Inktober is upon us once more and this time, I shall be conquering the challenge.

I’ve been participating in inktober for a few years, but always have problems keeping consistency and actually finishing the 31 days. True, it is a demanding challenge. It demands good time management and discipline, two things I’m not very good at. So I’m undertaking this challenge not only as a way to develop a good drawing habit, but also as a way to practice commitment, discipline and consistency.

Before starting the challenge, I figured a great way to make it easier for me to keep motivated during the month of October, was to actually follow a prompt list that truly inspires me, so the last few days of September were used doing research. I found a few Inktober prompts lists, from this year and previous years, and compiled 31 concepts that spoke to me creatively and made my own prompt list.

Day 1 – Bone Mermaid

On the first day I was feeling excited to start drawing. Drawing mermaids is something I’m comfortable with so it was a good way to start off, not jumping straight ou of my comfort zone.

Day 2 – Owl Alchemist

As much as I love owls, this drawing was challenging in itself. I tried to go out of my comfort zone and my drawing style, and I guess we can say it didn’t turn out stellar. It was a learning experience. You live and you learn.

Day 3 – Llama Villain

I love the way this one turned out. Anyone who knows me, is aware that I have somewhat of a llama obssession and pairing that with some wickedness was delightful. But let’s be honest, ain’t nobody got time for dishing out this kind of drawings on the daily, having a limited amount of time to do it. So you won’t be seeing many of these.

Day 4 – Fox Hunter

Since it’s halloween season, when I hear the word hunter, the first thing that comes to mind is “Vampire Hunter”. I started with an idea based on Van Helsing, with a badass hat and all that, but it was looking awful, and as I sketched, it started to look like the fox was wearing a priest outfit. Vampires and Holy Water sounded excellent, so I decided to roll with that. I’m quite happy with the final result.

Day 5 – Raccoon Wizard

This ended up being a quick little sketch (which was not that quick, since I had to do it twice, because the first one looked horrendous). Don’t you just love that little hat? I know I do. He was supposed to have a samurai master kind of mustache, but when I was inking, I forgot about it, so you have been deprived of that precious view.

Day 6 – Deer Knight

Well….drawing a deer face…that was a struggle. The idea was, of a cruel knight that comitted horrible crimes, and as a punishment, a witch cursed him into a beast form. As you can see, he’s not the best looking fella you’re ever gonna see. But, as a friend pointed out to me, if a witch turned me into a beast, I probably wouldn’t have many people swooning over me. He looks butch and not that worried about his looks either way. Embrace your weirdness I say.

Day 7 – Eagle guardian

We have come to the last day of the first week. I finished off on a good note. This is my favorite of the bunch. Probably not that original, but I love the clean look of it. Up until this point I was using Sakura Micron pens and tried out once or twice my Pentel Pocket Brush, but things weren’t turning out exactly like I imagined them. So from this day on I started using Uni Lakubo pen and am so much happier with the results.

My final thoughts on this first week: It was incredibly helpful to understand exactly how long I take to finish this sort of drawings. It helped me create a stricter routine, which I found I was lacking in my life. My days gained a new purpose and I was always excited for the next drawing. It helped me understand what works and doesn’t work for me, material and style-wise and forced me to exercise my creativity daily. Having a look through the drawings, I can also see that the constant practice resulted in better and better drawings day after day as I focused my attention on general form, small details and pen strokes to give interest to the image.

I’m ready to start the next week.

Let’s do it!!!

Bonus Sketch: