As it turns out, I’ve been napping a lot more than drawing over the last few days. This cold has been nasty. I am way behind on Inktober at this point, but I’m just going to pick up where I left off and keep going until I finish. It’s been nice to have everyone else’s Inktober entries to scroll through on Instagram to keep me entertained, and I’ve enjoyed cheering from sidelines. We can do it!
Elephants and spiders and dragons and toads and…Great Old Ones and…fire demons…and horses and hedgehogs, oh my! I drew a lot of creatures that were not mice for Inktober this year. Just to make the challenge extra-challenging, many of them I have not tried to draw in years (horses, dragons), and I’m sure I’ve never tried to draw a cuttlefish before.
Inktober is coming! Inktober is coming!
(Tri-corner hats are harder to draw than I expected.)
Anyway–Inktober is just around the corner! I’m looking forward to drawing (and laughing) my way through October! I have ideas for most of the prompts, including several comic strips, a couple of Dysautonomia awareness comics, and an art parody. And I can’t wait to be inundated with other artist’s amazing work all month!
Two more weeks!
When you have a really great idea for an Inktober prompt, and then…POOF!
The spiffed-up version of this Inktober comic, “Tempting.”
Da-dum…
Da-dum…
Danger lurks below the serving counter of Amity Island’s bakery.
Bless you.
A shined-up version of this Inktober comic.
A spiffed-up version of this Inktober comic.
Da-dum…
Da-dum…
Danger lurks below the serving counter at Amity Island’s bakery.
Inktober artists: we did it!
This challenge was so much fun, I’m glad I finally went for it. It was the highlight of my day to see the unique responses to each prompt, and I found some great artists to follow on Instagram. I plan to do Inktober again next year–this time with more advance planning (like, the entire month of September…).
Between pushing to finish up Q is for Quarantine in September, and spending all month on Inktober…I am tired. I’ll be posting a comic weekly on Fridays during November and December, both brand-new and from the last few years (along with nicely edited versions of three Inktober comic strips), and evaluate how that’s working for me going into the New Year. I want to create and post comics regularly, so I need to find a way sustainably pace myself. Behind the scenes, I’ll be working on publishing Q is for Quarantine, and setting up a Lab Mice Etsy shop.
…Anyone else ready for a long post-Inktober nap?
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Wait–what do you mean, the holidays are coming???
Inktober 31. Farm, part 2
Something a little different for the (bonus) final day of Inktober…and a little story.
It turned out that the prompt “farm” coincided with a special trip I made during the last weekend in October, to the family farm where my grandpa grew up. My great-great grandfather started the business in 1922, and Kercher’s Sunrise Orchards is still owned and operated by my cousins, the children and grandchildren of my grandpa’s brother. They celebrated their 100th anniversary in business this year.
Although my grandpa decided to pursue a career in engineering rather than farming, and ended up living far from his family home, it was always an important place for him. He passed away this year, at the age of 92.
I moved across states this summer, and discovered that I now live much closer to the farm. So my husband and I, along with my brother’s family, spent a beautiful, sunny morning at the orchard taking a hay ride, picking apples, choosing pumpkins, and reconnecting with our cousins and their families.
I wanted to make a drawing from the orchard, and the Gold Rush variety apples were glowing in the trees that morning. When first picked, the apples are both sweet and tart, just the way we like them. We picked as many as we could fit in our bag, and I took a photo for later reference.
The trip could not have gone more perfectly, and we hope to visit again…maybe for the 101st anniversary.
Lab Mice 