As you may know, there are 31 days in October, which makes things a little awkward when planning to write a blog every seven days. I want to keep all the Inktober content together as much as possible, so I’m going to tack on the last three days into this blog post.

Day 22:

“The Diver”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

I went back to inkwash! I felt working with gradation would be easier with wash than with brush pen, and I wanted to have a transition from the light at the top to the darker water at the bottom. The inspiration for this drawing was old diving suits. I think their design looks pretty cool. It’s interesting to me how their design echoes that of a space suit. It seems the obvious design for protecting a full human body from a hostile environment is a round stiff helmet and a baggy jumpsuit.

There is a tiny story here. The diver is distracted by the small fish while a larger predator lurks behind him. I want to do more illustrations that contain stories.

This drawing somehow took only an hour total, with 15 minutes of that for the sketch. It definitely felt like longer!

Day 23:

“Girl and Puppy”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

I actually drew this one on the same day as “The Diver”. Inkwash takes a long time to dry, so between layers I worked on this one on the opposite page. It’s just a simple, cute picture of a girl posing as if for a photograph with a small puppy by her side. For me, this has a casual summer vibe. I used black brush pen for the outline after all the inkwash layers were complete. I’m really happy with how the lines turned out, especially on her legs. It almost has a kind of Japanese woodblock style to it. I want to work on being more consistent with how I use line weights like this.

This was another easy and quick drawing, only 40 minutes from start to finish. Ten minutes of that time was for the pencil sketch.

Day 24:

“Harpy Queen”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

This is definitely one of my favorites this month! I regret that her pose was cut off because of the paper size, but I like the way the wings and bird feet turned out. I also think this is one of the more successful pieces in the balance of grey and black lines. For most of these drawings, I start with grey, then add black over top. I’ve noticed that I’m somewhat afraid of leaving outlines grey because I think they won’t stand out enough. Even this image probably depends too much on black outlines, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.

I spent more time on this drawing, about 90 minutes total. The sketch took 20 minutes of that time. I think the extra time went to drawing each individual feather!

Day 25:

“The Genie and Ella”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

This one started off as an idea. I wanted to try moving a genie to a different setting, such as the story of Cinderella. Instead of being trapped in a lamp, the genie is trapped in a teapot. Cinderella is cleaning when she accidentally releases the genie. I still really like this concept, but I’m less than satisfied with its execution here. I drew this a bit quickly since I was still trying to catch up and I had already spent an hour and a half on “Harpy Queen”. With more time, I’d like to make the space less vague and not have the genie floating almost on top of Cinderella. Still, it was good to challenge myself to draw a man’s face and it was fun drawing the cobblestone floor.

I really struggled with this one. The sketch took 30 minutes, plus inking it was completed in 70 minutes.

Day 26:

“The Messenger”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

Clearly I haven’t had enough of drawing birds. If you count the harpy, that’s three this month! I just like the pattern of feathers on bird wings. This one is different from usual in that the angle is above the subject, and let me tell you, it was a challenge to get the aerial view of the river right! I don’t think it’s a full success, but it was a good attempt. Next time, I won’t skip the perspective grid!

This one also contains a small story. The small messenger (or is it a large bird?) is on an urgent errand to bring a message from far away. What’s the message? That’s for you to imagine! I don’t have a more specific story attached to this drawing, but I like the implications, it’s a good jumping off point for ideas.

The pencil sketch took 25 minutes (trying to figure out the landscape!) In total, it took 80 minutes to complete.

Days 28-29:

Alright, as I said on the first week, I don’t want to post any drawings that I feel aren’t up to a reasonable standard. The first of these was made as part of an experiment with recording video while drawing. I have a long way to go to get a proper set-up going! I think because the angle in which I was drawing was a bit unnatural, it didn’t turn out well. It’s certainly not the worst drawing I’ve ever done, but it is extremely mediocre.

The second failed drawing is based on an idea that I think is interesting, but wasn’t executed well for whatever reason. I was tired that day! I’m going to give it another shot at a later date.

Day 29:

“Deer Woman”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

This one is kind of on the border for me. I can’t say I hate it, but I feel like it’s a little boring. I really like the idea of humans with horns or antlers, and I’ve made many drawings on the same theme! I think for this one it’s just so static. All the focus is on her face and the antlers, which I rendered to a pretty good level, in my opinion, but I didn’t know what to put in the background. I wish I had drawn her doing something or reacting to something. At this point, I was definitely feeling the burnout at the end of the challenge! It takes a lot of brain power to think of a new idea worth drawing to this level every day! (For me, at least!) I drew this one also because I had two sub-par drawings in a row and wanted to have something to make up for it!

This drawing took 50 minutes to complete, 18 of which were for the pencil sketch. I think a chunk of that was looking up antler references and trying to get both sides to match.

Day 30:

“Pet Rabbit”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

You can see that I’m feeling less inspired with this one too. It’s not that far off the “Girl and Puppy” from earlier this week! However, this one is actually based on a thumbnail sketch I did the month before. I did have a burst of energy to add in some plants to the background, which I think was a good choice. They really help ground the drawing and make it feel more complete. I also had fun drawing the edge of the pleated skirt.

This took approximately an hour to finish, 15 minutes for the sketch. Actually, I sketched in the plants after I’d already finished inking the figure, so it was probably slightly longer on the pencil stage.

Day 31:

“Nap Under the Mushrooms”

©Amy Blicharz 2022

The last day! The last drawing! (For Inktober, that is.) More tiny people in big worlds. I wanted to draw something peaceful and relatively easy, but definitely with a background. It’s a bit loose, but I still like it. It’s a little hard to see, but there is a ladybug friend hanging out next to the fairy.

This took about an hour in total, 10 minutes of which was for the pencil sketch.

---

And that’s a wrap! I’m really glad I finished Inktober this year, even though there were some rough patches. My intention with this was to get back into the habit of drawing and figure out what I like drawing and where I need to improve. All in all, I feel I’ve succeeded on these points. I want to take more time for more polished pieces in the next couple months and work on being more consistent.

If you’ve read this far, thank you very much! I hope you were interested and entertained.