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Inktober 2018 : Day 16 - ink and water Lena often can’t remember her prophesies if nobody was around to hear them.

Inktober 2018 : Day 18 - grey and black fude pen I’m really pleased with this one, but I might re-draw it later. I made a couple of small mistakes that are bothering me more than usual because I’m so proud of the concept. It’s partly because I used my fude pen when I shouldn’t have, but I realised I could do the whole thing with just that one pen so I wanted to try it! Ah well, I can do another pass some other time.

Inktober 2018 : Day 20 - G-pen and brush pen I’d already done two pictures with this composition by accident, so I decided to keep going and make a set!

Inktober 2018 : Day 22 - plastic nib fineliners May-Lee has spent so long being told to do painful or uncomfortable things, she no longer thinks to stop herself getting wet or cold. I had a long day at work, so I’m adding another one to my ‘oops I drew another girl looking straight ahead’ set. I wonder how many of these I can do before I run out of appropriate characters or different ways of inking?

Inktober 2018 : Day 23 - fineliners and felt tip pen I usually try to avoid using the same medium two days in a row, but yesterday’s fineliners were plastic nibs and these are normal fibre nibs, so it’s okay, right?

Inktober 2018 : Day 26 - fineliners and grey pens Poppet and her friends have dressed up as Koroks for Hallowe’en!

Inktober 2018 : Day 27 - Pentel Pocket Brush and ink wash

One more for the ‘girls looking straight at the camera’ set! It was hard inking the Mirror Girl with such a thick pen, but it was one of the only ones I hadn’t used yet for this set.

Inktober 2018 : Day 28 - fineliners and grey pens Here’s a Sweetpea to match Coriander from day 3! I normally try to avoid doing so many dolly style pictures in a row, but I was too tired for anything more complicated.

Inktober 2018 : Day 31 - mapping pen and ink wash Happy Hallowe’en! The Mirror Twins are looking for some new friends, if you’d like to join them. No Tabitha this year! I had so many Tabitha pictures that I recently made them into a set of postcards, so I thought it was time to try something different. I don’t think I’ve ever tried ink wash over hatching like this before, so maybe this will be my next Hallowe’en tradition?

Inktober 2019: day 9 - dip pen and ink wash

The Mirror Twins have spotted a potential new friend.

I’m getting really tired so I tried to keep this one simple, but it actually took longer than yesterday’s picture!

Inktober 2019: day 12 - brush inking and coloured ink

The way Nettle’s hair waves around when she uses her powers is a sign of poor control.

I wanted to practice using those rigger brushes a bit more, so I drew something pretty simple. They’re so hard to control! You can get more ink in them at once without losing the fine tip though.

Inktober 2019: day 18 - fineliners and ink wash

Jessie can summon lightning even on a clear day.

I spent a good 20 minutes just staring at my sketchbook drawing a total blank on ideas, so in the end I decided to extend the ‘girls looking straight forward’ set from last year. Maybe I’ll do a few more?

Inktober 2019: day 20 - mapping pen

It’s not clear to anyone why Coda attracts so many butterflies.

I went for something simple again because I’m tabling at London MCM this weekend and I’m starting to panic a little bit!

Inktober 2019: day 25 - ink and water

She emerged unharmed from a deadly house fire, and now when she touches objects they ignite.

This is the same girl from day 21, somewhat earlier in life. By the time she’s employed as a servant she’s learned to control whatever is happening to her, but at first she would leave charred footprints everywhere she went.

I was tabling at London MCM from the 25th to the 27th, so I tried to keep them simple.

Inktober 2019: day 26 - G-pen

Poppet’s friend found a smashed up breakfast bar, and it was far too big to eat alone.

This was much simpler in my head than it was to draw! Poppet and her friends are very easy to draw, but I didn’t factor in having to draw the breakfast bar and figure out how to position them all.

Inktober 2019: day 27 - fineliners and grey pens

I was handing out minicomics featuring Patience at MCM, so I thought she could join in Inktober too! She’s the last character I can think of for the ‘girls looking straight ahead’ set, so I’ll have to come up with something else to do on busy days next year.

Inktober 2019: day 31 - mapping pen and ink wash

The Mirror Twins and their friend wish you a happy Hallowe’en! Be careful who you greet after dark.

I posted a terrible, late-night photo of this on twitter just to prove I finished it on time, because it was so close to midnight!

And so ends another Inktober, it was much harder to keep up now that I have a full-time job. I might have to work at half the size next year. I couldn’t keep up with scanning and posting them at all towards the end either, but I did still draw them on the right days. I’m not perfectly happy with every piece, but I feel very accomplished!

One of the biggest disappointments of 2020 for me was failing Inktober for the first time since 2013. I even did most of my pictures at half size to make it easier, but I was so worn out by day 8 that I had to give up. I thought it would be nice to post the ones I did finish before the end of the year.

I marked out all the pages in my sketchbook at the start, so I’ll try to finish the rest before next October.

Inktober 2021, Day 2 - technical pens and grey pen

It was quite a surprise the first time she made him fly.

Inktober 2021, day 6 - fineliners and grey pen

Somehow it’s harder to read Nana’s cards.