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Inktober 2023
This year I was feeling the itch to use my traditional ink art supplies. I've been doing digital pretty exclusively this year, and I just wanted that tactile traditional art experience, you know?
This time I took the prompts and did a file search on my computer to see if there were things that matched. There were some photo references that matched the prompt words, but most of the matches came from a PDF book I had downloaded a long time ago called "British Goblins." So, I got to do some fairy tale illustrations this year! Very fun!
1. DREAM
Inktober time! My first Inktober piece is a redraw of a high-school piece I did. I had called it "House of Dreams."
3. PATH
This is a path I walked in Hamilton earlier this year.
I'm using pigmented Winsor & Newton inks for the colour in my Inktober art this year. I've had them lying around for a while and it feels good to use them finally.
I'm using pigmented Winsor & Newton inks for the colour in my Inktober art this year. I've had them lying around for a while and it feels good to use them finally.
4. DODGE
As I was looking for ways to adhere to the Inktober prompts, I kept coming across this PDF in my files called "British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions" by Wirt Sikes. It is filled with many quirky fairy tales and mythology, so I have designated a bunch of Inktober days to illustrating said quirky tales! I hope you enjoy this tale about a boy who accidentally sets a familiar free, and is compelled to give it a way to occupy itself.
4. DODGE
Here's the illustration along with the story that inspired it!
5. MAP
In my dreams, the geography/cartography around my home in Manitoba is distorted and exaggerated into a magical, surreal landscape. I have been wanting to draw it out for a long time, now, and this was a fun way to start. As I was drawing I realized that there's a lot more that could be mapped out around my house in the "enchanted" forest: encounters with different people, locations that were one way one dream and another way a different dream, etc. But for now I focused on some of the main landmarks of "dream Beaver Creek." Some tings that have always been consistent is that the creek itself is much bigger in my dreams - it is at the bottom of some amazing cliffs (perfect for diving off of). Our neighbour's house is always a castle on the top of a jutting spur of land. The area around Spooky Hollow (an out-building I used to play in as a child) is always enchanted and a bit scary.
5. GOLDEN
In the "British Goblins" book that I have, there's a fairy tale about a man who wins a fairy's love by throwing bread and cheese to her. (Seems legit, to me!) She marries him, but warns him that the marriage is over if he strikes her unjustly three times.
I hope you enjoy this piece of Welsh folk-lore as much as I did. 🙂
I hope you enjoy this piece of Welsh folk-lore as much as I did. 🙂
5. GOLDEN
Here's the Inktober illustration within the context of the fairy tale that inspired it! Pt. 1
5. GOLDEN
Here's the Inktober illustration within the context of the fairy tale that inspired it! Pt. 2
5. GOLDEN
Here's the Inktober illustration within the context of the fairy tale that inspired it! Pt. 3
6. DRIP
I Found a story in "British Goblins" with the word "drip" in it.
"...and it is said there be unhappy maids who have believed themselves doomed to marry a monster, from having seen through a cranny the horrible spectacle of a black-furred creature with fiery eyes, its tail lashing its sides, its whiskers DRIPPING gravy, gorging itself with the supper."
Love is risky.
"...and it is said there be unhappy maids who have believed themselves doomed to marry a monster, from having seen through a cranny the horrible spectacle of a black-furred creature with fiery eyes, its tail lashing its sides, its whiskers DRIPPING gravy, gorging itself with the supper."
Love is risky.
6. DRIP
Here's the Inktober illustration within the context of the "quaint custom" that inspired it!
8. TOAD
A great quote from British Goblins: "On a slimy stone a toad sat sucking poison from the night air." The story here is of a guy who recounts a time he was lured into a marsh by some "Ellylldan." According to the book, "The Ellylldan is a species of elf exactly corresponding to the English Will-o'-wisp, the Scandinavian Lyktgubhe, and the Breton Sand Yan y Tad. The Welsh word dan means fire ; dan also means a lure ; the compound word suggests a luring elf-fire."
8. TOAD
An account of a man's misadventure following some will o' the wisps.
9. BOUNCE
Another little gem from "British Goblins."
"At last the door is opened, when in bounces the merry crowd, among them the Mary Lwyd, borne by one personating a horse, who is led by another personating the groom."
"At last the door is opened, when in bounces the merry crowd, among them the Mary Lwyd, borne by one personating a horse, who is led by another personating the groom."
9. BOUNCE
Description of a Twelfth Night custom called Mary Lwyd.
10. FORTUNE
"Fairy money is as good as any, so long as its source is kept a profound secret; if the finder relate the particulars of his good fortune, it will vanish." Keep that in mind if you're ever given a gift from a magical person.
10. FORTUNE
The tale of Gitto Bach
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