My first InkTober

This is my first time participating in the InkTober challenge. Last year I shied away from it because I am not good at inking, or ink work. This year I decided to embrace the challenge for what it is, an opportunity to practice, create healthy drawing habits and improve my skills.

If you don't know what it is, InkTober is a challenge created by artist Jake Parker, where artists from all around the world create a daily ink drawing during the month of October. The drawings have to be done in ink; pencil is allow for the under drawing. Post it online and hashtag it #inktober or #inktober2016.  If you need prompts, there is a prompt list for each day. I am not using it yet, but I might.

So in the month of October you might see some of my messy drawings, but hopefully at the end there will be some good pieces that will show improvement. I am not planning of do this challenge completely blind, without researching and study a bit. That is why I will be using some books to get some advice and techniques about drawing with ink.

Join me and other artist this month to create and to grow as artist and creative people.

What other challenges do you know of? Which ones have you been part of?

So far I know of 29faces challenge by Ayala Art and Inktober.

Finally, 13 is here!!!

Here is face #13 "Bold" for the 29 faces challenge.

 She went through many changes for the last 3 days ( 1 hour each day), and I wish I would have been able to make her eyelashes better, and that my glitter paint were in a better condition, even though I just opened it for this project. Another thing to my liking is that some of the paper shows and compliment the piece very nicely. 

In a way this is a good study for painting drapery, something I really need to practice. 

Face 9/29 faces

Here is a 10 minutes sketch in graphite pencil for my face #9 of the 29 Faces challenge. Again, I prepared the paper with Acrylic ground for pastel from Golden.

I am thinking about exploring drawing facial hair more in depth.

Playing with acrylic grounds and mediums

Here are my faces #7 and #8. I fell behind and now I am trying to catch up. Still experimenting with my supplies.

Face #7 was done in acrylics over a red canvas fabric treated with clear gesso. I used Liquitex Slow-Dri Blending gel. I like how it helps me blend better, but I am still playing with the medium/paint ratio. I have some tackiness due to too much medium.

In the case of #8 I used acrylic grounds for pastel by Golden. It can be use with any drawing media plus they say also acrylics and oil. I did found difficult and almost impossible to erase the graphite from this, however it provided a nice texture to the smooth paper I have there.

"Prayer": face 6 of 29 faces challenge

Here is my face #6, titled "Prayer". I prepared the paper with two thin coats of clear gesso. I was going to do it in color but then decided to go for a grey monochromatic color scheme. I think I worked great because the hearts from the paper stand out a bit and direct the eye to her. Plus the blueish undertone of the paint symbolized the "feeling blue" sentiment. When I feel blue I pray and then I am back to color.

Hands are always a challenge for me, and at first I wasn't sure to add it or not, but it was asking for it. It didn't feel finish nor did it conveyed the emotion and story I wanted. So I decided to add it. Not the best hand, but it does help to make the picture complete.

Face 2 for 29 faces on september challenge

This face is not finished yet. I was playing on one of my journals, with black gesso and my prismacolor pencil. When I started it, I had no idea of what type of face was going to apper but here she is.

Finding inspiration and motivation to be creative

Hello everyone. Have it has happen to you that you have no motivation or inspiration to craft and do art? I has had happen to me, and lots of times. So I have look for different ways to keep myself motivated; for example taking classes of my interest over the web, search YouTube for inspirational videos, re-visit my previous creations and looking for challenges where I can find motivation and inspiration.

Now, I now that taking classes require some investment (time and money wise) that cannot be afford all the time, at least I can't. That leaves me with the other options, which are free! This past few weeks have been weird for me; I kind of want to do something crafty and artistic but had no motivation or inspiration at all. Then I saw the 29 facces on September challenge on Ayala Art, Mixed Media Paintings, ACEOS  blog and saw the light at the end of the tunnel ;).

The great thing about this kind of challenge is that other people are with you on it, it cost you no money and you can invest the time you want/can to. Also, they are great sources of inspiration and motivation, as well as, a great way to keep you practicing and improving your skills.

So here I am, with my first face for the 29 faces challenge; I know I'm 4 days "behind" schedule but it doesn't worries me. Why? Because I can create more than one face a day, they don't have to be a master piece or even a completed project. For me any face doodling counts as I am practicing techniques and improving my skills.

Here is a sketch I made in my handmade pocket sketch book, just for the fun of it and to practice some pencil blending using Gamsol (I'm new at it ;)).

So go ahead and find your source of inspiration and motivation, whether it is a class, challenge or video; don't stop yourself, hop on the adventure and  have fun.