I started off great. Then got sick. So here are the Inktober drawings I have done so far. Today I plan to pencil the ones I missed and then ink today’s. I will go back and ink the ones I missed as I have time. It was just a cold, but it was the kind where you sleep for 12 hours a day. I think you can guess when I started feeling shitty.

My theme this year is robots exploring. The first one, above, is a robot scratching a tortoise’s neck. This was all done with my Carbon Platinum fountain pen and Pilot “fine brush” pen. It is almost dead, so I had to go grab some more. Prompt was Ring. So obviously that came out in the robot.

The next was done using the Carbon Platinum pen and my Speedball 102 dipped in Carbon Platinum ink. I love that nib. So scratchy. The prompt was Mindless. I forgot how tiny that pen could draw so some of the details in the sample bubbles on its back might be lost. Oh well. That kind of practice is what Inktober is for! I also tried to do a Watterson-style tree (Calvin and Hobbes), but didn’t have a comic next to me, so I didn’t quite nail it. I will have to bring my book out to where I am drawing.

Day three was the Speedball 102 in the Carbon Platinum ink and the Pilot fine brush pen. Prompt was Bait. So of course I had to go the mode of the angler fish. And look at that poor pathetic robot. This is one of the most useless robots I have drawn. Doesn’t even have it’s own power for wheels. Has to drag itself along the ground. What is the point of that? This was a really fun one. Took like 2 hours. 

Day four was almost all Speedball 102. I was getting pretty tired (sick setting in) and it was set in snow so I couldn’t think of anything else to put in the background. Despite the plainness of the robot, I did think it through. It’s a big ole freezer. The hose freezes the specimen by pumping out freezing air. Then the flow reverses and it sucks the specimen back in. I am pretty sure this one will break when that happens. Prompt was Freeze.

Day five was again mostly 102. Getting sicker. Couldn’t think. The background is hills and grass. But if you can make it out, there are other robots in the grass. And part of this robot or another robot in the very foreground. What happened to these intrepid explorers?! This one is trying to repair himself by cramming dirt in its wounded head, but I don’t think its going to work… Prompt was Build.

Day six was mostly 102. These guys are in the desert and one of them is too big to fit between the rocks. The prompt was Husky. I almost did one with the dog, but decided not to. Too obvious, perhaps? Look at that little guy. Just wants to help.

Day seven was 102 and the new Pilot pen. Prompt is enchanted. I find it hilarious that this one is enchanted by its own arm. I mean, its really enchanted by what is happening in the tube its holding up over its Bunsen burner arm, but it still tickles me. I was also looking at the Etherington Brothers “How to Think When You Draw” for some of the pieces of this.

I will post another batch when I have seven more to discuss. I am thinking I will do with these what I did in 2017: go through them as a whole after I am done, write little flash fiction descriptions, and gather them in a book. Does that interest you?