It’s that time of year again, and once more I entered the maelstrom of feverish scribbling that is Inktober. Here are the first fifteen of my daily drawings (Days 16-31 to follow). If you’ve not heard of Inktober before, it’s a social media challenge, where participants create and post online a drawing made in ink (of whatever kind), one a day throughout the month of October, using the hashtags “Inktober” and “Inktober2019”. Artists are free to draw whatever they like, but so

Here’s the final batch of drawings I made for Inktober this year. What a month it was! With a pending house move and deadlines to contend with, October proved a pretty hectic month all around. I wasn’t sure it was wise to attempt another daily drawing activity like #Inktober straight on the back of the September House of Illustration challenge, but pen and ink is my favourite medium, how could I not? I love the challenge,  even though time was limited and I didn’t have chance

… Or rather 10 days, to finish off the month-long daily-ink-drawing exercise that ran through October. I’ve really enjoyed Inktober this year, though at times it has been a rather big distraction! Here are my last installment of drawings. I’ve learned a lot from this exercise this year, it’s really given me a chance to grapple with the capabilities of my materials – though it’s a shame I didn’t try line & wash, or do more with brush pens (reminder- need to buy more Kuretak

This Week 3 of Inktober has been odd, I’ve actually had a fair bit of work to get on with, but amidst the clamour of deadlines Inktober had the loudest voice, gradually things began to become more and more elaborate! All the drawings over the third week were created in a Pilot Hi-Tec fineoint, either 0.4 or 0.5, I tried as far as possible to follow the optional prompts….. Things were getting very labour-intensive by the end of this week, I actually have commissioned work to g

So we’re at the end of the second week of Inktober, in what has been a rather surprisingly eventful week for me (but that’s another subject!). Here’s a summary of the last seven days of my pen drawings. They’re mostly drawn in finepoint Pilot pens, but a few are drawn using the Kuretake brush pens I brought back from Japan at the beginning of this year (some of which are about to run out!). Some of these are inspired by the prompt words, others just the flow of what happens o

October brings us to the social media drawing challenge “Inktober”. I don’t usually go for Twitter/Instagram keyword challenges, but as pen & ink is at the core of what I do I joined in Inktober last year and found it a really interesting exercise. The rules are simple – draw and post an  inked drawing to social media every day throughout October (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever else you use), including the hashtags #Inktober and #Inktober2017. There’s a list of opt

If you’ve been following me on Instagram (which I’m slowly comprehending) and Twitter, you might have seen some of the (mostly) daily drawings I’ve been posting recently. I’ve avoided multi-posting to the blog or on Facebook on a daily basis, I think the continuous nature of Twitter and Instagram is better suited to daily sketch exercises, but in case you missed them, here’s a catch-up of a few recent scribblings. Sketchbooks are an intrinsic part of my work, both for practi

Here’s a few more pocket sketchbook scribbles from my recent trip back to Tokyo. It’s always great to be in Japan, I never get tired of the country or lose the desire to go back, no matter how long I’m separated from it, even if, like this time, the entire trip was spent in the Tokyo metropolis. But in fact it’s the urban city that really sparked my interest when I first went, and still holds my biggest fascination even now, uptown or downtown, the people, architecture, and l

Here’s some train journey portraits from our recent trip back to Japan.. I’ve been a bit slow to share these sketches, mainly because there’s been so much going on since our return, work, personal and of course on the world front. What a month it’s turning out to be! But anyway, here’s what I got up to in my little pocket sketchbook, better late than never! It was only a two week trip, and I was down with a very bad cold for most of it, but I was on the Denentoshi line into T

Into the Woods. Day 31 of #Inktober2016. It’s the last day of Inktober, so here is my final offering. Happy Halloween everyone! #Inktober #sketchbook #seasonal #halloween #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Maritime Mansion. Day 30 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Housing Development. Day 29 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Ogre. Day 27 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Split Ends. Day 26 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Birds and Trees. Day 25 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Aide-de-Cramp. Day 24 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Tangled Relationship. Day 23 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Tank Bike. Day 22 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Ponderer. Day 21 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016

Round the Neighbourhood. Day 20 of #Inktober2016. #Inktober #sketchbook #sketch #penandink #Inktober2016