You know I wouldn't let October end without a marathon of ink drawing on Halloween night, right?

Here in one catch-up post are the rest of the drawings I did over the course of this month.

This pumpkin farm about 15 minutes south of us is the real deal -- rows upon rows of pumpkins grown just in time for carving. I only had a few minutes to capture it in a sketchbook, but I'd love to go back down to the area with a proper kit.



Some persimmons, because everyone draws them and eats them out here:



And an assortment of other things -- a fake skull missing its lower jaw, from our Halloween box:



Some stylized cacti:



Completely random doodles that may or may not have been inspired by the official Inktober prompts:



During the final stretch, I resorted to thumbnailing from photos I had taken.



To color my thumbnail sketches, I used QOR watercolor dot cards. I have been accumulating them at conferences, and it was really cool to put them to use. What's neat about these cards, unlike similar ones from Daniel Smith, is that the pigment is on a coated stock; none of the paint is wasted. I can wipe down the dot cards so they don't get too muddy.





That's it for Inktober 2018! Overall, it was still a good experience to participate in this challenge. I used a range of different pens, so that was a win. And yes, I couldn't resist adding some watercolor in there; I do love how it complements the ink lines.

How did you Inktober?

Sometimes life gets in the way of Inktober. I've still been drawing in the margins, but this month has been overfilled with Big Work Things. So I snatch minutes here and there.

Waiting for a Lyft car...



The view from Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve...



A stylized cactus...



A head, from TV...



A rooster, from a photo I took in Kauai...



Sometimes ambition is bigger than reality, but don't lose hope. The month isn't over yet!

Yep, the turning of the leaves means only one thing for us sketchers: Inktober time has arrived! Thirty-one days, 31 drawings. Post with the hashtag. Use the prompts provided by the website or do your own. Anything goes. This year, I may take a week and do a series of themed drawings. Or not. Will see where the muse tells me to go.



Today's effort was a hodgepodge of the stuff lying on my coffee table. Props if you can figure out what everything is.

OhMyGoodnessThisChallenge. At the beginning of June, I'd just come back from Hawaii, and the thought of doing 30 watercolors in 30 days seemed a fantastic way to get warmed up for the Urban Sketchers symposium in Porto.

So I started off strong -- *really* strong -- and then the doldrums set in. I found myself fishing for ways to make the challenge more interesting: using up random papers from my studio like Yupo...





...finding inspiration on television...



...even painting while riding in M.'s cargo bike.





Let's be real: I was bored.

But I kept trying.



And as the 30th drew near, I came up with lots of excuses not to paint. And then yesterday it all came pouring out. With a waterbrush, in the car:



At a cafe:



From photos:











Until I did, finally, make it to 30.

What I (re)learned through this challenge: (1) I get bored easily. Look! A bird! (2) I'm super competitive. (3) I procrastinate like a boss. (4) And when the deadline looms, I get it done.

Thank you Marc, Suhita, Liz, Uma, and Anne-Laure for putting me through this (excruciating) (awesome) month. I am truly grateful.

And that's a wrap! I sketched on my commute, at breakfast, and after work to get my remaining people in.













Lots of work, but so much fun! Thanks, Marc and Liz for the inspiration!

On Day 4, I celebrated International Women's Day by sketching women.







M. and I went out to dinner at a fairly large restaurant -- I thought it would be a quick way to get lots of sketches of women done. As it turned out, we were surrounded mostly by men. I had to crane my neck to see and draw the women. It made me reflect on how far Silicon Valley still has to go when it comes to gender parity.

Today I focused on the narrative for #OneWeek100People2018. What were the subjects doing? What did I observe? Everyone has a story.









Still working with a Sharpie pen and watercolor in a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. Forty-two done, a lot more to go!

It's a busy time at work, so I'm a bit behind on my people sketching for #OneWeek100People2018! Still lots of time to catch up, though.

Bicyclists brag about finishing a century. We sketchers have our equivalent, thanks to the lovely Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes.



The task is simple: Draw 100 people from March 5 to March 9. Post with the hashtag #OneWeek100People2018 so we can all see one another's work. That's it!

I did it successfully last year, and I'm excited to participate again.

Here's what I found to be helpful:

1. Drawing while I waited around, and on my commute
2. Drawing both small and large
3. Varying my tools and paper, to keep it interesting
4. Drawing women on International Women's Day (March 8)
5. Drawing just heads and faces, or drawing people from the back
6. Pacing myself and completing ~20 per day

I'm also taking advantage of All You Can Watch Weekend on Craftsy to view Lynne Chapman's "Expressive Picture Book Characters." It's quite different from urban sketching, but it's a fantastic guide to symbolic shortcuts that can help when drawing people on the move. Her book, Sketching People: An Urban Sketcher’s Manual to Drawing Figures and Faces, is also excellent.

And of course, Suhita Shirodkar's "Figure Sketching Made Simple" and Marc Holmes' own "Sketching People in Motion" are must-sees on Craftsy as well!

So, are you in for the challenge? What are *your* tips for getting it done?

I'm always curious to see how other artists are participating in the daily ink drawing challenge that is Inktober. Some are purists, only drawing in ink. Others are looser in their interpretation, stretching themselves to work in ink + other media.



I do a bit of everything. I'm also going easy on myself this year -- it's a busy time, so I'm letting myself catch up with multiple drawings if I miss a day.



I also don't stick to one type of subject. Some of my drawings are representational. Others represent only what's in my imagination. I also use this challenge to practice mark-making.



How do you Inktober?

I'm fortunate that I live in front of a large park here in California; I open the backyard gate and find myself faced with miles of trails -- a convenient subject for an Inktober sketch!



Yesterday's installment of Inktober was during dinner at Jang Su Jang, a Korean restaurant in Santa Clara.



The day before, it was a quick sketch from TV.