Nature Journal

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Finalizing Inktober

So Inktober almost went bust for me mid month when my brother passed, but I finally jumped back in on day 21 and did a few more pieces.

Here is my wrapup:

Day 6 – Rodent
Day 7 Fancy – this was a rare bird who showed up in our area – I was practicing ink washes and will watercolor this later
Day 8 Teeth – I added this to my Nature Journal since I heard the coyotes again behind the house.
Day 21 – Sleep – this was my re-entry into my creativeness after the loss of my brother. It seemed a nice, gentle way to get back to it. My cat and pointillism.
Day 23 – RIP – My brother, Aaron
Day 25 – Buddy – My brother Ron – we were buddies growing up on the farm as the closest to my age of the 7 of us.

I had to catch up on some Christmas commissions at this point, so I put my energy into those. I also was meeting once a week with a set of nieces who were participating with me, which I will share in another post.

One other thing that kept me involved is that I am an Admin on a Facebook group called Inktober SafeSpace where artists, young and old, can share their work without imagery depicting violence, hate, and sexually explicit material. The larger Inktober can trigger someone due to depictions of suicide and depression etc. Also, some of us simply do not like all that in-your-face art.

This is a place where people can safely have fun, share and not have to deal with the artists who are going for the shock factor, edginess, and trying to push the envelope of how disgusting they can be. Sometimes life is hard enough without having it in your face 24/7. We are a small group, but we certainly had fun this year.

All of this kept me Inktober-busy! I did enjoy the “season”.

Inktober Week 1
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Inktober Week 1

Day 1: Fish – Belted Kingfisher in my Nature Journal

It is Inktober! This year I am taking the course from Sktchy: Inktober2020 Portrait Challenge. I am not planning to stick to only portraits, but I am going through each day’s course and using what I am learning.

Day 2: Wisp (me at the age of 2 – and that wispy hair). A tentative use of a light ink wash for the first time, as well as using a brush pen.

My main focus this month is learning portraiture. Portraiture has terrified me my entire art life. It is time to lay that ghost.

Day 3: Bulky (for the bulky lines and sticks.)

Day 1 of the classes I learned how to create ink delivery systems out of sticks from the back yard and dipping ink. It was so much fun! I thought Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s image lent itself well to this style. This was such a freeing experience.

Another one for Bulky is an ink wash of a Dark-eyed Junco. I am not yet sold on ink washes. The light ones I love, but the heavier ones, I have not yet found my comfort.
Day 4: Radio – blind drawing

6 of my nieces have joined me this year. We zoom once a week to look at what we are doing and I give them one assignment a week. This week was to do a blind drawing and then I also have to do it. I forgot how much fun some of these fundamental drawing exercises are! I hope they can cut loose and just enjoy their pens.

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Bandits

This is Notch – I think she may be a first time mother. She has at least 2 babies so she got bold enough to come up to the deck. It seems they get hungry about this time of year. I also see them in the deep winter when the snow is thick. Otherwise, they only visit at night. How do I know? My tomatoes growing on my second story deck keep disappearing.

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Blackpoll Warblers

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During the shutdown I have not been birding like normal, other than off my back deck. However, the back wild space has delivered in spades – actually, in what we birders call “lifers” (the first time you spot a species.)

We had a couple of Blackpoll Warblers go through last week, giving a brief, yet very delightful glimpse as they paused on their travels from S. Am. to Canada.