I actually quite like it now and have been using it regularly; as I use it more I notice small things that could be improved in the next prototype but over all it’s working well.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Bird Magazine – A Nice Find

hawfinch

A hawfinch

Hi there, how are you?

This week we made a nice find at the supermarket.

They have a small table where people leave used or unwanted books, for a small donation of 50p anyone can take a book home, the money raised is given to a local charity.

It’s usually books but this time there were two bird watching magazines, what a score! Lots of lovely bird photos to draw.

A hawfinch, the cover picture on one of the magazines looks like the master of all he surveys hehehe.

I like the muted pink of this bird, (it may be a good colour for flamingos?)

Below is a brambling, a very striking red and black.

The backgrounds around them in the photos were quite blurry so I’ve attempted something very loose in roughly similar colours.

I thought this photo of a robin flying was really nice and decided to have a go at drawing it. Usually I avoid the wings as they are hard to draw, really I should be practising drawing them more often.

The bullfinch is on a white background, I liked the colours and didn’t want to drown them out.

I was very happy to have found these magazines this week and have a lot of fun drawing from them, it’s nice to get away from screens once in a while, much easier on the eyes.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Little Birds Drawn With Acrylic Pens

acrylic peacock

Peacock drawn with acrylic pens.

Hi there, how are you?

Still drawing birds this week but this time with acrylic paint pens.

I have two types, some cheep no name brand that look a bit like Posca knock off’s and some by Sharpie bought at half price in the sale.

Trying them straight into the sketchbook didn’t really work. The paint soaked straight into the paper which made them really scratchy hard to use.

As I was painting the bathroom ceiling when the thought struck me that instead of rinsing the paint off the brush in a bucket of water I could brush the waste paint onto the sketchbook page as a kind of gesso so I scrubbed the brush into a couple of pages and let it dry.

It has worked really well, the pens move much more freely across the page now.

The colours are very bright and primary so I decided to draw some colourful birds.

The first a peacock with various blues then a little yellow bird(not sure what it’s called, any ideas?)

acrylic yellow bird — A little yellow bird drawn with acrylic pens.

The pens have bullet nibs and it’s not easy to make fine lines, they worked OK together with fine-liners though.

Since the backgrounds were plain white, not very interesting I coloured around the birds. It’s not beautiful but looks better than before.

For the second two I drew the background in first by laying some colour down with the pens and mowing it around with water and a paint brush.

acrylic bee eater — A bee-eater drawn with acrylic pens.

Then drew the little bee-eater complete with lunch and a blue tit.

acrylic blue tit — A blue tit drawn with acrylic pens.

I find the colours quite so bright and garish though I did try to mix the colours a little on the page it has to be done quickly before the paint dries and of course there’s the risk of contaminating the nibs.

These pens are really great for graphic or colourful images but maybe better off using tube paints for mixing something a little more muted.

Possibly if I was willing to shell out for expensive Poscas they would have a better selection of colours, these are meant mainly for children and they would maybe find these colours more appealing.

I don’t think I will be replacing my watercolours with these any time soon but it’s good to play with something different for a change.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x

Little Birds Drawn With A Fountain Pen

birds drawn with a fountain pen

Little birds drawn with a fountain pen

Hi there, how are you?

It’s twelfth night and the decorations have finally come down and are put away ready for next year.

Art wise I’ve drawn lots of little birds with a fountain pen. I even remembered to write their names down so I can look them up again for the colours.

The paper is A4 in size, all of the little birds are just a few inches in size.

After trying the Seawhite recycled paper last week with watercolour I wondered how it would behave with ink. You never know how a paper will behave till it’s tested.

I am very happily surprised, there was no feathering all the and lines are nice and crisp.

The sketchbook I’m currently using feathers quite a bit with any kind of ink giving everything furry lines so it will be good to draw on something a little more stable.

There are a few more things to test out on this paper but so far it’s looking good.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Till next time, have fun x