Where Creativity Takes Wing
Here are the last six drawings I did for InkTober. I’m rather proud of a couple of them, less proud of others, but good or bad, here they all are. One was my monthly contribution to the company newsletter, but it’s done in October so it counts!
We’re in the homestretch for Inktober, Drawloween, or your October art challenge of choice! I’m continuing to try and push myself a bit, playing with different styles and media. It’s fun yet sometimes frustrating. I don’t entirely like all the pieces I did this week but I’m sharing them anyway because that’s the point!
Here we are at the end of InkTober, Week 3. I am still thinking about a webcomic so I have some prep art for that. I’m working out the characters, logo, title, that sort of thing. If I do the comic I’ll be sure and post links here! This week I did a mix of big and small stuff, some fairly easy, other stuff that I tried to make a statement with.
This week I did more with analogue art, that is, actual pens. Nothing fancy, though I pulled out an old calligraphy marker of mine and had some fun with that. I’m eagerly anticipating a new Pentel brush pen, which I found out about when I looked up the actual origin of InkTober. It’s pretty interesting really. Next week if I like the pen I’ll link to it.
I am still not really doing anything particularly serious, though I’m thinking about doing a webcomic about the antics of my insane kittens. I’ve been getting out of the habit of doing art so I’m trying to recapture the fun and playful spirit of it.
Anyway, here goes!
It’s time for InkTober again! I’ve been slacking a bit in my art so I’m trying to do one piece per day. Some of these are basically one step up from a color sketch but I hope they are interesting to look at.
Happy InkTober! May all your dreams of pumpkin spice and spooky, fun thrills come true.
Here is my second series of arty photographs.
I am featuring aloe flowers, matcha bowl, and an oleander bush. I’m trying to catch a bit of that impermanent, Wabi aesthetic here along with just a touch of drama. No cat to photobomb my efforts this time. He doesn’t go outside!
I have been seeking new and different ways to find peace and serenity. The inside of my head feels like a jumbled mess and at times creativity is lacking. So I figured that I’d experiment with photography and do a series of still lives, all evocative of tranquility in some way. I’m having a mini-obsession with chado so I’ll probably include a lot of that imagery as well.
In this first group of images, I have a cluster of wildflowers growing out of a crack in the pavement, some new tea things, and my “lucky bamboo” plant hanging out in my mini-atrium. Finally, my old boy Shinji decided to feature himself in the photo shoot. The only time he likes his picture taken is when I’m trying to make a delicate shot of something else. Oh well. Viva la Meezer!
My spirit has been riding in this body for forty years now – I was born forty years ago next June but I would have had brain cells and such by this time, forty years ago, even though I hadn’t yet tried the outside air.
It hit me hard today. As I was reading an article about craft traditions that are now practiced by a bare few, I realized that it’s my turn to bring the things that I value into the future. I want a college student twenty years from now to fall in love with Sumi-e, or to feel the touch of washi paper, or see a real indigo dyed piece of cloth, or paint with oils, or know how nice it is to write a letter with a real pen.
It’s not a burden to bear alone, thank goodness, but I can do a great service to the future by adding my interest and support to the traditions I want to see continue. So can you, if you want to. Every one of us who loves something and shows it, helps it stay in the world and not be forgotten. Maybe for you it’s your grandmother’s sticky bread that nobody else knows how to make just right, or a breed of dog that’s rare and misunderstood. Maybe it’s something else.
So I’ll keep baking my own sourdough that never knew the touch of a stand mixer. I’ll practice my ink painting. I’ll keep shifting my own gears and cooking on a gas flame. I’ll keep learning about oil painting. Sometime, I’ll save up and buy an iron tea kettle made lovingly by hand. When I can, I’ll buy real washi paper from Japan, not an imitation, and make sure to get it from one of the places that still uses the old methods. The money used to buy those things will help crafters and tradesmen keep the lights on just a bit longer.
It doesn’t take a huge effort, it doesn’t have to become some kind of holy cause. I accept this burden, which isn’t so heavy after all, this torch, to keep and guard and carry so that someone can take it from me in the future.
The painting here is my first full size oil painting. I see a lot of issues with it, as with any first effort, however there were also some of the fabled happy accidents and I learned from it. The sumi-e up in the header is another thing I’ve picked up again, my first painting in that medium in quite some time. I promise I’ll get better!
I had fun this year, and I think I learned a lot. I tried to do things that I hadn’t done quite as much and that helped me. There was a truly terrible attempt at a seascape that I didn’t even bother finishing or posting, but otherwise I was pleased.
This week I did quite a few drawings, and more of them will be here in a day or two. I also started oil painting and completed a couple of tiny test canvases. One was four inches by six, the other four by eight. I included a picture of the two of them together so you can get an idea of how small they are. Soon I’ll be moving up to a much larger canvas (probably 18 by 24 or so) but these were a fun way to get my feet wet and find out what it was like to work with the materials.
So far I love it, by the way. The way the paint smells and feels, the brushes, the long working time, it’s all great. I’m happy to have the opportunity to do this at long last. It was one very big item on my bucket list. If anyone has interest, I’ll write an article about the best way to find halfway decent painting supplies without paying a huge amount of money.
I learned a lot about what not to do with a palette knife here!
Here, to be random, is a picture of Nezumi sleeping with her paw over her eyes. “Moms, turn the light off, wouldja?”
Mindflight 
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