Back in 2018, I downloaded Sketchy and decided to get serious about taking part in Inktober, a monthly online event during October where artist post an ink sketch per day. Rather than follow a list of daily prompts (like this one), I decided to set aside 30 minutes each evening to draw photos posted to Sketchy. I worked without a pencil drawing underneath, just a Pilot Precise Vision pen, because the rag paper in my sketchbook at the time was too delicate to withstand erasing. This forced me to think a bit more careful about the marks, while also accepting mistakes and enjoying the loose construction marks on paper. I also tried to experiment with method when I could.

Last year, I scanned a selection of my favorite drawings to post online and thought that since I am trying to move some work on to this website, I would share those here. Most use photos from Sketchy as a reference, meaning I can’t easily link to the sources. One of the images comes from a photograph of Marcel Duchamp taken by Carl Van Vechten.

As a final note, when I took part in Inktober in 2018, there weren’t yet the controversies surrounding the creator, Jake Parker. It’s not entirely clear to me that he straight-forwardly plagiarized the work of Alphonso Dunn, but the trademarking of “Inktober” and legal action against some people using it outside the narrow scope allowed isn’t something I can support. It’s enough that I decided to reconsider taking part in the challenge this year and will in the future take part in some other online challenge, one that’s actually open source.