Inktober 2023 is here and once again... part 1

 

Once again, I'm back writing on this blog.  Yeah, I do it basically once a year and mostly because of Inktober.  

I was drawing with my colleagues at work last week in a one-hour Drawing Jam.  I decided to do all 31 days of Inktober on the one hour jam... as shown on the left side of this image below.  The rest of the artwork is done by my coworkers--they weren't following the prompts.  This was drawn on Google jamboard, which didn't have much tools to work with.  Still, I can at least say I did my Inktober prompts even before I did it "officially." Officially, meaning that I'd draw, more or less, one drawing a day.  I know for a fact though I won't even follow that rule.  No matter, it's all about daily practice anyway.

So, on to my actual Inktober...  My first image is of Rene Magritte, the surrealist.  He might just be my favorite surrealist painter.  His work is quite illustrative.  He paints with ideas more than technique, arguably-speaking.  Is he the greatest painter?  No... but his ideas are interesting.  He's like to surrealism what Philip K. Dick is to sci-fi.  Dick may not be amazing at writing and his prose might not be artistically articulate, but his ideas are challenging and fascinating.  You can branch his ideas into other deeper territories if you like.  Magritte is not like Dali, who is somewhat a bit all over the place, at least the way I see it.  I think of Dali when I think of David Lynch, the movie director.  A bit all over the place. There are ideas there, but they get a bit hazy...they're probably more about the style and aesthetic than the ideas anyway.  

For Day 2, the theme is Spiders.  Black Widow might just be the most popular amongst spiders.  Also the male of the species is very small and are said to become the female's food after mating.  I've heard mate cannibalism happens more for certain black widows as opposed to most.  Anyways, I placed a male one in there.  

Day 3 is Path. Well, I drew somebody walking on a path.  When I hear about a path, my mind often goes to the Robert Frost poem.  Perhaps he made the concept of the road a bit too popular to the point where it is something you just stop thinking about beyond the fact that it is synonymous to a life journey, perhaps singularly so.  I wonder what other interpretation you can get out of a path?  Civilization?  Building a legacy for future generations?  An escape?  Safety?  Knowledge?  Trust?  Faith?

That's it for now.  More drawings to come for sure.