Inktober week 3.

So far Inktober has been great for creating a daily drawing habit. I do believe though that this will be the last week that I will give my drawings the hashtag #inktober. I will continue my daily drawings, but I will return to my 'normal' mediums of just pencil and watercolours. As I already have achieved my goal of drawing every day (which was my main reason to join Inktober), I do not see the point of continuing using ink just for Inktobers sake. Yes, I know that the 'official' Inktober rules do say that you do not have to use ink to be a part of this challenge, but for me, it would feel weird to post a watercolour sketch and call it a part of Inktober. You know, INKtober... And, not to mention that the last week of this month I will not be drawing anything. I will be in Indonesia and celebrating Halloween with my bestie! So I will have to continue my daily drawing habit when I return to the studio.

Well, enough about that. It is getting cooler outside, and I love it! Welcome autumn! On to this week's drawings:

Long-tailed tit. (ref with kind permission from Peter Skillen) Ink drawing and then a pale watercolour wash over it. I have painted this bird before, and I will probably paint it again. Sometimes I really like to take the same subject and try it out in different ways. This particular bird is one of them.

Something different. A moose. Ink drawing and watercolours. I really enjoyed this. I had forgotten how fun it could be to paint big mammals. I used to paint a lot of big mammals when I was young. Especially the African wildlife was a favourite subject of mine then. Maybe I need to paint bigger wildlife a little more...

Red hooded crane. Ink and acrylic inks. The acrylic inks do bleed beautifully, but they are a little too potent in my taste. So I might as well just use my watercolours. 

Inspired by the Moose, I chose to paint another mammal, this time a wolf. Except for the muzzle being too big and with the wrong angle, and the paws being too small, I like it! I can see it as a watercolour painting, see the bigger picture of the thumbnail below.

Thumbnail suggestion for a watercolour painting with this wolf.

Waxwing with a poem by Edith Södergran about autumn. Ink drawing and acrylic inks. That would be an idea, illustrate poems my way and make it into a book...

The same Kingfisher 2 ways. Ink drawing and watercolours to the left, and Ink drawing and acrylic inks to the right. Experimenting with different styles. This was yesterday, and that is when I decided to abandon at least the acrylic inks as it is not working for me. I still had fun experimenting, but none of these is something I can see myself taking further.

A daily drawing does not always have to bee something detailed or take a long time. It can be just a few lines and a dash of watercolours. A way of quickly getting your idea down on paper to be developed further at a later time.

The poem is by Tord Ericsson, and freely translated it goes something like:

" The call is searching through the night from somewhere to nowhere." 

I thought it fitted perfectly with this barn owl!