Crows & Ravens - Inktober 2016

I'm drawing ravens and crows through the whole month of October, as part of the official INKTOBER challenge. Follow me over at Instagram where I'm posting at least every-other-day. (Today, for instance, I did two drawings back-to-back to catch up. Wow, my hands are getting tired!)

Each drawing is drawn on very sturdy 5x7" bristol paper, using either Sakura pigma micron, Pentel pocket brush pen, and/or actual an brush or nib with india ink. And occasionally white ink for accents.

During the month, I've been slowly learning more about ravens by reading some of the books written by Bernd Heinrich, a UVM professor emeritus in biology. I've also found great slow-motion videos showing crows landing and taking off, crows eating, and all sorts of other interesting slices-of-life.

Inktober #1. I had a crazy busy schedule on the 1st of October, so this was drawn on the 2nd.

You can also find all the drawings posted on my Sweet Enemy Art facebook page

Inktober 6 & Inktober 7 double-whammy-post

I've been having slight technical hiccups, so please pardon the image quality of my two latest #Inktober drawings.  

#Inktober 7  it's Rick! 

#Inktober 6 it's Lorraine in costume!

Still working the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, though as you can see in #6, I sometimes get carried away with shading and then I try to soften it but do exactly the reverse.  Lorriane was not blushing!  Oh well. This is good exercise.
I'm fairly pleased with Rick's portrait, though of course scale is off.  Barbara Lang took the photo a few years back, she was a wonderful photographer, artist and bon vivant.  Love this image she caught of the boy.

I spent most of the day today on the couch, feeling wonderfully sloth-like.  Got lots of napping in, though it has thrown off my sleep schedule a bit.  There were a few small accomplishments involving laundry, chickens, and uploading images for work.  I won't bore you.

There we have it, a week of ink drawings.  Let's see what the next seven days brings.

HORROR! Or: Why I love October

The weather has taken a turn for the wonderful, almost tempting me to sleep out on the deck tonight.  However, after seeing some of our resident spiders this weekend, I think I'll pass.

"Spider Silk" will be at the Art of Horror show in October
©Sweet Enemy Art

Still, occasional wood-smoke on the wind, the trees turning to gold, and oh yes,
the spooky sundries of Halloween.  We don't have any trick-or-treaters up this way, which is sad, but I still get to pull out some of our fun creepy stuff for the heck of it.  In the week leading up to Halloween, Arkonbey often has a lit jack-o-lantern ready to greet me when I arrive home late & tired.  Add to this fresh local cider & cider donuts, and life is generally better.

Now I have another reason to be excited for October:  The Art Of HORROR exhibit is about to start, and this year, three of my pieces have been juried in!  There may be one or two more, depending on what I can accomplish in the next 36 hours (besides sleep & a day job.)

The Art of Horror opens on Friday October 7th at my favorite haunt: The S.P.A.C.E. Gallery; as part of the Burlington First Friday Artwalk.  Opening reception is from 5 to 9 p.m. and includes ghost stories and a chance to have your fortune told.
I'll be there until about 8 p.m. (having a brother's birthday bonfire to attend the same night, at least my double-bookings are interesting!)

The exhibit will display through the following dates, and open hours: October 7th – October 29th, open Thursday – Saturday from 11-4pm

Do you Facebook?  Here's the event page for The Art of Horror.

Also!  This Saturday at 9 a.m. Arkonbey and I launch into our FIFTH year of 24 Hour Comics Day.  Aside from reading lots of webcomics, I've been musing about which medium to use this year.  Other than that, trying to keep my mind open so that I can start with a clean slate.  And a little less caffeine than my first year :)

Poster designed by my own Arkonbey, in-house designer extraordinaire