drawing trouble

My first idea was a laundry hamper full of stinky socks. My second thought was a giant watermelon. Then a bunch of bananas.

Inexorably I ended up drawing a sweaty but athletic gum gum person.

Some personal Inktober Fun Facts™:

• This is the first regular drawing I’ve done since 1985 or so
• Every sketch was done using:
  • iPad Pro 10.5 inch (2017 model)
  • ProCreate paint app using the Studio Pen brush
  • Apple Pencil
• Gum gum people are featured in 9 drawings; drawing them is a kind of meditation
• My favorite gum gum person sketch is for the prompt SLING
• The most “fail, start over” drawings I did for a prompt was five, for the prompt TREAD

I often found little mistakes or things I didn’t like in sketches, but never went back to fix them over the course of the month, with one exception–the prompt for INJURED is different on this blog than the original posted to Instagram. I fixed the arms and head because it just ended up bugging me every time I looked at them.

Overall, this was a fun experience. Much like discovering outdoor photography last year thanks to a kidney infection, I chose to do this at the last minute and am pleasantly surprised to have stuck to it.

Now I have to decide if I keep drawing and if so, what do I draw? An endless parade of gum gum people? Possibly!

Originally he was going to catch a fish but I couldn’t draw a fish I liked and didn’t want to cheat with reference. So I made it a hand grenade instead. I swear the pin is still in.

Happy ‘n hurt.

I did not use reference for the skateboard and moved/adjusted the wheels approximately five million times. But gum gum people!

In which a paintbrush takes the job into its own, er, hand?

This one should have been easy, but stumped me so much I was a day late. In the end I started with an entirely black background (dark, get it?) then waited to see what I’d do next. Spooky eyes, as it turns out. If I had come up with this idea right away, it would have been my quickest sketch, by far.

Mmm, cake.

Still more gum gum people and I need lessons on how to draw shadows.

I made a few attempts at drawing ancient ruins in the forest, looked at the time, panicked, and did a silhouette of Stonehenge instead. The excitement of a time limit!

Simple and spooky.

I tried and failed to draw a treasure chest freehand, so I cheated by using a reference image, then embellished it with, of course, gum gum people.