What I Learned With My First Inktober

11/2/2018

*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)

Welcome back, fellow artists!

I'm very excited to share that I made it through my first time participating in the Inktober drawing challenge!

In today's blog post, I'll be sharing my last time lapse compilation of Inktober sketches, as well as things I learned by having pushed myself through it. Though the drawings I'll be sharing were created specifically for Inktober, most of the information I'll be including throughout the post (and video) can relate to any type of daily art challenge.

There's no question that being able to produce a new piece every-single-day for an entire month (no matter how small), is extremely difficult. However, there's a ton to learn from participating in art challenges like this one, as they allow us to improve not only our cold-technical skills (drawing, shading techniques, etc.) and our time-management abilities, but also test us mentally in many ways.

This is why I made the decision to finally take on Inktober this year!

If you visited my blog or YouTube channel at any point throughout October, you're probably aware that I've been sharing time lapses for every-single-one of my Inktober sketches! I've also talked about a variety of topics pertaining to it.

Make sure to check out my past Inktober blog posts and find the rest of my time lapses over at my YouTube channel:

5 Tips to Make it Through Inktober and How I'm Going About It
My Inktober Supplies and Time-lapses for Sketches 6-11
Inktober Sketches 19-25 + Reviewing My Supplies

Inktober sketch for prompt: Double by Erika Lancaster

Inktober sketch for prompt: Gift by Erika Lancaster

Inktober sketch for prompt: Jolt by Erika Lancaster

Inktober sketch for prompt: Slice by Erika Lancaster

Inktober sketch for prompt: Stretch by Erika Lancaster

Inktober sketch for prompt: Thunder by Erika Lancaster

What I Learned from Inktober

Technical Aspects

1. Stay present/mindful while you're creating art

I noticed pretty quickly as I was starting with Inktober, that when I was tired and/or my mind was just not in the art-making process, my drawings turned out much sloppier. I either went overboard with my mark-making, which led to certain areas appearing very flat or I created too much of a texture where I wasn't intending to.

Now I know that, no matter how small a sketch or study I'm working on, I have to do my best to stay present (whether it be 5 minutes or an hour). If I'm too tired or unable to concentrate, I'll consider resting and getting back to work the following day, or take a break to do something else that will allow me to de-stress before getting back into it.

2. Take it slow and respect the process

With this, I don't necessarily mean to force yourself to lay down each line or brush stroke super slowly if this isn't your thing. Personally, I love working at a faster pace and leaving some sort of expression, rawness and imperfection in most of my work.

What I mean with taking it slow is learning to enjoy the different phases of creation (brainstorming, preparation, preliminary sketch, developing marks/colors/values, etc.) and acknowledging each as an essential part of the process.

I realized this halfway through the challenge. Whenever I skipped a phase, my piece didn't turn out as well as it could have.

With a daily challenge like this one in which I had limited time, many of these phases were done simultaneously with other tasks, but I made a point to go through them, nonetheless.

Mental Aspects

1. Practice increases confidence (and speed)

The only way to really improve your self-confidence with any particular activity is practicing it and experiencing it first-handedly on a continuous basis. The more you do something, the more skilled you become, which makes you more comfortable doing it, which translates into doing things better and faster.

I had previous experience drawing with pen and ink, and have even shared different tutorials on mark-making and shading techniques both here at my blog, as well as over at my YouTube channel, which I highly recommend you check out:

Guide to Shading Techniques: Hatching, Cross-Hatching, Scribbling and Others
Pen and Ink Sketching: 6 Shading Techniques
Shading a Hand Using Pen and Ink

However, I had never drawn with pen and ink as continuously as this drawing challenge pushed me to. By the end of the month, I was creating my sketches a lot faster than in the beginning. I was also able to tell when I was making a mistake quicker, which enabled me to stop in my tracks and succeed at making them less noticeable.

2. Creativity is a muscle that gets stronger with consistent use

I'm sure you've heard this saying about creativity being a muscle before, but there's really nothing like participating in a daily challenge to really understand what pushing our creative limits every-single-day for a long(ish) period of time can do for us.

At the beginning, I really struggled to come up with the ideas behind my drawings. I was also really unsure about what arrangement/composition would look best and took a long time to decide these things. By the end of the month my ideas came to me a lot faster and I was able to visualize more visually-pleasing compositions quicker. I knew whether an idea would work or not right off the bat and, if I thought it wouldn't, I moved on to thinking of a new one.

**3. Persistence and determination are essential in order to reach any meaningful goal**

In my blog post titled Time Management for Artists: My Secrets for Staying Consistently Productive, I explain how important it is to get to know ourselves so that we can truly come to a conclusion about what we want in life. This is the only way, really, that we can set meaningful goals so that we can then work towards them consistently.

Many of us are able to set those goals initially, but we fail at sticking to what we have to do because we lack motivation or life simply gets in the way.

It has been through gaining clarity on what I want in life and sheer persistence, that I've been able to get to where I am today. I think I owe my completion of Inktober to this basic understanding.

I knew that participating in this challenge would be difficult, but that it would help me progress my skills further, faster. This is important for me at this point in my life, and I honored my decision by sticking with it.

Drawing and watercolor tutorials by Erika Lancaster

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

4. Chasing perfection is counterproductive

Perfection is probably the biggest enemy of creativity. It cripples us as artists and stops us from producing the work we need to create in order to keep moving forward. Getting something done, no matter how small (or flawed) is better than not doing it at all.

In art, exploration and learning to embrace the process is incredibly important. Even more important, I would say, than creating a finalized masterpiece. Once I learned this, my skills progressed a lot faster. Perfection is overrated.

Something I've come to realize is that constantly chasing perfection has a lot to do with an innate fear of not being enough and having to prove to the world, in some way, that we are. You don't have anything to prove to anyone but yourself, and what matters is to strive for progress, not perfection.

Life is way to short to let our fears stop us from doing the things we want to do in life. It is usually the people who are able to acknowledge their fears and move on despite them that succeed in achieving their goals.

5. Staying flexible is a must

Life is unpredictable. We can plan as much as we want to, but things will always come up and we have to be okay with shifting things around. As someone that thrives on routine, I'm still learning to be okay with modifying my schedules and specific things I had planned.

It's perfectly okay to take a break if you feel you need to (I did this a couple of times myself throughout the month). However, keep your priorities in check and get back to it as soon as you're able to.

There are two main ways that I stayed flexible throughout Inktober. For one, I had to accept that I would have to move my sketching to a different time of the day because things came up that I had to prioritize, or certain tasks simply took longer than expected. Sometimes I had to accept the fact that I would have to work on my Inktober sketch at the end of a long day of work.

Another way that I stayed flexible was with my supplies. The pages of the original Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook I planned on using ran out about 3/4's of my way through Inktober (I talk more about the specificities of my Inktober suppliesin this blog post).

Initially, I thought it would hold all of my sketches, but my heavy application of ink made it necessary for me to skip pages in between each piece. I had to make due with what I had on hand and be okay with using another sketchbook that didn't exactly match the characteristics I was looking for with this project. I accepted it and moved on.

6. Always focus on the good

There are two ways in which I applied this throughout Inktober: throughout the creation process and whilst analyzing my finished pieces.

If you've been following my Inktober work, you're probably already aware that I decided to go with following the official prompts this year. There were honestly some prompts that weren't inspiring for me at all and I struggled to think of a good idea for my piece.

However, in these situations, I decided to focus on what I could enjoy and what could go well. Even if I wasn't smitten with my idea, I set out to use the opportunity to improve my cross hatching/line work, etc.

To be perfectly honest there were several sketches that I didn't like very much, either because the idea just wasn't that great, or because I feel the execution was sloppy. Nonetheless, I decided to take it easy, pat myself on the back for getting the work done for the day, and always focused on the good.

There are always things that go well, no matter how much more our mistakes stick out to us. Being able to recognize both possible areas of improvement as well as our strengths is essential for us to improve our skills and find our artistic style.

My Inktober Supplies:

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new, or got inspired to go and create a sketch for yourself. I wish you tons of progress and enjoyment in your artistic journey! :)

Thanks so much for popping by today!

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Pen and Ink Sketching: 6 Shading Techniques

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Inktober Sketches 19-25 + Reviewing My Supplies

10/24/2018

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*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)

Hey, there!

In today's blog post/YouTube video, I'll be sharing Inktober sketches 19-25, as well as a review of the supplies I've been using throughout this challenge.

I wanted to really put these products to the test and have a good amount of experience with them before I actually expressed any opinions.

I have released several blog posts sharing tips and tutorials about pen and ink drawing that I highly recommend you check out if you haven't already (two very popular ones are this one and this one).

In past YouTube videos, I've shared how much I enjoy using this drawing medium and why I think it's so effective at helping us progress our artistic skills.

All this said, I had never used pen and ink as consistently as I have with this drawing challenge. I committed to participating in Inktober this year because I knew that creating a new piece every-single-day for an entire month would lead to amazing growth in a short period of time.

The challenge would help me not only exercise my creativity continuously and gain confidence in my pen and ink technique, but would also test my time-management skills and even more mental/personal aspects.

Over at my YouTube channel, I've shared all of my Inktober sketch time lapses so far:
1. Time lapses 1-5 + A Bit About My Thoughts and Process
2. Time lapses 6-11 + How I Come Up With the Ideas Behind My Sketches
3. Time lapses 12-18 + My Struggles So Far

*The video included in this post is my fourth compilation of sketch time lapses and I'm closing this Inktober series with a last video including my final drawings, as well as a bit about what I've learned.

My Inktober Supplies

I knew since before starting the challenge, that I wanted to make a careful selection of supplies and stick with them throughout the entire month. This way, I would be able to come up with solid opinions about them.

All of my supplies were acquired online through either Amazon or ConsumerCrafts.com, which are both excellent online options to find quality art supplies at great prices.

1. Leuchtturm1917 Sketchbook

This was my first time using a Leuchtturm sketchbook and I really enjoyed it, especially in combination with drawing pens and ink. These sketchbooks are definitely on the more expensive side, but I'm really glad I invested in one and decided to use it for this drawing challenge!

The sketchbook is 15 x 21 cms. in size and is made up of 96 pure white 180 g/m drawing paper that is quite smooth. I love that the sketchbook includes two bookmarks and an elastic to keep it safely closed. These characteristics make the sketchbook perfect to take out for drawing in plein air or coffeeshops.

I had a couple of different sketchbooks to pick from laying around that I could go for, but I went for this one for two main reasons:
a) I knew that I wanted some areas of my Inktober sketches to have thick applications of ink and the thickness of its pages would allow for this.
b) The pure/brilliant white of its pages would really allow my black ink lines/shapes to contrast and pop out!

Though I find this sketchbook amazing for drawing purposes, I wouldn't recommend it for sketching with watercolors, as its paper is too smooth and I don't think it would hold/absorb water very well. I think it would, however, work pretty well for gouache and even acrylics.

It's always a smart idea to give thought to what kinds of mediums you're planning on using in your sketchbooks before making a decision about which one to buy.

2. Staedtler Pigment Liners

I've had this set of drawing pens for a while and I've always used them interchangeably with my Micron pens. I think these two brands/products are pretty close in terms of quality and price, and produce almost the same results. I will continue buying Staedtler drawing pens for the time being, as I found throughout this challenge that I really enjoy them.

The four-pack of drawing pens that I have includes .1, .3, .5, and .7 millimeter points. The majority of my Inktober sketches were created using only the .3 and .5 points. I find the four pack includes a perfect variety of point thicknesses and don't think I would personally need anything smaller or larger.

The ink in the Staedtler Pigment Liners is waterproof, bleed-proof, smudge-proof and fade resistant, which leads me to think they would be perfect for use in combination with watercolors. The lines created by these drawing pens are also very crisp and dark.

Lastly, the ink in these pens also lasts a very long time. Even though I used them every-single-day for 31 days (and pretty roughly-I might add), they never started drying out.

3. Speedball Drawing & Calligraphy India Ink

I acquired this little 2 ounce tub of black ink a while back for exploratory purposes and I'm very glad I had it on hand for this Inktober! It allowed me to create the flat black geometric background shapes that I decided would be the unifying aspect of my drawings prior to starting.

This Speedball drawing/calligraphy ink is a rich black and a bit on the thick side. However, it can be diluted to create a variety of values and a runnier texture. I used a small, angled, soft-bristled brush to apply it onto my paper and the wash always came out quite even. I never noticed any granulation, even in areas where I applied the ink thickly.

I also loved the fact that it washes off from skin pretty easily and that it has no overpowering odor to it. Lastly, the shape of its bottle is genius, as the bottom of it is wider than the top and makes it more stable. This avoids it from tipping over and creating a huge mess!

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

That's it in terms of my Inktober supplies for 2018!

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new, or got inspired to go and create a sketch for yourself. I wish you tons of progress and enjoyment in your artistic journey! :)

Thanks so much for popping by today!

Essential Self-Care Tips for Artists and Creatives

Why Sketchbooks are Essential Tools for Artists and Usage Tips

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5 Tips to Make it Through Inktober and How I'm Going About It

10/5/2018

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*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)

Are you an artist looking for a foolproof way to improve your drawing/creative skills in a short period of time? Have you always wanted to participate in Inktober or other daily drawing challenges but find them a bit intimidating? Are you a beginner looking to make drawing and creativity a part of your daily life?

Month-long drawing challenges like Inktober are no joke. Most of us have a lot going on in our lives and committing to producing one drawing a day (and actually sticking with it for the entire month) requires a huge amount of discipline.

Even if one starts with the project excited and has proper fun creating those first few sketches, that initial burst of inspiration is probably going to dwindle at some point mid-way.

And when that happens, it's going to take sheer determination to keep going!

This said, if we are able to stick with it, growth will come inevitably and fast. By the end of the month, our drawing skills will have progressed and our creative abilities will be heightened.

This type of experience is also incredibly valuable as it helps us make way towards finding our artistic style and voice. Committing to any sort of series like this one is a great way of pinpointing our strengths and weaknesses, which is essential.

In this blog post, I'll be sharing my top five tips to ensure that you are progressing your drawing/creative skills as much as possible with this drawing challenge, but also staying sane along the way.

These are all things I'm making sure to do myself throughout this month. I'm also including links to a few very helpful pen and ink drawing blog posts/YouTube videos that will help you step up your inking game.

The video included in this post is a compilation of time lapses for my first five Inktober sketches.

Make sure to follow me on Instagram to stay up-to-date with my progress throughout the month.

I'm sure I'll be missing a few days here and there, but I am planning to make up for them as soon as I'm able to.

Inktober Spell sketch by Erika Lancaster

Inktober Chicken sketch by Erika Lancaster

Inktober Tranquil sketch by Erika Lancaster

Inktober Poisonous sketch by Erika Lancaster

Check out these helpful pen and ink sketching blog posts/YouTube videos!

1. Pen & Ink Sketching: 6 Shading Techniques
2. Guide to Shading Techniques: Hatching, Crosshatching, Scribbling and Others
3. Shading Simple Objects Using Hatching, Crosshatching and Other Drawing Pen Techniques
4. Shading a Hand Using Pen and Ink (Complex Subjects)

Inktober Tips

1. Be practical about it

As creatives, we have tons of different ideas popping up in our heads non-stop. This is great, but it can definitely hinder us from moving forward and actually finishing things. Think of an idea that you feel could work and that feels practical in terms of time, and just go for it.

If you look back constantly, there's a huge possibility that you won't finish drawings on time and they're going to start piling up, which can lead to overwhelm.

Remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint. I like keeping this sort of project practical by giving a bit of my energy each day instead of giving it all right at the beginning and burning out fast. I'm not striving for masterpieces, but for growth.

2. Avoid looking at others' work until after you have finished yours

It's important for me to keep my work as original as possible and I hope this is the case for you as well. I'm sure there will be other artists in the world creating work that is similar to mine in some (or many) aspects. But when this happens, I know that it's due to the fact that those other artists and I are somehow influenced by similar things and not because I'm copying their work.

For challenges like this one, I find it super helpful to stay away from social media until after I have finished my work (or at least my initial sketch). This way, I'm not allowing other artists' ideas to infiltrate my mind.

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

3. Brainstorm ideas and create sketches

Before going to bed, I'm reading the prompt for the following day and allowing myself to start brainstorming. I start sifting through ideas in my head, setting aside those that might not be practical (no matter how amazing they might sound). I don't actually put pencil/pen to paper until the next day.

I recommend creating at least a couple of quick sketches prior to actually starting with your piece. Doing quick thumbnails is an excellent way of arriving at great compositional arrangements.

For several of the drawings above, I was unsure whether I wanted my main subject to be facing forwards or whether I'd be sketching him/her/it in profile or at an angle. It wasn't until I created those sketches and actually saw my ideas come to life that I could make a decision about what would be most appealing.

4. Incorporate some sort of element of coherency (or a theme)

When creating any sort of series like this one, it's useful to think about how you can bring an aspect of consistency to your work. A lot of artists like sticking to a specific theme for Inktober and I think this is very useful, as it limits the broad range of ideas that might lead to indecision and not doing anything at all.

I decided to incorporate coherency in the format/layout of my overall design. However, there are many ways that we can add a sense of consistency to our artwork.

Perhaps you want to make sure to incorporate human figures in all your drawings, stick with a specific color scheme (if you're using color), create some sort of frame around your drawing, integrate handwritten lettering, or think of a specific layout like I did.

5. Have fun and don't strive for perfection

Being a perfectionist and expecting too much from yourself with every single thing you do is a surefire way of burning out and not enjoying the creative process. It also keeps you from producing the amount of work you have to create in order to really improve artistically.

Not to mention, this challenge (in my opinion) is a way of improving our personal skills, not about showing off masterpieces and/or comparing them with other peoples'!

Stay in your lane and remember that the purpose of this project is to improve your drawing and creative skills, as well as to make art a daily habit.

My Inktober art supplies

*Click on images to check out the specific supplies I'm using for Inktober that I've bought through www.consumercrafts.com and www.amazon.com:

Staedtler Pigment Liner Sketch Pens: Black (4 pack) $15.67

Prismacolor Drawing Pencil Set: Turquoise, 12 pack $13.99

How to Shade Complex Objects Using Pen and Ink

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Watercolor Food Painting Time-lapse (Pancakes)

7/27/2018

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Watercolor Food Illustration Painting Time Lapse

If you enjoyed this video and found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I share a brand new video every week with art tips, drawing and painting tutorials and mindset/productivity tips for artists. *Subscribe HERE*

Below are the exact supplies I used to create this piece. All of these offer great quality and accessible prices.

Check out the products I created with this illustration at my Society6 shop!

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

Watercolor vs. Gouache - Exploring Artistic Media

Why Criticism is an Essential Part of an Artist's Life and How to Hand Criticism Like a Pro

How to Effectively Use Other Artists' Work as Inspiration

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Landscape Oil Paintings, Latest Sketches and Summer-y Watercolor Illustrations

6/29/2018

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Lighthouse oil painting by Erika Lancaster

Windmill landscape oil painting by Erika Lancaster

Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here .

Aside from these two oil paintings, I'm sharing the watercolor illustrations I created for the July calendar I sent out to my e-mail subscribers this week (at the end of each month I send them a calendar for the following month). I really enjoy painting with watercolors and pushing myself to continue improving with this medium.

Aside from using these illustrations as part of the calendar design, I also create awesome products for my Society6 and Redbubble shops with them, which I'd love for you to check out! :)

Watercolor illustrations of objects by Erika Lancaster

Watercolor illustrations of different objects by Erika Lancaster

And, finally, I'm also including some sketches. I'm always going on about how I find drawing so important, and how it's important for artists to keep drawing throughout their journeys, and I'm holding myself accountable!

I'm continuing to push myself to create human figure studies in more complex/dynamic poses (as opposed to the very stiff and uninteresting poses I drew when I first started). The human figure is a great challenge for me, but I've seen significant progress since I've started drawing it more consistently.

Sketch of female figure by Erika Lancaster

Outstretched hand sketch by Erika Lancaster

Thanks so much for dropping by and checking out my work. I really appreciate it!

And if you're a beginner/intermediate artist looking to improve your skills, make sure to visit my library of free resources. It's jam-packed with helpful tips and tutorials on a variety of different mediums and subjects.

Cheers!