Inktober 12 through 14

And here are the next installments in #Inktober 2015!

In these drawings, I continued to scribble my way through some new things.

First up, I drew from a photo (with permission) which appeared on a friend's Facebook page of her donkey.  I used several different black ink pens for this one, just to see what I'd think of the combination of line and shade.

The wonky perspective of the photo intrigued me.  I know lots of people prefer drawing from life--as do I, most of the time.  But I was grateful for the still image to capture the perspective so I could really have a good long look at it, as I drew it.

Isn't it funny how angles of sight make things look so very different?  No wonder four witnesses to the same event never give the same story!

Scribble #13 also came from a photo, which I took in my back yard last winter.  I started with my Noodler's Ahab flex pen, but it suddenly fell apart in my hands (that was messy--but I saved the drawing!).  I'm not sure what happened with the pen.  I've used it reliably for a long time.  But nothing broke and I put it back together, refilled it, and continued on.

For the red, I just grabbed the closest red pen I could find, which was some sort of gel pen.

In the last month or so I've done several detailed drawings of trees and their bark, so in this sketch, I intentionally devoted my time to capturing the bird's patterns as accurately as possible.  I only scribbled in the major line patterns on the tree.

And finally for this post, Inktober #14, a pinecone, done with an inexpensive but fun green Pilot Varsity fountain pen.

So, here's a weird thing:  I find pine cones nearly impossible to scribble.

I can do slow detailed fairly accurate sketches about almost anything.  But not pine cones.  And it's not that the pine cone drawing isn't "good"--I don't really care about that.  Most of my scribbles don't look a whole lot like the thing I'm scribbling.

No.  It's just that I seem to dislike using pine cones as models.

When I draw a pine cone, I get bored really fast.  Really fast.  And then I stop looking and start making stuff up.  I don't do that with almost anything else I draw.  But I do it every time I draw a pine cone.

I wonder why that is?

Anyhow, Inktober continues to be lots of fun.  I'm trying new tools.  I'm using new subjects.  I'm seeing and thinking about new things.

I am also reminded, amid all the bad news coming from the media all the time, that life really is cool and fun and spectacular.  I mean, life on this planet includes this donkey, this bird, and this pine cone!  My gosh!  Amazing!!

And that's the point of scribbling with spirit!