Inktober: Days 15-20

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On this day, I was really struggling to draw a face, the angles were just not my friend and they were just a mess. As I was doing this at college, I decided to leave it until I got home and work on something else, even though this would give me the same dilemma as the previous week, potentially battling with the natural light available.

This, however, was not an issue, as when I had gotten home, I was able to power through and finally draw a face that I liked, then I was able to ink it and get a photo whilst there was still a good amount of light available.

This was not the initial flower that I had chosen to do for this prompt, I was originally going to create a daisy, but I believe due to the hassle I found when drawing the faces, I had forgotten the prompt and had unconsciously started drawing the flower, a snowdrop, that my mother had suggested when I had initially started planning the project.

Day 16: Angular – Aloe Vera

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This piece seems to be quite similar to the ‘Cruel’ character, as their bodies are both wrapped by their plant’s leaves. Because of this, I have decided that this character is ‘Cruels’ sister, but is not evil. Although she has a harsh ‘angular’ appearance, she is a healing character. Like the plant, it has a prickly exterior, but inside, it has the ability to soothe and heal burns.

With the design, I wanted to take advantage of the angular prompt, and experiment with shapes. Although with the face, I have kept to the overall aesthetic of my designs, with the hair, I feel I have unconsciously taken inspiration from a tattoo artist named GreemTattoo on Instagram, who uses bold black in their designs and often has quite blocky and angular style. I do really enjoy the literal approach I have taken from the prompt and have applied to this character.

Day 17: Swollen – Bleeding Heart

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This was another plant that I had not initially intended to work with, however, when looking at the original plant again, the ‘Gasteria plant’, I did not feel much inspiration in the imagery that I could create from it, so decided to head in a different direction.

Since this flower has a very distinct shape, I decided to have the character facing head-on, as to best show her silhouette, which hopefully makes the plant that she is influenced by, more identifiable. As the heart shape is supposed to look as if it is bleeding (hence the name) I tried to include the drop within the characters anatomy, making the collar bones deeper in a way, and shaping them more like a teardrop.

I imagine this character to be very strong and caring, almost like a mother or big sister type figure. I feel she would be a heart over mind person, she will care and support the other characters, but if something is troubling them, she will go to sort out the problem no matter the extent of the issue, listening to her heart more than her brain.

Day 18: Bottle – Baby’s Breath

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I LOVED creating the hair for this character. As the flower that I had chosen for this prompt, baby’s breath, can look soft almost like a cotton ball, I wanted to create hair that would resemble this quality. I also decided to keep it black, as it would contrast the white of the flower.

I do see that there are problems within the face, mostly in the eyes, so when refining the pieces later on, I will fix this issue. If it weren’t for this little problem, I think this piece would be one of my favourites, maybe a close second to the ‘Flowing’ character.

I see this character being similar to the Jasmine and Kadupul characters, as she would be quite airy and have a relaxing essence to her like Jasmine, but like Kadupul, she would be beautiful to look upon as she is quite child-like and angelic, untarnished by the world.

Day 19: Scorched – Kniphofia

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This plant was initially chosen because of its colours, as they usually have a deep red to a yellow gradient from top to bottom, which to me resembled the prompt. Although I could not show this element within my design, (as I am working in black and white during this challenge) I still decided to use this plant as inspiration, as it does have an interesting silhouette.

The finished character almost reminds me of the guards at Buckingham Palace so she could have a similar occupation in her society. As a guard, she could potentially work for the Kadupul character, protecting her from any of the villainous characters.

Day 20: Breakable – Brittlebush

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This character is quite mysterious in her facial expressions, (not necessarily intended, but I’m going with it) and with the flower placement on her head, it looks more of a hat, so to me, this character could be a detective of some sorts, or a potentially a private investigator. I’ve recently started watching Jessica Jones so this may have been where the idea of occupation came from, even though my character does not resemble Jessica Jones in the slightest.

I feel this character may have the most personality from my creations so far, she makes you question the type of character she is, what is she looking at? What is she thinking about? Who is she? etc. I think she is one of my top 10’s, even though her prompt does not really relate to the backstory I have given her, as I don’t imagine this character being very weak or breakable, as I see her being more strong headed and fierce.

Inktober: Days 8-14

Day 8: Star – Star Flower

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From the previous post, it seems that I had jinxed myself, as with this piece, I had struggled with time. As I was at college during the day, working on other projects, I believe I had gotten home at 4/5 and had to rush my piece so that I could take a photo of it within the natural light. At the time of this photo, the natural light was more cool toned than previous pieces had been, and although I tried to fix this problem when editing the photo (as to make it cohesive with the other pieces) I feel you can still see the difference when looking at them all together.

Other than the lighting, I also feel this character has more issues with the drawing, specifically with proportions and angles and so on. When completing this challenge and compiling the designs into one zine, I believe I will go back and try to fix this character, as I do see her potential, but do not believe I achieved it on this day.

The flower I had chosen for this prompt was pretty self-explanatory, and I wanted the character to have a ‘stardom’ quality to her. Imagining this character in the society I have created, I believe she would be a celebrity figure, whether that is in a good or bad way. I want her to be in the limelight in this society, but the other characters could have different opinions of her, depending on what they’ve heard or believe.

Day 9: Precious – Kadupul

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With this character, I had searched the rarest flowers and had found two that I felt most inspired by, one being Kadupul, and the other being a Kinabalu Orchid. For this specific prompt, I felt the Kadupul would be better suited as it looked more gentle, whereas the Kinabalu looked more sinister in a way. The Kinabalu will be used for another prompt ‘expensive’ as I see that character being more snobby than I would the Kadupul.

I wanted this character to be quite doll-like, angelic in a sense as if she has been untarnished by the world. As a character I feel she would be a princess figure, the other people may not see her very often, as I imagine she is protected a lot of the time, but when they do see her, they are enchanted by her beauty and grace.

Day 10: Flowing – Water Lily

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This is my favourite piece so far, I am so happy with how she turned out! For the prompt ‘flowing’, I instantly thought of water, so had chosen a flower to fit the theme, this being a water lily.

When creating her, I wanted a similar petal hairstyle as my piece for the Chick and Hen character. However, with the reference I was using, the model had hair flowing across her face, so I decided to keep this element, and I am so happy that I did, as I believe in my design, the hair almost looks wet on her face and could resemble roots from the flower, as if she has just been taken straight out of the water.

Day 11: Cruel – Ricinus Communis

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With this prompt, I wanted to create a villainous character who is very upright and has a scheming look on their face.

When looking at the plant, the Ricinus Communis, it had big leaves and red spiky balls. My initial idea was to have the leaf as a collar of some sort, then have the balls growing from the character. However, when drawing this piece, the leaf had become bigger than I had intended, wrapping around her body, as opposed to just her neck. I do still like the design though, as I feel she does still have the villainous appearance, which I feel the other characters would be afraid of.

Day 12: Whale – Pansies

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The link between flower and prompt for this character is a bit farfetched. As I could not necessarily find a flower by searching ‘whale flower’ or ‘whale plant’, I tried thinking of colours, specifically from an Orca whale, with the black and white patterns. This had led me to pansies, as they often had a dark centre, which is then surrounded by white, and then followed by another colour.

Although I like the design for this character, I don’t really have a backstory for her as of yet. She does look like a quite strong character, but as of the prompt, it has not given me much inspiration as of this moment in time. But I will come back to her another time and try to develop her story further.

Day 13: Guarded – Pycnostachys Urticifloia (Blue Witches Hat)

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With this character, as the appearance of the flower suggests, (although the colour is not shown) she is a witchy type character, but not an evil one, I believe she is a good witch that helps others with spells, love, healing, etc, but her speciality is with protection spells, linking back to the prompt of ‘guarded’. I feel she is a kind character but has her guards up as other characters may not react well when finding out she is a witch, even if she is good.

There are some issues that I can see within this character, specifically within the face, so again, like with my ‘Star’ character, I do plan to fix and refine these issues, when compiling all of the characters together in a zine.

Day 14: Clock – Passion Flower

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I enjoyed working with this specific plant as it had so many different elements to play with.

I feel I slightly lost control within the inking process, as there are a few shaky lines (especially on the shoulder) and when shading her face, the ink on her chin had bled too much up into her face, whereas I had wanted it to bleed down into her neck instead, creating more shadow, as opposed to a beard.

Again, when it comes to creating the zine, I will come back to this piece and refine these problem areas, whether it is just done digitally, or whether I redraw the character.

So far, I do love every character that I have created, and even with the ones that have gone slightly wrong, I do still see their potential, either with their stories or the imagery I have created. So, I will come back and fix these characters, once the challenge is out of the way and when I start concentrating more on the creation of the zine. If anyone does buy the zine, I want them to get their money worth, so with any imperfections I see, I want to fix these problems beforehand, so that when the buyer receives their product, they won’t find any issues and won’t question why they spent their money on it.

Inktober: Days 4-7

Day 4: Spell – Yarrow

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With the prompt, I had searched ‘flowers most commonly used in spells’ in which it had come up with a few suggestions, and for a while, I was back and forth between Yarrow and Lavender, however, I personally have not heard of yarrow a lot, so wanted to play around with that imagery.

I tried to approach this piece in a similar style to the bonsai tree pixie, but I feel it may be too similar, the only difference being the figure and the type of branches. I also feel I may have made the face too masculine, as the jaw is sharp, the neck wide and the shoulders do look broad. Although I felt this was an issue a couple of days ago, I have had time to reflect, and have since realised that the piece is not bad, as there are women who will have more masculine features, such as strong jawlines and are proud to have those features. So, through this piece, I have found that I don’t just have one face syndrome (a case in which an artist will unconsciously draw almost the same face in every design), I am able to work with different faces, features and shapes.

I imagine this character to be the owner of an apothecary in which other pixies will purchase medicine, or purchase ingredients for spells and so on.

Day 5: Chicken – Chick and Hen plant

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I was really stumped with this prompt and how I could find a flower or plant that would relate to it, until I had searched ‘chicken plant’ in which the results had come up with a chick and hen plant, which is a type of succulent, which I believe has its name because they will often have one big plant, which I assume is the hen, which will be surrounded by a few little ones, which I assume are the hens.

For this character, I wanted to make it seem as if the plants were growing from her, so decided to plant a few big ones around her body, which would then be surrounded by the little ones. Then, instead of giving the character hair, I wanted to make it seem as if the leaves were her hair, so inevitably, I had given her a big succulent growing out of her head.

The ink within this piece had my bleeding issues than any of the previous ones, which I believe was due to all of the smaller leaves that I had drawn within the plants. Because of this issue, however, I have started to use a white ink pen within my designs, which has helped a lot, especially for covering up any accidental bleeds. I also feel it helped given the designs more lighter areas, particularly within this piece as I have been able to add highlights to specific leaves, which has helped break up a lot of the darkness from the ink.

Day 6: Drooling – Sundew

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This flower choice is based on the prompt ‘Drooling’. The plant itself produces a sap that attracts flies which I then believe it eats. When looking at photos of the plant, the sap does look like drops of drool, and I felt it would be fun to attempt to illustrate it, especially when using ink.

For this plant I had started by drawing out rough shapes for the curling spines, I then started adding in the little strands in which the sap would be produced from. Then with water and a paintbrush, I started bleeding out the ink, which had made the plant almost look more feathery and softer. Once the water and ink had dried, I then went in with my white pen, highlighting specific strands and adding in the sap drops to the end of them.

I do like this design as I have approached it in a different way to the previous designs, and believe the new technique has given her a more interesting look as she definitely has more contrast in comparison to the previous characters.

This character to me has a sense of ‘look but do not touch’ quality to her. I believe her beauty would draw other characters in, but like the flies with the actual plant, they would not have a very fortunate end.

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Day 7: Exhausted – Jasmine

I had chosen this flower when searching ‘plants which help you sleep’ in which one of the answers had suggested jasmine.

I wanted to keep this character very light and airy in comparison to the last piece, as to give her a more dreamlike and airy quality to her.

To me, this character would be very kind and gentle, but also quite ditsy and airy. I believe she would sleep more than any of the other characters, but when she is awake, she is a joy to be around because she gives off a quiet peaceful energy, letting other characters stresses disappear, even just for a little while.

WEEK ONE IS COMPLETE!

I have enjoyed doing each of the pieces so far and believe I have discovered a good flow/system for creating them. I don’t believe I have struggled much with timing as of yet, but in the weeks to come, when other projects start to run alongside this one, I feel I may begin to struggle more with timing, but I will soldier on, as I refuse to miss a day!

Inktober: Days 1-3

Day 1: Poisonous – Foxglove

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When starting this project, I had an idea of how I wanted to work, but it was not necessarily set in stone, as I have not worked solely with ink before. So, going into this first piece, I had planned to photocopy and enlarge the original sketch I had made for the prompt, then using a lightbox, I would transfer the design to paper. I had started by using loose ink to build up the tones and had planned to create the linework overtop once it had dried. This, however, is not what had happened, as when I was adding the washes of ink, I had ended up going too dark and could not blend it out properly, so decided to scrap that idea and try another method.

Because I am not used to working on large scale, especially traditionally (as I have mostly worked digitally in the past) I tried to start off small, by creating my linework with fine liners, using the original sketch as the base. Once the line work was done, I tried using water and a paintbrush as to bleed the ink, and shade with it. In some areas, I had not gotten the contrast that I desired, so had gone back in with more pen, drawing in more lines in the darker areas, then again, had added the water to darken the tones and blend it out.

As of the themes used with this character, as the original prompt was poisonous, I tried to create a pixie that would look somewhat suspicious. I like to think of her as an assassin type of character, one of which other pixies will potentially hire to kill off their enemies. The flower I had chosen for her theme was a foxglove, which is a poisonous plant that when digested can potentially cause problems with your heart or kidneys.

Day 2: Tranquil – Bonsai Tree

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With the prompt tranquil, I wanted to incorporate a plant or flower that would relate or symbolise this theme, and it had made me think of bonsai trees. I believe it is often a peaceful process for people to take care of their bonsai trees, trimming leaves and caring for them in general. I see this character being a very wise and caring character who will always look after those around her.

After getting used to the process/method I would be using for this project, I had become more confident with it. Although it was still an experimental phase, I felt more confidence in having a better idea of what I would be doing.

I do like how this piece turned out, but if I were to change anything, I would possibly give her more shape with more branches on show. I do feel that how she looks now does hint at the type of pixie she is (meaning which plant she is based on) however it may have been better if there were more elements to suggest what she was.

Day 3: Roasted – Coffee Plant

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From today’s prompt, ‘roast’, I instantly thought of coffee (probably due to my overall love and addiction for it) so I have searched and used images of the plant that it originates from, as reference for this pixie.

As I don’t believe there is much to this plant, other than the berries and the leaves, I have tried to incorporate both of these elements the best I can. So, I decided to position the leaves so that they’d almost form a type of hat, and had incorporated the berries around the pixies body, coming out through her hair, to look as if they were growing from her.

I do like this character as I see her as a mother type figure, one who cares for all but is a stern and strong pixie.

I believe in the future I will be taking these characters further and adapting their stories more as I feel I am already starting to form my stories about them, thinking how they would all potentially live together within one society.

I know it is only early days of this challenge, but I feel I have found my feet with the method I want to use, and I feel I am heading in the right direction in how I am taking the character, working with the original themes and incorporating the specific flowers into the pixies form. I am excited to see what else I will be creating in the days to come, and I’m excited to complete the challenge with all 31 pixies, being able to see them all together, and eventually compiling each of them into one zine.