This past October I decided to take a breather from inking my graphic novel The Unknowns and make a little side project for a fun thing called Inktober. Inktober is a chance for you to create a drawing a day using nothing but traditional tools and ink. No color. I wasn’t too excited about the idea of just doing a bunch of drawings but trying to create a story in a month’s time seemed like fun. So I took up the challenge. Here’s what I learned from the experience.
1) Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it helps:
I have wanted to improve my inking skills with a brush for some time and the projects I was working on just didnt lend themselves to experimentation and learning. I saw this as a great oppurtunity to work on that skill. And I saw it happen over time. I became more comfortbale with the brushes that worked for me and let the ones go that didn’t. I learned how to get the line that I wanted and all in all feel really confident about picking one up now and working with it along with my microns. I think you can see the progression in the art as the project goes.
2.) Writing a story on the fly isn’t very satifying
One of the things I really was looking forward to was to take an idea that was in my head, and just running with it. Like when it started all I knew was it was going to be about a pumpkin monster. The idea of a dinosaur mixing with it was no where on the radar at the time. Eventually I started piecing together information to arrive at that being the conflict and ran with it. But that’s what the story feels like to me. Something I ran with. It may be fun and exciting for the reader, but as a creative person I like to have the story under more control. So if I do it again, I will look to plan thinsg out better before the attack!
3) Completing a prioject in one month is a huge boost to confidence
Perhaps the biggest thing I gained from this was confidence in myself. So many projects I start are these big books that take forever to complete and vast amounts of energy. This was something I was able to easily fit into my day, complete it piece by piece and move on. May not be a masterpiece but it’s something I finished. So if you are looking to work on building up your skills and just practice everyday, give this sort of thing a try. And why do you bave to wait for October? Do one today. 30 page in 30 days! Make it simply. Finish a project! Have fun everyone! 🙂