03 October 2016

Inktober 2016 - Day 2: NOISY

I'm already getting behind on my Inktober entries!  I finished my Day 2 drawing early in the morning on the 3rd (I did start it on the 2nd, it just took me longer than I thought to finish) and here I am just beginning to compose its blog post when it's almost October 4th (O_O!  My ArtSnacks October box arrived today, too, so in order to get back on track with Inktober while allowing time to write an unboxing post, I'm going to skip Day 3.  If I find myself with extra time later this month, I'll do it then.  For now, though, let's talk about Inktober 2016 Day 2!  The theme was "NOISY".

It was easy to come up with an idea for NOISY.  The first thing that popped into my head was our housecat, Kiba, who loves to make a racket when he's hungry, lonely, or just wild & crazy.  He's a black Manx so he's not only vocally appropriate to the theme, he's visually perfect for inking, and furthermore brings to mind this month's big holiday: Halloween.


I'm quite proud of how easily I drew Kiba himself.  I didn't even look at him; I was able to draw fairly true-to-life from memory :D  The meow-bubble came along without many hiccups but it took a really long time to fill in the amount of space I wanted to.  My intent was to get across just how NOISY Kiba can be!  All the cat-talk was based specifically on Kiba's vocalizations, not just generically chosen cat noises.

I started with the Copic Multiliner to trace all the thinner, smaller words (I used the Kuretake ZIG brush pen for the few Japanese mews).  Next I used the Kuretake ZIG nib pen and sumi ink to work over the medium-sized vocalizations and to ink Kiba's outline.  Then I switched to the Princeton Kolinsky brush to fill in the really big letters and Kiba's body.  After that, I picked up the brush pen one more time to fill in the medium-large mewling.


I didn't mention it in my first Inktober post but on top of the mechanical pencil, I've also been using an eraser to clean up the pencil lines after all the inking is done.  As with the pencil I'm using, even though it's not from the Inktober box, it still matches the ArtSnacks theme because I received it in a previous monthly box :3  So, after I cleaned up my Noisy Kiba drawing, I finished it off with a few small detail lines and my signature, the date, and a title using the Multiliner.


Before I forget, I want to voice my satisfaction with the paper in the Inktober Denik sketchbook.  I was worried that the wet sumi ink would bleed through since I always apply it rather thickly to ensure an even look but I've had no such issues!  It doesn't even show through on the back of the page, much less leave marks on the succeeding leaf.  I can't say whether other inks or wetter media would fare as well (watercolor may not bleed through, but I have a feeling it would wrinkle the page something awful) but for now it doesn't matter since the only things I'm using in this sketchbook have already been tried and shown themselves up to the Inktober task.


How are you doing at Inktober this year?  Right on schedule?  Or falling behind like yours truly?  Link to your own Day 2 entries in the comments!