Prompt List
Day 1 - Fish
Day 2 - Wisp
Day 3 - Bulky
Day 4 - Radio
Day 5 - Blade
Day 6 - Rodent
Day 4 - Prey (Primal Prompt)
Day 7 - Fancy
Day 8 - Teeth
Day 9 - Throw
Day 10 - Hope
Day 11 - Disgusting
Day 11 - Disease (Primal Prompt)
Day 12 - Slippery
Day 13 - Dune
Day 14 - Armour
Day 15 - Outpost
Day 16 - Rocket
Day 17 - Storm
Day 18 - Trap
Day 18 - Loss (Primal Prompt)
Day 19 - Dizzy
Day 20 - Coral
Day 21 - Sleep
Day 22 - Chef
Day 23 - RIP
Day 24 - Dig
Day 25 - Buddy
Day 25 - Hunter (Primal Prompt)
Day 26 - Hide
Day 27 - Music
Day 28 - Float
Day 29 - Shoes
Day 30 - Ominous
Day 31 - Crawl
Week 1
Day 1 - Fish.
I was looking to do something a little more surreal,
I wanted to experiment more also with my inks in a watery wash and do a fully considered piece.
Initially I planned she would have more hair but this made the composition feel a little full on
so instead I done “gill-like” hair along with her fins looking more like a skirt.
I did consider drawing a koi from the start but thought it be more intricate if my mermaid were to be swimming with the koi and also taken on a koi like pattern herself.
Koi Fish.
In the Instagram post, I did add in a cropped version of one of the Koi fish.
Although I liked my attempt to build a narrative to my fish piece. I am still quite drawn to the simplicity in the details and like this as its own piece as well.
Day 2 - Wisp.
White ink on black card.
Universe in her hair.
I worked with white ink on a black card as I love inverted contrasts
and the way the white ink flows on a dark page
I wanted to go for a ghastly wisp with blocked out eyes and lots of hair.
I naturally was flowing with the hair keeping her body less fussy by giving her a volume skater dress.
I didn’t want too much fuss in the likes of her hair so blocked out big sections but then drew back into them a galaxy so it would appear she was carrying the universe in her hair.
Day 3 - Bulky.
I actually really enjoyed doing this piece.
Originally stuck on what I wanted to do for the “bulky prompt” I went to my first initial thought of my favourite bulky video game character
Which happens to be Barrett Wallace from Final Fantasy 7 - Also one of my most favourite video games of all time.
Along the way documented the progression which I later played about with the inverts and edits.
The look I was getting became more sci-fi and “drafted”
I found I kept working into the layers and washes of the inks I started off very light and subtle built up.
Later I found the process therapeutic as I was drawing in more details with the fine liners and white inks
Day 4 - Radio.
This was a piece I had planned to work on.
I took a very stylist shot of my living room in black and white some time ago with Kyles poster hanging above our book shelf and the sun peaking through the blinds.
I wanted to capture this in inks and also just after doing the Barrett, I was quite eager to get into the grove of ink washes and fine lined details.
The word was prompt was Radio - but I didn’t want to draw a radio but this Radiohead poster from OK Computer instead which felt more personal to my aesthetics and interests.
Day 4 - Prey.
(Primal Edition Prompt)
Genndy Tartakosvksy’s Primal is to be realised on adult-swim on Sundays with brand new episodes. He is also the creator of Dexters Laboratory and Samurai Jack.
Together they have teamed up with Jake Parkers Inktober for a chance to be featured and win prizes with some bonus prompts and encourage some pre-historic illustrations
When the Primal edition prompts were announced, I liked mainly liked the ideas around the additional bonus works, although to enter the idea is to also have a pre-historic theme…
…. I think I will neglect to do this!
When I thought of prey - I thought of bird of prey! - Although I guess technically he is the predator…
Either way I was excited to dig out some more black card and white inks and put together this snowy owl composition.
I think I may have made him way too cute…. but enjoyed the technique.
Day 5 - Blade
When thinking about the prompt of blade I was almost tempted to do “Game of thrones” Arya’s catspaw dagger,
or even the crystal dagger Ashitaka gives to San in “Princess Mononoke. These were more daggers, not really blades
The Lord of the Rings has one of my favourite poems.
“Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crown less again shall be king.”
I done a detailed dappled sketch with fine-line pen of the broken hilt of Narsil.
…and because I kept returning to inverted themes.
I then wanted to finish this narrative off with an Andúril Edition.
As the broken shards of Narsil was reforged into Andúril and given to Aragorn in “The Return of the King”,
shortly after receiving the new blade calls upon on the army of the dead and announces himself as Isildur’s heir. - King of Gondor.
Day 6 - Rodent
Really it was any excuse for me to do a squirrel
They are so loved in my family,
My younger sister used to chase the squirrels on the way home from school and upset when they ran off
My father told her…its because your an “ugly squirrel”
He explained she is the prettiest girl, but that makes for an ugly squirrel.
Since then it forever became one of those family things.
He did try calling her a cute squirrel once…she immediately corrected him she liked being an ugly squirrel.
This piece has got to be dedicated to my younger sister Chloe.
Day 7 - Fancy
Can’t actually think of anything fancier than wedding heels.
Although so pretty and delicate I’m keeping to my own ink washes and gritty styling.
I personally prefer the inversion but it initially came from my pen and ink wash study.
Week 2
Day 8 - Teeth
Initially I was looking at a white snow leopards teeth and blurring out into a black ground.
But the texture marks on the fur made me so overwhelmed.
So I stripped back the concept to a dark wolf instead.
Love how this has turned out,
although when posting on instagram was worried with the size it wouldn’t be apparent what the concept is.
But luckily has turned out quite well.
Done with white Ink brushed onto black card.
Similar to technique to “Wisp” but more detailed with the texture this time around.
Day 9 - Throw
I wanted to do a hand throwing something….and didn’t know what exactly but then thought of stars and “throwing stars” into stardust.
I wanted to included a few more galaxy themes to the black and white.
Earlier I had wisp have a universe in her hair, and later on know we have things like “rocket” coming up, so wanted to tie in a nice narrative to the pieces :)
Day 10 - Hope
Hope turned into an incredibly personal post, as I’m expecting in 5 weeks from the day posted.I wanted to represent the most hopeful thing I have in my life, reflecting also on the current times.
I’m also working on blog post for the lead up to her birth and it was a great time to announce the first one in my pregnancy series on “slice of life” - “Pregnancy in a pandemic”
Insta post: Her timing is everything too me, she gives me so much hope for better things, and to make sure I do better things for her in our future. Especially at a time where there is so much uncertainty, and all the things going on in the world right now. A lot of this is temporary and I believe there is better days coming.
I kept the style very simplistic and a little abstract, wanted to focus on a a stylise silhouette and line work, Once I had sketched this I did digitised and touch up the curves slightly to make it clearer digitally as I wanted to achieve the cleanest look.
Day 11 - Disgusting
I actually represented a more political view, considering the global state of politics at the moment, alongside the elections and pandemic.
This is something I find disgusting as so many are in tensions and anxieties with such polarised views.
It makes me quite anxious this year and a little sad it feels extreme at times.
So I have a sad Statue of Liberty with the the lyric from “sad statue” by the band “system of a down”
“You and me will all go down in history,
with a sad statue of liberty,
and a generation that didn’t agree.”
Although this post also being over mental health awareness weekend felt quite moving.
I had yesterdays post “Hope” where it felt all quite personal what I wanted to represent.
Todays post, that I wanted to have a deeper meaning, and also the primal post in the same day which was “Disease”
So a weekend that felt quite overcharged with a depth of meaning.
Day 11 - Disease.
(Primal Edition Prompt)
I actually really enjoyed this one, despite the subject being a little dark, I had themed it around more appropriately to Halloween and a “Plague” doctor theme, with a cuter gothic lolita woman styling.
This is with fine liners and pro-marker ink pens. I kept it a little more comic booked style in the shading.
Day 12 - Slippery
A Slippery Slope which is one of the books in the Series of Unfortunate events I wanted to represent the fallacy
I paid a homage to the original illustration in the book but took on more of my own style you would see similar to “Rodent” or “Disgusting”
“This logical fallacy occurs when someone argues, without providing adequate evidence,
That a certain action or proposition will lead to an undesirable outcome via
a series of events.”
I actually loved this series growing up, and the Netflix release not too long ago gives me all the nostalgia,
So for me this is just an illustration to enjoy the subject theme on,
I achieved it all with different thickness ink pens and varied the textures for the shading.
Day 13 - Dune
“Journey” which is a video game that I really enjoyed the visuals of in the past has a lot of these sweeping dunes. That also appear windy as the character runs through the desert in a sweeping cape trailing behind them and grows through-out the duration of the game.
The game itself is quite graphically artistes and so visually pretty.
Was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of dunes, and also something I was super excited to capture the movements to the sand and wind.
I used black and white ink washes, which was built up and in layers over lapping each other to get the grainy textures.
Day 14 - Armour.
World of Warcraft
Sylvanas Windrunner
I was quite eager to fit in “World of Warcraft” themed content as soon as I spotted the prompt Armour,
I was excited to select one of my favourite characters in the series for her in-depth lore.
Being undead also make it really cool for October and on theme with Halloween and my game selection tastes.
However…. I guess if we are being fussy she doesn’t actually have a lot of armour…
But does have an awesome character design…. a cape…and a bow!
So what’s not to love here!
I done a pen and ink wash, I could have kept layering and working into this but got the the point I needed to put it away to move onto the next prompt.
So I considered this done otherwise I would have kept inking in details and drawing into with the white and black fine liners.
Week 3
Day 15 - Outpost.
A fine liner study of Junon from Final Fantasy 7 again,
I was actually so stuck on outpost.
As when I look back at this Inktober I did want to have a consistency things that where of interest to myself,
My first year participating I wanted the freedom to do the kinds of subjects I like.
Typically I think of outposts as either military, or something that’s sci-fi and a little more imaginative.
I choose Junon, thought it tie in well later with “Rocket” for the massive cannon that’s attached to the village/base.
Generally fits the vibe i’m going for
Day 16 - Rocket.
I’ve probably done this rocket a little too cute.
I wanted something quite clean and graphic, I was considering working this on illustrator as a vector.
However I got stuck into the sketch and drawing back into the piece with white ink pens.
Something I may return to at a later date and play about with some colour!
I like this piece above some others for the simplicity of it, and that it was speedier than some of the others I had lined up this week!
Day 17 - Storm.
When I hear the word “Storm” I often think of the “Song of Storms”
The Legend of Zelda Games are another favourite of mine.
(Yes, Im realising I’m probably playing way too many videos game!)
Ocarina of Time - I’ve played over millions of times since I have been a tiny child, its very nostalgic for me.
I love these fantasy stories of action/adventure!
When I was a kid I used to dress up as Link a lot and parade all over outdoors pretending to play the song on rainy days - like I could harness a storm :D!
Day 18 - Trap.
During the Pandemic I got quite hooked to the Netflix series “Dark”
In fact I started to watch over it a second time.
Time traveller stories always get me and the whole trying to figure out the mystery in the narrative!
I had subconsciously remembered the Penrose triangle and the way it interlocks and is optically intertwined like a trap. ”The beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning”
Makes me reflect existence, In a sense a “Trap” but not necessarily feeling “trapped, just feels inevitable.
Day 18 - Loss.
(Primal Edition Prompt)
Starting to think I should have themed my Inktober around Video games!
This is the Scythian and the Gogolithic Mass from Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery Indie game!
This is a really short game, of a character that wanted to go on an adventure and wakes up a Gogolithic Mass who then she has to vanquish.
Collecting Trigon pieces through Lunar Phases and defeating other enemies.
Eventually to then return to the Mountain to have a showdown with this Gogolithic Mass.
Who is defeated but at cost of the hero who sacrifices herself.
Its bittersweet to both finish and win the game but also die for the fact you released a monster in the first place!
This game has such an mood, inclusive of even an aesthetic soundtrack from Jim Guthrie
Day 19 - Dizzy.
This one could have used to more care, but actually I just wanted to draw some lines that made me feel like a dizzy optical illusion.
Without sounding to clique there is a dizziness in kisses so wanted to capture a couple getting lost into this dizzy texture in their kisses.
Its a little rushed and I wanted to give “Coral” more dedication so I kind of let this piece down a little.
I don’t mind it but not feeling personally my best out of what I’ve worked on last 19/20 days.
Day 20 - Coral.
I wanted to explore as much detail and textures in a small space, and pick up that busy diversity of form that coral has In its reefs.
Considering coral can be so colourful, i’m using black and whites this Inktober its important for me I a represent the patterns in the coral as I will be lacking the vibrancy but want to represent the biodiversity that is still thriving.
I also watched the most recent David Attenenbough Documentary recently who speaks about a Snow White coral.
This is “bleaching coral” and although at a glance looked beautiful Is actually a reefs cry for help we need to look after our planet.
I hope the coral can still thrive in the future and we need to make adjustments to our ways or these beautiful things will disappear and effect the bio-diversity of our sea’s.
Day 21 - Sleep.
Ironically since becoming pregnant, even in the first weeks I probably only had the odd day I slept through he night, Im kind of used to it now.
I really do wake up multiple times and can’t always drift back off.
Sleep has been so broken for months and realise the irony I will have less when my little human arrives :D!
For the meantime I did find a tranquility doing this peace, wanted that dreamy flow.
She is dreaming between stars and the sea.
I relaxed into doing my ink washes and bleeds that can flow with that.
I actually really like how it came out.
Thinking of returning to this idea and working an even bigger composition I can keep layering up over time and adding more detail too.
Week 4
Day 22 - Chef.
For this prompt I kept it really simple, Ive realised I missed an opportunity to do a butcher or something a little more Halloween themed, but actually my thought behind this is I needed a day to work on other stuff and also I did want to include another simplistic styled illustrations like what I had done for day 10 prompt “Hope”
Day 23 - RIP.
I was really looking to do a grim reaper, but once the day had arrived I changed this to Ryuk from Death Note at the last minute.
I had been binging this anime once again as I’ve not seen it in a couple of years, given the month in the mood I decided to re-watch the series.
Ryuk is like a grim reaper of sorts as he is a Shinigami, a god of death.
I worked a mix of Black and White Inks and a brush with some washed grounds,
I then drew into the artwork adding details with fine liners.
Day 24 - Dig.
When I thought of dig my mind went into mining.
I was considering the lanterns and moths and mining in a dark cave with a glowing light.
I probably came away from actual digging but still captured a mood, and added a pick axe into the composition for good measure!
Day 25 - Buddy.
I have on/off been playing another video game “Persona 5”
I really enjoy this game and however i’m addicted to trying to complete things in games before moving on or finishing things.
I was trying to collect all the persona’s which is why I’m close to finishing the game…but havent yet!
So extremely close to actually finishing.
In the game are too sisters that I thought are good of the buddies prompt and have a bit of a dark theme to them perfect for October!
Day 25 - Hunter.
(Primal Edition Prompt)
Whilst on Buddies… I returned back to the hunter class and excited again to pinch a bonus prompt.
I have done a sketch on Alleria Windrunner - sister to my Day 14 Prompt “Armour”
When I look back at this whole month be it for style, techniques or themes.
I wanted loose links to each illustrations so the whole body can belong together.
Its important to me I had some details and line focused piece and feel this is quite similar to things like “outpost” and “bulky” prompts.
Day 26 - Hide.
This was a little made up from my head but its a concept where your own shadow is looking out to protect you and hide yourself from a reality.
Its like an idea that the person isn’t handling what every is going on too well, ie in this case exterior things coming out her from literally no where or other dimensions.
Trying to hide oneself in a more immature way, whilst unknowinly falling back into her own security she isn’t being aware of but is saving her from these demons but is a part of her she may not even recognise is protecting her.
I guess its a little deep, also on a personal level I don’t have proper nightmares and haven’t for years but instead when I dream I feel I make scenarios where I blend and blur my spaces to travel through if I wanted to avoid something, ie I move through reflective spaces, like a pool of water and end up from one place to another….just by sinking into the objects and morphing some place else :’D!
so what i’m showing here is loosely on this idea that you can move through your own shadow to avoid something unpleasant.
Day 27 - Music.
This is another I kind of made up from the top of my head,
Its not fussy and literally is headphones on this lady, I wanted to do a piece similar to Day 21 “Sleep”
So instead of the black hair that was ink washed I worked on white hair.
Additionally a lot of my characters have a dreamy vibe this month, and will have eyes closed, with the exception of something like Buddy.
The couple that don’t have eyes closed also will instead have blocked out eyes this was just a little detail I wanted to keep through the body of work the whole month.
But when I arrived to something like buddy this didn’t work as I realised the eyes was a big part of the look.
But something here is just simple and non fussed.
Day 28 - Float.
I’m a Grimes fan, quite enjoy her new album and one of the songs music videos features a lot of floating chiffon so i’ve taken a pose/ still from here where she is being strange with her hands, to be honest this didn’t turn out how I hoped and did want to start over but instead I doodled some lines that felt floaty to me.
This piece has had a strangely good response but I personally don’t really like it!
The is couple pieces in the collection I do feel like I could have scarped and started over but I wanted to keep the whole process organic and also face my work, and that includes the “mistakes pieces”
Day 29 - Shoes.
I actually just sketched my own Red or Dead ankle boots, I have so many pairs from this brand I have collected over the years!
They are simply the most comfortable boots I can wear anywhere with a wooden cobbled hell and usually made from leathers.
They really last me a long time too! so this has been signature parts to my wardrobe.
I unfortunately trot about in these booties that I have had work colleagues comment that they know i’m coming through the rhythmic sounds of my walking on the wooden floors of the office!
Day 30 - Ominous.
Im unsure if I have understood the true meaning of Ominous,
I loosely thought it was “god-like” something of power or control over something else, maybe a little more authoritative? or oppressive?
Not necessarily meaning to be but just is in a hierarchy sense.
But I think what it actually means maybe darker? and read an example its more like something bad that’s going to happen.
Ie dark cloud before a thunder storm
I think this can still loosely fit as Ive drawn the Forest Spirit/Nightwalker
This is from the animated Ghibli movie - Princess Mononoke.
A god like creature, but also turns destructive when it looses its head and destroys life all around it.
The spirit itself can control life and death the scene itself when it goes darker feels very Ominous.
So this felt fitting even though I can quite pin point what exactly it is I would be describing here.
This however is one of my favourite of the month! I love the concept of the creature. and love how I have captured the glow through white inks on black paper with the shading and contrast giving a otherworldly feel.
Day 31 - Crawl.
My intention for this one was to find the a past sketch I had already done of Battle Angel Alita many years ago and compare it to todays with a combination of my own stylistic lines.
I haven’t been able to locate the original to do this practice, however my mind went visually to this broken cyber angel in crawlingly in the trash yards. Loosely looks like the comic sketch but added the formation of lines and bolder blocked out shadows that is seen in few of my other illustrations to tie this into the style I have weaved throughout the month.
Coming 2021…. Considering doing Inktober 52!
This would mean next year I would be working on prompts on a weekly basis.
Keep an eye out, I enjoyed this challenge and think it be great to do the year version
but still deciding depending on my other commitments!
For commission enquiries please feel free to email me at claradesign@outlook.com