A post from artist Morag Thomson Merriman on the AccessArt website https://www.accessart.org.uk/taking-on-inktober-challenge/ has reminded me that Inktober is about to start again.

You can find out more about Inktober 2018 and the suggested daily prompts at https://inktober.com.

Last year I tried to combine the official prompts and the separate Brighton list each day – which made for some surreal images and was a good way to move out of my comfort zone. I also used it to experiment with various drawing apps on my iPad, convenient to do while watching tv if I hadn’t had time to draw during the day – and easy to upload to Twitter or this blog.

But Merriman’s use of a concertina sketchbook as illustrated in her article has inspired me to dig out the  Drawing a Day folded sheets. Like blank OS maps, we commissioned these from Brighton graduate Luce Choules to support the Big Draw@Brighton a few years ago. I have just a few left now so will try to use one for Inktober this year. The design makes them easy to slip into a bag, but they can also be opened out fully to show the complete months work . This will also force me to work with real ink rather than the virtual kind .

i knew I wouldn’t have much time today so did this last night and posted in a break during todays teaching. Using the Sketch app – I quite like the way it gives a rougher spikier line than Paper, but the brush tool gives very distinctive circular marks which are becoming a bit repetitive. The iPad apps do make it easy to do quick sketches while watching tv at night, but I think I need to find time for some ‘real’ ink drawing.

a very silly image today that popped into my head as soon as I read today’s two prompts. This was my first very quick sketch – I tried redoing it with more detail, but the later versions  turned out very stiff so I went with the first attempt

not sure where this cuddly punk came from – drawn freehand from my imagination using the Paper app

not the easiest combination but it sparked this image of a moonlit room with a slightly spooky student contemplating their assignment

based on a news photo of police carrying away fracking protesters at  Balcombe – ink on paper so I could still see the source photo on my iPad

I was heading off to London today to visit the Jasper Johns exhibition at the RA, so assumed I’d be able to draw a crowded train on the way home. But it was such a great exhibition that I decided to make today’s task a homage to Johns’ early monochrome graphic pieces which I’ve always loved. So it doesn’t really fit the inktober2017 side of the brief, unless you count the dense cross hatching. I tried doing it in the Paper app, but couldnt get my lines straight enough so reverted to pen on paper.

an easier combination today 

After a difficult 24hours (see entry for Day 9) and then a flight back from Holland, I got home so late I thought I’d have to skip my self-imposed challenge to combine the daily prompts for #inktober2017 (gigantic) and #brightinktober (cinema). But then slumped in front of TV news I saw a large crowd in Barcelona watching the Catalonian presidents independence speech on a giant outdoor screen. Perfect!  So I paused the TV and did this quick drawing with the Sketch app, which I’m currently experimenting with.