Halloween

#inktober #31 - mask

A few months ago, I went to a performance of traditional Chinese opera and dance at our local Chinese garden.  One of the performances was of face changing, which I had never heard of.  The dancer had about a dozen fabric masks, probably tucked up in her headdress somehow.  She flicked from one to another, in plain sight, and I never saw the transition.  She even danced into the audience so we could watch up close.

This, thank god, is the last day of Inktober.  The woman who proposed this project to me originally set it as a 100-day challenge of daily sketches.  But she herself is exhausted, and going to quit after today, and hasn't come up with a list of prompts to continue it with.

#inktober #30 - found

...along with her finder.

#inktober #29 - united

The black one is Aramis.  He came to me in 1998, as a young and totally clueless tom.  The gray one is Pippin.  She somehow lost her mom in 2009, when she was about 8 weeks old.  Aramis found her and brought her home, and they've been a bonded pair ever since.

Portland Art Museum

Our assignment was to copy one of the paintings in the exhibit of the Wyeths and turn some part of it into a word.  I did two, one by Andrew, titled "Fog Bell", that I choose for its simple blocks of color.

And another by N.C. of an illustration of gnomes bowling that he did for Rip Van Winkle, that I picked out the highlights and did white on dark.

And then, just for fun, I sketched the skull of the monster skeleton that's part of the exhibit for Laika.

#inktober #28 - fall

#inktober #27 - climb

John Callahan Garden

A crowd assembled for the dedication ceremony.
And I thought it'd be fitting to try to sketch some of them in Callahan's style.

#inktober #26 - squeak

This actually happened.  A few years back, when my cats were still allowed outside unsupervised, two of them managed to corner a mouse.  Then Aramis, my oldest, walked up and touched noses with it.  And then flopped over on his side and invited it to play.  It, however, chose to skeedaddle instead.

#inktober #25 - ship

I was googling for sailing ships and pirate ships when I suddenly remembered the ship moored on the Neva during the Scarlet Sails festival, way back from when I was living in Leningrad.  I managed to find my sketchbook from that summer, but found that I hadn't actually done the ship.  But, I did find its souvenir pin.  Sadly, the scarlet had faded over the past 40 years, leaving the faintest of blushes.  But I put it back in.

#inktober #24 - blind

Chinese Garden

#inktober #23 - juicy

#inktober #22 - trail

#inktober #21 - furious

#inktober #20 - deep

A contra-tuba, which is a musical instrument with a pretty deep register.  And used in marching bands, no less.

#inktober #19 - cloud

#inktober #18 - filthy

Last year I fostered a couple of orphaned kittens.  After every feeding I'd spend a chunk of time grooming them, cleaning the spilled milk from their faces, and dealing with the other end as well.  But they ended up being pretty filthy anyway, since my warm, wet washcloth wasn't nearly at scrubbing as their mom's rough tongue.

#inktober #17 - graceful

#inktober #16 - fat

#inktober #15 - mysterious

#inktober #14 - fierce

#inktober #13 - teeming

On Friday the 13th, no less.

A pile of pumpkins in front of New Seasons.

#inktober #12 - shattered

A self-portrait.

#inktober #11 - run

#inktober #10 - gigantic

I reached back into January and did The Tree That Fell Over.  And added an arborist to show scale, imagining the first of the PGE crew to arrive looking up at the tree and trying to decide how to take it apart.

Meeting

...to discuss next year's concerts in the parks.

#inktober #9 - (western) screech (owl)

#inktober #8 - crooked

#inktober #7 - shy

#inktober #6 - sword (fern)

#inktober #5 - long

I thought about snakes. And dachshunds. And cats lolling in sunbeams. But in the morning I joined a crew pulling weeds in my local park. And what's really long?  It's ivy.

I wasn't terribly happy with the composition, and would have started over and tried something else.  But at 10:30 at night with a promise of a sketch a day, it just ain't gonna happen.

Kalina's opening reception at Lan Su Garden

I actually got there early, so I could have a go at the koi in their pond.  For inktober, whose prompt today is 'underwater'.

There's no way that I'm going to get in the pond with the fish, so I just drew a fish's outline (a white one, cause the dark one's were already disappearing in the gloam) and then draw in what I thought his belly would look like.




The second sketch of the day was easier - the back of the jazz musician on the bass.

Inktober #3 - poison

Inktober #2 - divided

Fading water lilies

Inktober #1 - swift