Sometimes I remember to take pictures of the process.

And sometimes I do not:

There was fun playing with pastel pencils:

And an experiment with a lino cut and print:

And I got to hang out for a few weeks with this little chap, by blowing him up to unreal proportions (original picture from Carl Bovis):

All in all, I learned a lot and I can definitely see progress when I compare with my work from last year. It feels good to create in the old-fashioned ways on paper, for a million different reasons. Get your pencils out, now go draw something! (Free bookmark commemorating my 2023 relocation for the first person who gets that reference! Post your answer in the comments!)

I find facial expressions incredibly hard to copy. I am getting a bit better at copying likeness, but capturing the emotion or the intention of the character with a few pen strokes is a totally different level. Certainly something to strive for during this 100 days challenge!

Like last time: click to open the gallery and get a closer look at the individual pictures:

And the originals:

And here is the double page “spread” effect. You see how it bleeds through in the second photo… That’s improved in later pages.

Have you been inspired to take part in #The100DaysProject? Or are you contemplating joining an art challenge? In 2022 I joined Kick in the Creatives for Inky April. They have a few options every month if you’re looking to find a little art community online!

My chosen project? Copying faces from manga, inking them with sumo ink and a proper pen (Blanzy-Conté-Gilbert — № 423 Plume Atome) and touching up with two small brushes, in a Royal Talens sketchbook. I sketch the drawing with a B pencil first. Here are my tools:

At the moment I am re-reading Tezuka Osamu Buddha in the Dutch translation. I love his style: a clear line, exaggerated movements, emotion in spades, humourous details, and impressive landscapes that range from the harsh Himalaya mountains to make you shiver to the humid steaming jungles of the monsoon-struck Indian subcontinent. Oh to be an artist who reaches to his ankles!

I am not sure yet if I will do all 100 days from this series or even from Tezuka’s oeuvre, but he’s certainly not a bad artist to train on!

Here’s my first week so far, and below for comparison the original. The first week I still used Noodler’s ink, but the label has fallen off so I don’t know which one. It feathered too much on this paper, and I switched to the sumi ink shortly after. You’ll see those in a later update.

Click on each image for a larger, full view:

And for comparison, the originals:

I feel I’m getting more comfortable using the little pen, just from this brief daily practice. It does not allow for much variation in line thickness, but for now I feel like sticking it out with the pen I first learned to ink with back when I was 6 or 7. Far fewer blotches than back in the day, I call that progress!

As one person on Mastodon pointed out: Pancake Tuesday implies the existence of a Pancake Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so feel free to celebrate whenever the mood strikes! Here’s Rembrandt to help you on your way. And why not check out the rest of his awesome prints held at the Morgan.

All images are hosted on Flickr – click through for a larger view, and for image descriptions (Alt Text equivalent).

First up: not Squirrel, but Mouse. She’s checking out the cheese section of somebody’s well-stocked pantry library.

Next up: Squirrel and Fox did all the tourist things in DC – in addition to and a drawing I posted earlier, there is this snapshot:

Squirrel enjoying some quiet time, while I experimented with Procreate:

New one! Like many mammals, food is an enormous source of motivation for squirrels. It will even make them do math and physics. How will this end?!?

Things I learned from a year of drawing squirrels and other animals:

• I still need to work on a consistent style for my squirrel, if I want to present him as a single character. It’s ok to switch between a more anthropomorphic and a more realistic/animal representation, but they’re not the same squirrel throughout.
• Some squirrels look more like a kangaroo I need to work on the face.
• Finding the balance between enough detail and sufficient simplification is really hard. Cartooning is a real skill and takes a lot of practice to develop.
• I’m loath to give in to the trend of 3 fingers + 1 thumb for cartoon characters, but drawings get crowded with 4+1.
• Squirrels are fun to draw, but so are mice and foxes!

Would you like to see more cartoon-style drawings of Squirrel and friends? Let me know in the comments!

• choose different paper with a bit more tooth/bite
• track more clearly what pencils I use for which shades
• stick to the same direction throughout for the tiny dark lines (they’re little stripes, not just a line)
• put up a note at the very start “Do not move towel and lighting!” The lights were shifted a bit between second and third session.

I guess I’ll just call it an extensive study before executing the master piece, someday. At least I feel a lot more confident in knowing my way again around a set of pencils (9B-H) and a series of erasers (I used 3 different types). Put the brightness of your screen up to see these pics properly, because the lighting in the studio is anything but conducive to iPhone photography.

Yes, I ended up erasing the bottom part and adjusting the length of the towel: as I got into the details, I realised the proportions were off, and the little squares were not lining up properly. My classmates assured me I didn’t need to do them, but I wanted them for the drawing I saw me complete. That’s where I messed up the paper and could have done with better quality. I didn’t know at the start I’d be going for this kind of work or I’d have chosen (and my teacher would have given me) a better quality paper. Tbh, it still wasn’t perfect when I was done but it was convincing enough that that towel is real and very crisp. Check it out! Click on the image to go to Flickr and zoom in there. I’m still figuring out what the best way is to give you high quality images without crashing my allowance here. Tips welcome!

• PSL
• Spooky things and Hallowe’en
• rainy days and/or cosy autumn/fall days with crunchy leaves underfoot
• days getting shorter and an increase in comments like “It’s getting dark early now” or “I can’t believe it’s still dark at 8am”

(If you’re in the southern hemisphere, those last 2 don’t apply, and possibly the first two neither. I never visited the southern hemisphere!)

But if you peek inside the world of art and illustration, you’ll find that we have our own equivalent of #Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), just a month early so the very creative types among us can do both. All it means is that every day, you do an illustration with ink, and at the end of the month you have 31 illustrations, or several large ones, and you’ll have improved your craft significantly.

I took part last year, and it was a significant time commitment to come up with ideas and execute them. You can scroll back in my instagram feed to the copies I made from Tang dynasty tomb mural paintings. I lasted about 20 days and then I couldn’t keep up.

This year I didn’t even try, and I only got two inky drawings.

Use the slide to see how my drawing compares to the original photo. The uploaded formats didn’t quite match, and neither did my drawing. JuxtaposeJS is still a nifty tool from Knight Lab!

My second inked up drawing was an assignment in art class: pick some stuff from your pencil case and draw!

Slide and compare, pls! Photo and drawing don’t quite align because I took the picture on the first day and then had to re-create the scene on the second day. I know there is something wrong with my roll of tape. Still not too bad for a quick sketch.

How was your #Inktober?

• Teacher: Hm, I see. You started filling it in.
• Me: Yeah, I put all the leaves’ outlines in [as she had suggested I do first].
• Teacher: You smudged it.
• Me: I what? Where?
• Teacher: Right there, at the top. You smoothened it. On purpose.
• Me: I don’t even own a tortillon. Never knew how to use the things.
• Teacher: You did it with your finger, didn’t you?
• Me: No, just verrrry gentle shading with an F and H pencil first…

Gentle reader, I acknowledge that I have a decent starting base, and that my powers of shading are coming back and it feels pretty darn good but… I also need to show this close-up that shows upon closer inspection and in harsher light, I am really just shading like anybody else with lots of lines, and clumsily too! Just as well this is a 7 year program

Curious to hear if you’re taking classes and what you’re learning! Share in the comments! I will share my progress here on the blog, stay tuned for more fun exchanges with my teachers!