This year for Drawvember, I compiled my own list of prompts, to ensure that I wasn’t going to use “not inspired” as an excuse for skipping days. Drawing actually brings me joy and satisfaction, and as it’s in rather short supply at this time of year for me, I have much at stake.
I picked words that appealed to me, rather randomly, without any clear idea how I was going to develop each prompt. So far, I’m having fun.
Day 1: “Dragon”
This is Toothless from the movie “How to train your dragon”, which is a family favourite. This served as a rehearsal of sort for my kid’s 13th birthday card which I will draw in a few weeks: he has requested a Toothless themed card.
I used my indigo ink Cambio Tambien brush pen from Kuretake. One limitation is that so much ink flows from that pen that the rather small format of my sketchbook does not allow for optimal spread of the ink, including more nuances, and I regret that I didn’t draw it bigger on the page because I could have gotten thinner lines.
Day 2: “Robot”
Meh. I botched the head, the face, the hatching.
This is a robot in the pose of The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.
One thing I liked, which I developed further a couple days after: using my finger to smudge the grey ink from my Brush Writer to achieve an interesting effect in the contoured background.
Day 3: “Fur”
This is my cat Jack, and I used a photo of her as reference. She has the fluffiest tail!
I used pencils only, a medium I very seldom use, so I was very tempted after a while to erase everything and pick up an ink pen. Also, it was the first time I attempted to draw fur. The trick is to manage the shadows and contrast that bring out the light on the hair. I can only improve 🙂
Day 4: “Cherub”
My favourite so far!
I used the technique I discovered while drawing the background of the robot Thinker: finger-smudging. I used my light grey Brush Writer by Kuretake and smudged small strokes until achieving the desired shading effect.
Day 5: “Carnival”
I have been to Venice, Italy, but never during the Carnival. I am fascinated by the costumes and masks. Here are a couple of rather evil-looking women wearing white masks and red head scarves over dark gowns, with the canal in the background, a moored gondola and the Duomo.
I used my Geranium Red Brush Writer by Kuretake, a grey felt tip pen, black ink 0.05 mm Graphik line maker from Derwent and Light Grey Brush Writer by Kuretake.