Monthly Archives: October 2024

Dispatch x005: More Dust Cleaning: Reviewing My Unfinished INKTOBER Process and Joe Kubert Course

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Out all the project I never finished, Inktober 2016 has to be my favorite.

Inktober is a creative event where artists illustrate daily prompts using ink mediums during the month of October. It’s a wonderful but demanding experience. For creators sharing their work online for the first time, it brings more viewers to the platform they use to post them. And it’s a great way to develop consistent work habits and dealing with deadline. This celebrated project was founded by artist Jake Parker.

In 2016, Jake Parker, collaborated with art supply subscription company, ArtSnacks, to make an art package dedicated to the event. I participated that year.

I had my concept planned out. I was so thrilled to begin I started a week early. I didn’t think I’ll make thirty one illustrations within a month. But I knew a lot would be done.

I was wrong.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the time needed on each illustration. To successfully balance Inktober, illustrations should lean towards simple. Two hours of work per drawing would’ve worked.

Below are four entries into Inktober 2016. Details about each artwork will be written in a later dispatch.

Another project I liked but not as much was The Joe Kubert Correspondence Course.

The teaching material was well constructed and very valuable, but not as beginner friendly as I hoped. The course comes with standard art supplies, an 11″ x 18″ course book, 5 comic board papers to do each homework assignment, and a large mailing envelop with cardboard support to help you mail in the assignment. The five courses gives you tips and advice to help you tackle each homework assignment and the wait time is usually 3 weeks in-between mailing the critique and redelivering it to you.

The Joe Kubert Course requires long term sessions to fully finish each coursework. I can sketch out ideas throughout my day, but I would need to sit at my drawing desk to reproduce the finish product on Bristol board paper.

Buying the course out of order may be the reason I’ve not enjoyed it as much. Penciling was the correct way to start instead of Story Graphics.

Below are work samples from the Joe Kubert Correspondence Course. And also, I’ll be doing later dispatches on what I have completed.

This is homework assignment 2 of the Joe Kubert Correspondence Course

These are the returned critiques from that assignment.

The difference in these two projects and Project SPIRIT is pre-establishment. These are a course and an event that had a predetermined set of steps to fulfill. I took liberties with INKTOBER deciding on drawing original characters and trademark characters that inspired their creation. Inktober typically provides single, daily word prompts for each day of October to draw.

Project SPIRIT is a dream concept I’m bringing to life. There are dozens of ways to do so, even if I focus on making it a comic book series.

It’s obvious what I should focus on first. Unless I find a simpler project with an easier end goal.

Dispatch x004: To be One with the Spirits, in Truth, and with Failure

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These concepts were illustrated during the hype of my interest in Shaman King. I regret not dating these notes and drawings, but I’m glad I kept them.

Revisiting old art is good therapy.

The first few drawings were just an interpretation of my character in the Shaman King universe.

These are the only notes I wrote to plan out an original story. Character naming and draft writing point on make coherent an awkward documentary-style dream. I not written enough to go from; the story is fresh enough in my mind that the visuals reminded me of where I wanted the story to be about.

The most recent illustration I worked on got lost. What’s pictured above is the last illustrations I’ve done based on the three main characters. I got skin tone Copic markers and experimented with them. They may not be strong colors, but they mix extremely well.

I have other good drawings to share from the years I drew a lot. It feels odd relying on decade-old illustrations as material to share. But they’re the best options at this point. Too much time slipped away from these ideas and today. I know how stories work thanks to what I’ve learned over the years, but the experience of telling stories never developed. That was lost in the years I didn’t draw.

I see my old artwork as therapy because it reminds me of a slower point in my life. I was curious and I had time to enjoy my curiosity. But it gives me hope that my art is even greater now than in the past. I have a greater understanding of storytelling. I’m far more inclined to research and plan. I know how to think about art beyond the pure enjoyment or just itching my curiosity. The therapy also comes with knowing greater works lie ahead.

Where once time was the only barrier, effort takes its place.