For the past several years, I’ve been a fan of the #Inktober drawing online drawing event. Artist Jake Parker started Inktober in 2009 to improve both his inking skills and his drawing habits. When I saw the Inktober 2018 work of one of my middle grade writing friends, Brooks Benjamin, I was inspired to start drawing again after a long layoff. I knew that participating in Inktober would stretch my ability and artistic confidence. I’d have to do a drawing in ink (yikes!) and do it every single day for 31 days (All-caps YIKES!).
The Inktober rules are simple:
1) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).
2) Post it
3) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2019
4) Repeat
My added rule was also simple: Use my Uni-ball black ink pen, which is the #1 favorite writing tool in the Mike Hays arsenal.
The conclusion is that I found out several things about myself.
- I’d forgotten how much I enjoy drawing.
- I could draw every day.
- I could draw confident lines. I like to draw to tell a story.
- I learned to use references, models, and tools.
- I surprised myself over and over again.
Here’s my Inktober 2019 Week One posts #1-7. Check back for the rest of the 31 drawings in future posts. One thing I’m sure of after going through this process for the first time, I want to keep drawing and learning with the ultimate goal to someday tell stories through pictures.
