Inktober: Fish

Every year I observe the fantastic Inktober creations from everyone in awe. You see, I have been a bit shy to participate, and as you may have noticed, I usually reach for watercolors in my works. There is quite a difference between ink drawings and watercolors. What is the difference? I think creating something with ink is a lot harder as once the ink dries, there is not much room for change. Quite frankly, ink scares me, and there is a long path of mastering and improvement ahead of me in this medium. It can be overwhelming at once, but the most important thing is to find your way to use the ink, your voice, your style. That’s something that kept me from trying for many years. Thoughts like - There is no way my linework will be so masterful, smooth, balanced, clean. My stuff does not look like these sweet ink drawings. None of that! I even drew some themes last year and never posted because of this type of thinking. Sadly, I am probably not the only one struggling with these issues.

Time to stop comparing and instead level up! Every finished piece is the steps walked towards the improvement. Grab your supplies, face your fears, and be playful! You don’t have to do every theme, every day like the rules of Inktober say. It is all up to you and for fun, so keep that in mind. I, for one, have decided to do one theme per week to take the pressure off.

_{I ordered a bunch of inking supplies that I will show off with the next posts ^^ Here is a sneak peek of the process for the grumpy Inktober fish}

There are many ways to handle ink. This time, I went with my watercolor style, which means I used water to dilute the ink throughout the fish, which created a pretty cool texture and patterns to it. And to make it pop, I used another favorite technique of mine, dotting the darker areas. What do you think? I am happy with the result, and the grumpy face of the fish cracks me up xD