All posts tagged Inktober

Inktober 2025 #1: Mustache

 Martin · 154 days
An illustration of a close-up of cartoon man gritting his teeth and squinting one eye. The other eye is wide open and is staring with concentration at the man's own mustache, where a tiny bug is sticking out. The drawing is textured with spray paint splatters and is in black and white.

It's the 1st of October, so you know what that means: it's time for Inktober!

This year, I'm following the "official" prompts, and today's is "mustache", so here's my entry for that one.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Fat Nozzle and Splatter spray paint brushes for background texture.

I hope everyone out there enjoys seeing my drawings and process throughout the month!

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #31: Landmark

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a flea looking at a map and scratching his head. The flea is standing on what appears to be skin, with a giant nose and bulging eye in the background, just on and over the horizon. The flea is a tan brown with flicks of darker color. He has a confused look on his face. The map he is holding looks like it was previously folded and features a non-descript topological map on the side facing the viewer. The skin in the background is light in complexion and speckled with darker spots, like freckles. The nose is on the right, with nostrils facing the viewer, looking like two round caves. The eye is on the right, just behind some long eye lashes. It is dark green. The background is a bright green with noisy paint splotches.

We're finally here: my last illustration for Inktober 2024! Today's drawing is for the prompt "landmark".

That's supposed to be a flea looking at his map. I originally wanted to make him standing in front of a giant pimple, as if the unexpected zit mountain threw him off his navigation, but it felt like it would look too much like a nipple, and I wanted it to be more recognizable.

Anyway, as with all the others, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Fat Nozzle, Splatter, and Flicks spray paint brushes for texture.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

And you can watch all the other drawing time-lapses from this project at this YouTube playlist.

Thanks to everyone who followed along this year and enjoyed seeing the drawings get made! 😊

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Inktober 2024 #30: Violin

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a ghost playing a violin. The ghost is a classic ghost shape, with a rounded top and long swooping body to a ruffled sheet tail. The ghost is curved to the right, leaning into the violin. It is holding it under its chin and playing it in a classic style. The ghost is a pale blue speckled with white spots that look like spray paint. It has its eyes shut in admiration for the music, with a slight smile on its face and pale red spots on its cheeks. The violin is brown, with gold highlights on the edges. Music notes hang in the air above the violin. The background is a dull purple, with a splotch of dark spray paint right behind the ghost and violin.

For my thirtieth Inktober illustration, I draw a ghost playing a violin, for the prompt "violin".

I'm not sure why I thought of this idea for the prompt, but I like the simplicity of it, and it was a good excuse to use the Inka brush once more. This time, I used it to make more outlines though, instead of just broadly defining shapes. I really like the texture I was able to add with the Fat Nozzle spray paint brush as well!

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Inka brush for linework, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Fat Nozzle spray paint brush for shading and texture.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #29: Navigator

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of the character Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island series of games holding up a severed, shrunken head known as the Head of The Navigator. The head is from the first game in the series, The Secret of Monkey Island, and it guides Guybrush through a hellish underground maze. The characters are drawn in the style of the third game in the series, The Curse of Monkey Island, with thin, even lines and large blocks of solid colors. Guybrush has a pale complexion, long face, and a large swoop of blond hair and ponytail. He is wearing a white shirt with puffy sleeves and a brown vest. He is looking ahead with a concerned expression. The Head of the Navigator is green and has large, strained eyes, sunken cheeks, yellow teeth in a permanent grit, and scraggily hairs scattered around his head. There is a ghostly turquoise glow emanating from him. His neck is cleanly cut just below the jawline, and two vertebrae are sticking out. He is being held up by Guybrush with a necklace with red beads and eyeballs attached. The background is a swooshy red and yellow that gets darker towards the top.

For today's Inktober illustration, I drew one of my favorite video game characters of all time, Guybrush Threepwood, holding the "head of the navigator", which guides him through a hellish underground maze in The Secret of Monkey Island. This was for the prompt "navigator". 😆

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Studio Pen brush for linework, the Inka brush for effects, and the Soft and Medium air brushes for shading and other effects. This is also one of the few drawings I've done for this series that also uses Procreate's built-in effects tools, like Gaussian Blur.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #28: Jumbo

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a small car driving in tandem with a massive pickup truck. The car is drawn in white and is being driven by a woman with short white hair and a white shirt. She is smiling. Directly behind the car, perfectly aligning with the bottom, is the large truck, which is drawn in black. It is twice as tall as the car and has fence-like boards put in the sides for holding cargo in the back. A heavy-looking man is driving the truck. He is smiling. He is wearing a small black cap, has zig-zag hair, and has his arm resting out the window. The cars and people are drawn in a flat, retro cartoon style. The background is a bright orange speckled with black and with faded white lines streaking across, indicating that the cars are in motion.

I really liked the style I used for yesterday's Inktober drawing, and I had a good idea for it that fit today's prompt, so I decided to revisit it for a second day. This one is for the prompt "jumbo".

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Grain Builder 1 and Worn 1 - Bold brushes for the background texture. Those last two brushes are from the Grain Shaders pack and Fast Grit pack respectively, both by True Grit Texture Supply.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #27: Road

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a man driving his car down a road, towards his home. The man and car are drawn in a retro cartoon style with an oversized cab on the car and everything in silhouette. They are in the lower-right corner of the picture. The road is drawn flat, without perspective, and travels left from under the car, up, right, down, and left again, making 90-degree turns and diminishing in size each time. There is a small cartoon house on an oval at the end of the road, with a door, square window, and angled chimney with smoke coming out. To the right of the road and above the car are pine trees, and the central area around the road is peppered with stylized grass drawn in 3-blade tufts. The background of the image is a bright blue that gets lighter in the middle, with bits of darker blue grit.

I was sort of happy to see today's Inktober prompt, "road", pop up on the list, because it felt like it could go in a number of places.

For a while, I'd settled on the idea of drawing the Rainbow Road from Super Mario Kart, but when I sat down to actually draw, I looked up reference images for it and just felt uninspired. So I went with a sort of retro-style illustration instead, and I kind of love the simplicity of it.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Worn 1 - Bold brush for background texture.

That last one is from the Fast Grit brush pack by True Grit Texture Supply.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #26: Camera

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a ceiling-mounted security camera. The camera has three logos on the side of it, in circle stickers: the OpenAI logo, the Meta logo, and the Gemini logo. The camera is hanging in a corner facing down and outward, partly towards the viewer. It has a large lens and a red light on the front. A blue wire extends from the ceiling mount to the back of the camera. The camera is a pale beige with a green tint. The lens is reflecting a rainbow of color, from pink to light blue. It is casting a hard, dark blue shadow on the red wall behind it.

I wasn't sure what to draw for today's Inktober illustration, but felt inspired after sitting down and thinking about it for a while. We artists are fueling the AI machine, mostly against our will and without any compensation, and a spying security camera seemed a good way to illustrate that idea.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Soft air brush for shading.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #25: Scarecrow

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of two crows laughing hysterically at a sad scarecrow in the background. Behind them is a field that extends to the horizon where a barn, silo, and windmill with water trough rest. The crows are a dark, gray blue, with yellow beaks and open, laughing mouths with squinted eyes. The scarecrow has a plaid shirt, red handkerchief, round head, and orange hat. His head is tan with a triangular orange nose, sad blue eyes, and a downturned, slightly open mouth. You can see the pole that he is staked to the ground with below him. The field is a pale green near the viewer, and a darker richer green beyond. The bard is a dull red, the silo is gray, and the sky is a light blue that fades to white near the horizon.

Back to cartoons for this Inktober illustration! These crows are laughing at the poor scarecrow. I kinda feel sorry for him... he had one job, and he just couldn't do it! 😞

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Syrup brush for linework, and the Soft air brush for shading.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #24: Expedition

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of a caravan of explorers going on an expedition. From front to back, the group is composed of a person riding an animal, three people on foot carrying packs, a bulky animal pulling a cart of supplies, two more people on foot with packs, and a large animal in a harness pulling a strange two-wheeled cart with a driver and passenger on board. The passenger is in a carriage that is suspended in the air with a large spring, and it is bobbing backward. The group is climbing a hill, following a switchback path, and are drawn in a dark red silhouette. The trail they are following is a gold color, and the ridge is orange and surrounded with sparse green bushes. In the distance is a large cropping of red rock, with a crescent shape on top, which frames the white sun. There are pink mountains in the far distance. The group is casting long shadows from the sun towards the viewer, over the hill.

Today's Inktober prompt was "expedition", which is a tough one. I also got a bit of a late start to it, so I wasn't particularly inspired.

I feel kind of bad for leaning on a similar style three days in a row now, using Procreate's Inka brush for each time, but I do like where it ended up. Also, I think reading Dr. Seuss books to my son is rubbing off on me a bit. 😆

As always, this was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Inka brush for everything else.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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Inktober 2024 #23: Rust

 Martin · 1 year
An illustration of an old rusty tractor sitting in a field. In the foreground is a broken-down fence through which the tractor can be seen. The tractor is missing its front wheels and is rusty and picked apart. In the distance are two giant, alien robots that are managing the green fields beyond. The scene is set at night, and a giant white moon is in the distance, casting long shadows of everything towards the viewer.

This is my twenty-third illutration for Inktober 2024, this one for the prompt "rust".

I used one of my favorite Procreate brushes, the Inka brush, for this one again. It took a bit longer to finish than last night's, and I'm not sure I'm completely happy with it, but it got about to where I envisioned when I started. I'm not used to drawing with a muddy color palette, so that was an additional challenge this time.

This was created in Procreate with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, using the Procreate Pencil brush for sketching, the Soft air brush for shading, and the Inka brush for everything else.

If you'd like to see how I drew this one, you can watch the time-lapse below:

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