Day 1For the month of October, artists/sketchers draw with ink and share it in their social media. There are Inktober Rules & Prompts, but one can use their own prompts or themes. This is my first time participating in #InkTober. I was inspired by Seattle Urban Sketcher "Fueled By Clouds & Coffee" Tina Koyama. After reading her blogs and going down the rabbit hole of sketching with fountain pens, I bought my first fude nib fountain pen. An inexpensive Jinhao pink shark. After finding that I enjoyed sketching with a fude nib, I invested in a better quality Franklin-Christoph 02 (F-C 02) pen with a custom ground F-C Mark Bacas fude nib. The pink shark lives in my purse for quick sketches (rather than looking at my phone) when I'm out in the world. The F-C 02 stays home for the most part. The paper is a Koh-I-Noor Bristol Vellum sketchbook from Akamai Art Supply. I will be posting a lauhala related sketch on my Instagram each day in October, and adding to this entry throughout the month.
The first week of Inktober is done. Remembering to make time to do a little sketch each day seems like a decadent new habit, but seeing a small collection of sketches growing is exciting and satisfying.
The second week of Inktober is done. I still haven't had time to do large "ambitious" drawings, but I am enjoying the smooth and crispness of the Koh-I-Noor Bristol Vellum paper. The pages are shaped so that they may be removed from and reinserted in the sketchbook. The nice ladies at Akamai Art Supply showed me this feature. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now realize it will be incredibly convenient when I scan the images to make Risograph screen printed notecards.
Time is flying by. Third week of Inktober2021 is done. I tried to make bigger sketches and take advantage of whole sheets of the nice ink drawing paper.
Week four of Inktober2021 is done. While I mentioned the pen, nib, and paper I was using, I forgot to mention the most significant part of Inktober! I forgot to mention the inks! Days 1 to 13 was Sailor Ink Studio 683, I bought a 2ml sample from Goulet Pens, and it's beautiful. Both visually and to work with. It's described as a "brown" by some and "dark purple" by others. The type of paper and lighting affects how it looks. I'm committing to a larger bottle in the future. Days 14 to 28 was Platinum Carbon Black Ink. I bought a 60ml bottle from JetPens.com as I had read it was extremely popular with sketchers and watercolorists for its waterproof and opaque black properties. It's definitely rich and as described, so much so, that one needs to regularly clean one's fountain pens so that it doesn't get clogged. I took advantage of the ink cartridge emptying to do a cleaning and re-inking to try a different color. For Days 29 to 31 it will be Montverde Brown Sugar Ink. It's "lubricated" meaning it has an additive that makes it flow easier and smoother through the pen. I had tried a sample of it from Goulet Pens and liked it so much I bought a 30ml bottle. Goulet Pens is awesome for being able to buy little vials of ink to try before committing to full size bottles. I intended the Platinum Black Carbon ink for sketching and the Brown Sugar for writing, but since I was experimenting sketching with the Ink Studio 683 it seemed to make sense to try sketching with Brown Sugar ink too. It's probably very difficult to see the differences of the inks in the pictures, but the live view and experiences are quite different. I will go back to PBC ink for sketching - especially when there maybe watercolor washes and painting involved.
During the last week I tried to be more ambitious with the size of the sketches after I saw how many pages were still blank in the sketchbook. When I was looking for a sketchbook dedicated to my Inktober project, I thought the whole book would be used in one Inktober month... I could start a collection of "Inktober Sketchbooks." As I was conserving time and paper by doing multiple small sketches per page I realized I could do next year's Inktober sketches in the same book. The paper is heavy enough that there is no ink bleed through and both sides of the pages may be used. The texture is really nice. And it's made in the USA so I'm also supporting "local" businesses. Yay!
#Inktober2021 is done. I confess it took a little time away from ulana, but I would totally do it again next year. It was nice getting back into sketching and doing the eye-hand coordination thing: the challenge of looking at something in 3 dimensions and breaking it down into 2 dimensional shapes that make it look like a 3 dimension optical illusion on a flat piece of paper. Like all skills, some people can be born with natural ability and others have to develop and strengthen it. I'm in the latter category. Sometimes it's good to be too stubborn to quit.
Happy Hala-weenie Kākou!!