Tag Archives for InkTober2016

InkTober: Day 5 – Sad

Technically, I’ve never lost a pet. I say that because I don’t think one goldfish eating another is a pet going astray. When I was a little girl, my parents weren’t big on having animals in the house so my pet choices were limited to different varieties of fish that I could watch swimming in a bowl or small aquarium. Sadly, I can remember waking up one morning and there being one less fish in the aquarium. According to my parents it hadn’t died, so the only remaining conclusion was that the smallest fish was eaten by one of the larger fish. Although I wasn’t happy about that loss, I don’t remember being overly sad. I think I was more curious about how or why the poor little thing was gulped up.

I imagine I would have genuinely felt sad if I had lost a bigger pet, like a puppy.

InkTober - Day 5 - Sad

InkTober: Day 4 – Hungry

I know how ‘hungry’ feels, but drawing it is another matter. I looked at the InkTober prompt list before going to bed last night so I could give myself a chance to think of something clever or at least interesting to depict the prompt, however, that might have been a mistake. I’ve had plenty of good ideas, only to realize that the level of difficulty to create any of the images I’ve thought of is beyond what I can successfully, or more importantly, recognizably draw.

So I decided to stop thinking and just let my pencil go where it goes. I’ve been making a pencil sketch then filling in the ink after for my drawings, which is one of the InkTober graces I’m very happy to have while working on this month-long challenge.

Here’s what hungry looks like when I don’t think about it too hard…

InkTober - Day 4 - Hungry

 

InkTober: Day 3 – Collect

This summer while my cousins visited me, one of the many activities I planned included spending time walking through the simulated rain forest environment of a butterfly conservatory. I’ve been there a few times over the years but it always amazes me to see the beautifully patterned and colourful wings of the many species of butterflies collected there as they float around on their delicate wings. My cousin’s six-year-old was not as impressed as we were because she does not like ‘bugs’ as she called them, and especially the kind that can fly. Because of her fear, she stuck quite closely to her mother and declined to have any of the butterflies rest on her, as they often do with the many visitors that pass through the conservatory. I bought myself a display box with two beautiful Amazon Blue Morpho Butterflies and my cousins bought me a butterfly magnet as a birthday present.

Amazon Blue Morpho Butterflies

Today’s InkTober prompt is ‘Collect’, and I know it may seem like a stretch to connect a butterfly conservatory to that word but that’s the memory that surfaced for me. I’m not sure I’m going to start collecting butterflies, although they are by far my favourite insect, most likely because to me they represent transformation. In addition to the conservatory, I recently saw a video of Daphne Guinness’ collection of beautiful butterfly boxes and butterfly inspired art in her Manhattan apartment. It was interesting to see how she used her collection of butterflies to beautify her living space and make it feel like home. Upon reflection, because of these encounters with butterflies in recent months it may not be so farfetched that the word ‘collect’ led me to think of these incredible creatures.

InkTober - Day 3 - Collect