Inktober 2024, Day 18,19,20,21: Drive, Ridge, Uncharted, Rhinoceros

The four-day interval seems like a sweet spot for balancing posting and creating for me. I am curious if this would also work for other types of posts and being more regular with posting after I finish all thirty-one days of Inktober. After all, I have some adventures I am yet to share here on Hive. And finally, I feel the urge to do so as well.

How did these last four days go? I have concluded that I could benefit from returning to the fundamentals once October ends. There are things I struggle with way too much than I should. While I love my art and my creativity, I could do better if I put in more groundwork because intuition will only take me so far. Yeah. I already ordered a bunch of new tools and supplies for this purpose. And, when I mean groundwork, I mean the absolute basics, such as practicing drawing shapes without erasing and redrawing a hundred times, and other, more advanced things. I need it, or there cannot be growth.

But now, it is time for my latest Inktober creations!

Day 18: Drive

_{Drive - Ink drawing, 21 x 16cm, Inktober 2024}

Drive was the prompt of day 18. It was hard to figure out what I wanted to do with it or how to approach it until I thought of the word combination - scenic drive.

There used to be one such highway that ran across America that fits the theme perfectly. It is the legendary U.S. Route 66. It is where my inspiration for this piece came from. That would be a road trip I would love to complete one day! Of course, Route 66 has changed a ton, and some parts are totally unrecognizable these days, but even so! This historic highway helped to shape the face of America, after all! I recommend this video about the history of Route 66 if you wish to learn more about it.

_{For the background, I chose to use the shape of the route marker, which is shaped like a shield. This marker marks Route 66 even to date. As for the composition, I decided not to pick any particular scenery from the route but drew it in the spirit of some parts of Route 66 using similar mountain structures, colors, and desert-looking plants. I also hid a 66 on the road to have a better idea of what this is about.}

_{I sprinkled some texture all over the mountains, road, and desert. I feel it transformed it to have a more vintage look, which is epic!}

Day 19: Ridge

_{Ridge - Ink Drawing, 21 x 16cm, Inktober 2024}

Well, well, well! What do we have here? A mountain ridge, of course! For this one, I was not going to look any further. Yet, I did put a twist on it. We are back on the purple planet that came to view on day two, and from which we collected the strange plant as well. The planet's surface is harsh and extremely difficult to traverse due to these crazy, sharp mountains! One misstep and you are taking a tumble!

_{Here, we can see how I mountained the mountains! I tried my best to make them look more dimensional. I have heard people say, and it has stuck in my mind, that one should approach painting like sculpting. I find it helpful sometimes when dimensions begin to escape from me, and yet I still struggle with it.}

_{I like how this alien scenery turned out. Would you want to hike these purple mountains?}

Day 20: Uncharted

_{Uncharted - Ink drawing, 21 x 16cm, Inktober 2024}

For the prompt - uncharted, a less charted approach seemed appropriate. The one undoubtedly uncharted thing in the universe is the universe itself! There are countless stars out there, and all the colors they bring there! What could be more fitting for the theme?!

_{The process.}

I chose to go abstract with this ink drawing. I let the inks determine where they wished to go and what they wanted to do with the tiny help of water for randomness. On top of that, I used a couple of methods of splashing the ink off the brush filled with various colors. I also tried to fill a syringe with ink and drop some ink droplets all over. This process was so playful! I enjoyed every second of it!

Finally, I added what Lem calls them - typical M stars, all over it using the white Gelly Roll pen.

_{Look! I painted my nails during the process as well! xD}

Day 21: Rhinoceros

_{Rhinoceros - Ink drawing, 21 x 16cm, Inktober 2024}

First of all, we are traveling, hiking, reading our guidebooks, and stuff, and bam, out of nowhere - rhino?! Nu labi nu! Kad jau, tad jau! You want a rhino, you get a rhino! Ahaha! This scene came to me - a tiny, silly rhino in the paint shop! He is causing absolute havoc there, yet he is just playing and having fun. He is happy and completely unaware of the messes he is creating!