People: I stopped drawing for a while. I came back from Labor Day weekend and just stopped. I had my sketchbook and pen with me all the time, but I didn't take them out. I had a block. Work was all-consuming. And nothing was coming out of the pen onto the page. Every day I told myself, I'll draw tomorrow. And then tomorrow would come, and then... and then it was October! Which, in the drawing world, is Inktober!

So I decided it was time for tough love.

Recall that I have all those inks from the workshop I took at A Verb for Keeping Warm with Judi Pettite. I parked myself in the studio, put on some music, and got them out.



And I did, and got caught up on my Inktober debt.











Sometimes you're in a drawing drought. It happens. Just have to drag yourself out through sheer force.

Well, not really trainspotting, but rather spotting things from a train. This is what I saw and sketched as I rode the train from San Jose to Oakland two weekends ago: mounds of salt. Where does all this salt go? Is it part of Cargill's salt works in the Bay Area? Possibly; I have no idea, but it was fun to get some more Inktober drawing in.



I colored the sketch with a waterbrush (yes, my favorite Pentel Aquash L) and one of those Daniel Smith watercolor dot cards I seem to accumulate from USK symposium goodie bags and sponsor giveaways. I think this was the Jane Blundell palette. The dot cards are a great way to test out new pigments and color combinations.

After several days of late-night Inktober sketches from my imagination, I was determined to do something different yesterday. So I got front-row seats to SJDanceCo's performance, Roots & Wings, at the Hammer Theatre in downtown San Jose.



There was just enough light from the orchestra pit and stage to see the paper. I sketched this with a Sharpie pen in a Canson Art Book Universal - Sketch. It's a relatively thin paper; this sketchbook is one that I started in Santo Domingo in 2012 and have come back to every so often. It's liberating to draw on this paper, as it keeps me from getting too precious with the lines. If I mess up, I don't feel bad about turning the page and starting over.



Drawing these dancers was incredibly challenging. They moved fast and contorted their bodies in positions that weren't easy to comprehend much less capture on the page. When I added color later, I tried to keep my washes loose and minimal. I made notes on the page to help me remember the colors, as photography wasn't permitted.

The sketch at the top of this post is of a solo performer -- she used a flowing red piece of cloth as her foil in her graceful, emotional piece.

Another act seemed to involve the dancers' fraught relationship with clothing of various kinds. Still another celebrated the joy of childhood, with props including a large balloon and a tricycle.



Have you ever tried sketching a dance performance of any kind? What are your tips for capturing the fluidity of the bodies as they twist and leap around the stage?

Still going strong with my Inktober sketches. Here's one from Martial Cottle Park, and then a series of late-night quick captures from my imagination (seeded by the official Inktober prompts).

Unlike in 2015, I wasn't as diligent about sketching every single day for this year's Inktober. Distractions included the ongoing soap opera that is our election. Still, I managed to crank out a good number of drawings.

Here's a quick portrait of M. done with a bottle of Higgins Blue waterproof ink that I found at a tag sale ages ago.



A quick one of Santa Teresa County Park on an overcast day.



And the KQED building in downtown San Jose.



The interior of a deli in Carmel.



The third and final Clinton-Trump debate.



Faces from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.



The corner of 18th and Guerrero in San Francisco's Mission district, while waiting for a dinner reservation.



A carpet beetle, to serve as the reference for my Halloween costume.



A quick prep sketch for a commission I'm working on.



The Mountain View train station, while waiting for the MVGO shuttle to the office.



Inktober wouldn't be Inktober without some surreal word association sketches (M. opens vintage National Geographic magazines and gives me five words at random; my task is to tie them together in a drawing).







Some faces from TV.





And last but not least, a little Halloween sketch.



That's it for this year's installment of Inktober!

Only a few more days till we're in November! Need to catch up on my scanning and posting. Here's Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE magazine & Maker Faire, being interviewed by science writer Kara Platoni at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park.



We have lots of deer in our neighborhood (though none in our yard, thankfully). I sketched this one from a photo I took.



And here's a little corner of our study/guest bedroom.



Yes, I confess I've been a bit on-again, off-again with my Inktober sketches this year.

Another year, another Inktober! Every day in October, a new sketch in ink.

Thank goodness the month is over. My daily InkTober drawings often devolved into strange late-night surreal scribblings, as I'd ask M. to give me prompt words. Here are the remaining ones, just to close out this bizarre month: