Promptober?

Trying (and failing) to draw every day

This week marked the start of many drawing online challenges. It seems that October with its scary focus is great to inspire drawing.

For a few years now I’ve been a member of the Draw or Die Club. I’ve not been an active member, but, like Steve the Otter, I try my best. Sometimes (most of the time) my best isn’t that good. Life gets in the way. I’m on the road, or just don’t wanna.

This year things started off on the wrong foot so four days into the challenge I not only jumped in, but tried to catch up.

For those unaware- each day you are given a drawing prompt. Draw whatever comes to mind. The Draw or Die Club does this throughout the year, but for “Promptober” you actually get the entire month all at once.

Day 1

I thought about this one a while and considered options but the idea of poor Linus waiting for the great pumpkin in a not so sincere pumpkin patch filled with zombie-ish pumpkins stuck. I drew a few versions of this trying to get it just right… then decided to just go with what I had. You will see that’s kind of how I roll when it comes to these things.

Day 2

I had an idea in my head and am still working it out. Unfortunately, being behind a deadline does make me just need to move on. I’m really wanting to not have my drawings so static, add life and movement to them. This one definitely fails at that goal. Combined with the mishmash inking… ugh. At least I know from experience that you improve with practice.

The initial idea was a cross between Queen Elizabeth I and the Queen of Hearts. Yup… bet you didn’t see that coming.

Day 3

Yes, this is unfinished. The idea of “The Rolling Bones” came to me as I saw the “Skeleton Band” prompt. Again with the deadline excuse. Also having never really studied anatomy the idea of trying to draw an even slightly accurate human skeleton made me stop and think… I know my limitations and if this month is teaching me anything it’s making me see my shortcomings and start working towards practicing in those weak areas.

Day 4

A quick sketch- fairly easy… I had some other ideas floating around but went with the simple one. Looking at it now I know there are ways I could improve it and add more action. Make it less flat.

Day 5

This one started out with a guy and a flashlight talking to a ghost… then had the ghost hiding behind the “paranormal investigator.” Finally, I decided to just have two ghosts talking to each other. Simple, to the point almost gag comic like.

You may wonder why there are blue pencil lines in my comics. I’m old school, and while I might embrace digital at some point I still draw on paper. The blue are my rough pencils which are done using a non-photo blue pencil. The cool thing about it- it will vanish (magically) when you scan or copy it. So the only thing that will show up are the ink lines. The hardest part right now is many companies that produced non-photo blue pencils and leads have stopped. It seems that with so many artists going digital there isn’t the market for them anymore. I’m bouncing between my old supply and Blackwing pencils that still are making them. They are a bit softer than what I’ve used in the past, but I will adjust.

Well, I’ve got about 26 more days to go. I hope I can last that long without falling too far behind. I’ll post more as I have time.