I think that, out of the 12 months of the year, I’m at my most annoying as a human when it comes to September and October. All I tend to talk about is Inktober, and all I tend to do in my free time is prepare for it - in this year’s case I spent a lot of time researching and figuring out concepts and compositions ahead of time so that I could be as prepared as possible. Let me take this moment to sincerely apologise to everyone who has had to encounter me and endure it over the autumn!
Every year I aim to be more prepared than the last, and every year something still manages to throw a spanner in the works. I like to finish a challenge like Inktober properly, starting and finishing a piece each day as well as uploading it to Instagram and interacting with other artists across the month. This year I found it harder than ever to juggle work and life with Inktober, probably because I was already a little burnt out with my Illustrated Poetry Week (blog post to come) that ended on the 30th September, and then - to make things even more difficult - I went away for a few days to Slovakia. I still completed and uploaded 31 illustrations, but I didn’t finish until the first week of November, although I’m not as upset about that as I thought I’d be because having a break in between made me appreciate my work far more than I would have done otherwise.
I started my research in early September. I knew I wanted to look at either folk tales or fairy tales, and I remembered that when I was little I had a collection that was perfect. 366 and More Fairy Tales had been up in the loft for at least 15 years, but I dug it out and trawled through all of the fables, fairy tales and folktales until I had a list of all the ones I was interested in doing, most of which I knew I’d need to research more. This is such an amazing storybook for children and, looking through it as an adult, I am still so impressed by how diverse the stories are. Alongside all of the usual suspects, there are tales from Africa, Japan, Russia, India, the Middle East and Europe. Through this as a starting point, I was able to look at a bunch of other amazing sources, all of which I will be featuring in the posts I’ll be doing about each of the lesser known tales - so stay tuned for that!
Once I’d managed to create a shortlist I did some initial thumbnails to get my thoughts down for some of the stories. I created a Pinterest Board that you can look through here that will give you an idea of the kind of style I was going for - I’m really inspired by wood carvings and etchings, and that’s how I came up with the concept of doing each one as a book cover. You’ll be able to see into my sketchbook with all of the initial thumbnail sketches and swatches in the upcoming posts for each obscure tale :)
Handy Tips I’ve Learned:
Yes, everyone says it, but it’s really not worth getting stressed over uploading every single day, or squeezing drawings out of yourself that are finished perfectly. This is always the most draining part for me and it makes me enjoy the whole experience less. There is no deadline for when you upload them all, and you don’t have to stick to a rigid schedule, especially one that doesn’t work with the other commitments you have going on.
Plan ahead as much as you can - especially if you struggle to come up with concepts or take a while deciding the tools and materials you want to use.
Keep your supplies in a handy case, including a pencil and rubber for sketching, a white pen for highlights etc. It really helps on days you need to draw or touch-up on the go!
I always keep a rough sketchbook, alongside the one I draw my final pieces in, where I can do thumbnails, colour compositions, test out concepts and notes etc. I find it keeps me from getting too overwhelmed with everything being in one bind-up, and allows me to play around with things before drawing out my final pieces.
I knew I wanted to have borders for each one of the fairy tale book covers, and so I drew those out in full at the start with my mechanical pencil and ruler. This saved me so much time every day because I could concentrate on each of the concepts straight away without bothering with a ruler all the time.
All of the Inktober pieces will be available in my Shop very soon - keep your eyes peeled for information on that! I will also be uploading blog posts on the more obscure tales over the next few days, starting with The Queen of Riddles!
How did you find Inktober this year? Do you have any handy tips? Let me know in the comments below :)
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