Lessons from Inktober 2021

Last October I managed to achieve something I’d been wanting to do for quite some time- a new picture uploaded (to instagram) every single day for a whole month.

I was a little scared to commit initially and threw some already completed artwork at it for a while before realising that I was going to have to pick up the pace and draw lots of new stuff.

Then I started doing-up partially completed sketches to keep the numbers up.

I also re-drew some artwork from my childhood, which was a huge boost of inspiration for me. It’s interesting to look back at that work and see the design choices that dominated. Lots of belts- final fantasy perhaps? Lots of Dragon ball Z-style suits with fabric sashes around the waist.

Eventually I ran out of candidates for pictures to finish and was forced to draw completely new stuff.

The result of all this hard work was …to lose a lot of followers on Instagram.

Looking back at the work its clear that the quality suffered towards the end. I was under a fair bit of time pressure and it shows. There was probably also a lack of consistency- something I’ve always suffered from perhaps, but I hate seeing artists make the same piece over and over. I like to tackle new stuff!

Not that I’m overly concerned with instagram followers. Social media is well documented to be a totally bonkers minefield. Early in 2021 I’d seen my follower count shoot up from about 100 to nearly 600- all while I stood back in bemused interest and did absolutely nothing. I hadn’t uploaded anything in months, and yet up and up it went.

So when the count stopped at 597 I couldn’t help but think that a little burst of uploads might push over that arbitrary line, like that mattered, and having a go at inktober might be the perfect time to do so. Well, that shows what I know, eh?

While it may have been a disaster from a self-promotion point of view, from a personal perspective I feel very glad to have done it. There’s a lot of value in consistently doing something every day. I also felt like I was really learning for a change. It’s hard not to refine when you’re tackling the same sort of thing over and over in such a short space of time.

Digital Sketchbook- April 2021

Every so often I like to upload the best sketches and drawings I’ve accumulated over the last few months. Here’s the latest:

A skater cat circa 2007.
There’s a story behind this one. Perhaps I’ll make something of it one day. Jennifer the reluctant apprentice wizard and Faisal her silver-starred mentor live by the lakeside in the idyllic rural village of Pensy-Clockham. There’s a whole thing growing in my head but it’s all a bit formless so far.
I like drawing wizards. They’re easy and the hats are satisfying.
Walk like an Egyptian priestess.
Fat Lord Hermann
Morty the narcissistic necromancer. 
He spends all his time hanging around with skeletons and consequently feels very insecure about this weight. On the other hand- he feels great about his hair!
A steampunk engineer
Flamingo Knight.
An often overlooked area of military history. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to see a horde of these guys charging at you- all sharp steel, honking and plumage! Of the course the real danger is falling off. It’s quite...
A noble flamingo knight
Owlbears!
Deadly owlbears. Hunters of the night. In the dark eucalyptus groves of the world they still clamber, their terrible cries echoing “Twit- tawaaarrrgh!” Their powerful beaks can crush bone and sinew like a sausage roll. often an unsuspecting...
Deadly Owlbears
Polar Shaman.
From the digital sketchbook, 2020
Polar Shaman and his best bear buddy

I also upload these things on my tumblr and instagram accounts, so go follow me on there to see them as soon as they’re uploaded:

https://www.instagram.com/spikedmcgrath/

https://spikedmcgrath.tumblr.com/

…Incidentally is anyone else still using tumblr?

Matilda

Here’s another quick portrait done for practice. Originally my plan was to record the process and upload it to youtube so I could show how it was done, but alas the best laid schemes of mice and men are oft to go plain bloody wrong. The video failed to work, after a 4 hour conversion process. Still, there’s always next time!

A portrait of an old womanI shall try again later.