I feel like after more than two weeks I am hitting my stride with my version of Inktober called Mynktober. The random word generator did provide some difficult prompts for these weeks being abstract or interestingly vague – cf. ‘Routine’, ‘Disorder’ and ‘Pressure’ but I think I rose to the challenge despite the weather being really awful and so stuck indoors. First up was ‘Collapse’, another possibly difficult one but decided to go with a semi-abstract apocalyptic ink piece of collapsing buildings and smoke.
A chance to work with Winsor & Newton’s Chinese ink, called ‘Liquid Indian’ which given it’s tiny bottles and generic nature, I am still looking for a cheap replacement in fact…and also fun with the swoopy swordliner.
raw Paint Sleep Repeat (detail – left hand sketch) – Mynktober Day 10 ‘Routine’, Mixed Media – Laser prints, Fountain pen, Kuretake brush pen, FW, Molotow and Jackson’s ink, marker and stick, A3. 
Draw Paint Sleep Repeat (right hand sketch and original photo) – Mynktober Day 10 ‘Routine’, Mixed Media – Laser prints, Fountain pen, Kuretake brush pen, FW, Molotow and Jackson’s ink, marker and stick, A3.
Next was ‘Routine’ – one of the few prompts that stuck in my head when I created them, my memory is usually conveniently bad that most of them are fresh to me on the day. The extra time didn’t help me at all, I wanted to draw my routine, but how? In some medieval style comic book narrative form?
Finally I decided to just focus on what I am doing at the moment – the grind of being in this challenge, where indeed it does feel like it is Draw Paint Sleep Repeat, to paraphrase the song title. I was proud to not only take the picture – yes that is my favourite brass pen starring there – but also draw with both hands in this picture with it. I actually prefer the left non-dominant hand drawing!
‘Pressure’ was a similar one where I wasn’t sure what to do, so decided to replicate my life drawing and portrait sessions of old and give myself time -pressure of 1, 5 and 10 minutes self-portraits in different media per set. So in sequence fountain pen drawing, brush and ink, and my favourite at the moment, ink and wax resist as part of the Negative Space series.
You might recognise the first one abovee – it’s the source of the revamped header! As usual, the quicker self-portraits look best.
The next prompt was ‘Leg’ and that was easy, I did both these in a night….but I had problems with the paper and the cheap Chinese Ink – ‘Youth brand’ spreading, it’s not a replacement for W&N, sadly. And yes I am a big Bonzo Dog fan, so hence stealing one of their song names for the title.
Disorder No. 1, Mynktober day 13, Chinese and Jackson’s Ink with brush, candle and Neocolor 2 crayons, A3. 
Disorder No. 2, Mynktober day 13, Chinese and Jackson’s Ink with brush, candle and Neocolor 2 crayons, A3.
So after all this realist work, I wanted to do a few abstracts for ‘Disorder’ – very messy and using the Caran D’Ache NeoColor 2 water-soluble crayons as well as the various large brushes. Like the Inktense and the W&N watercolour sticks I struggle with these, they work mostly as crayons, or very diluted…they can be a bit matte and lifeless if used more thickly.
I also tried to do the next prompt ‘Primary’ on the same night to try and catch up…unlike Pressure/Leg, this time it failed, abstraction is very much a mood thing for me and I can’t do it all the time…so lesson learned I did a more realist third piece just using only red, blue and yellow Dr PH Martin inks.
Yes – even the black was mixed from those, a rather nice purple black in fact…was amazed the inks were that pure they could mix a deep black rather than a muddy purple.
Approach was next, and given the weather had stopped being utterly shit I could then work on an outside piece. I racked my brains then realised the long trees and avenues of Home Park were perfect for this. Yes that is Hampton Court in the distance, the second time it’s appeared in this challenge!
I have never seen traffic on this track, it’s not for general cars and such, but sod’s law I sat on my stool and started this drawing and 10 minutes later saw a park ranger 4×4 approaching, and had to move.
And the final piece of this block is a political and topical one, the prompt was ‘unity’ and given it’s Black History Month in the UK and I have not forgotten my pledge re: Black Lives Matter and politics generally, I thought it was about time for a more direct piece. Unusually the hand was a stock image, via Unsplash – no ballerinas in sight, oops and CC Zero so no attribution required but I have done so above. I love CC0 imagery for things I can’t shoot or don’t have time for.
Again, the piece was Dr PH Martin’s Bombay Inks, with laser prints and the first piece using Posca for this challenge or even in a long time. I am trying to keep the pieces A4 or A3 so I can scan them, otherwise it gets very stressful waiting for a break in the weather so I can photograph them outside. But those sizes don’t lend themselves to my chunk 15mm Posca markers.
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