drawing – a curious nature

November 4, 2024

Searching for a theme to follow during Inktober 2024, I was delighted to learn one of my favorite podcasters and nature journal educators, Bethan Burton, shared her original list of 31 prompts. Named “Inktober in the Garden,” she cleverly chose each word to represent a different phase or activity encountered while gardening. To quote Bethan, the prompts are “aimed to get us thinking in different ways about the beauty of our cultivated space.”

Living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where it’s now Spring, Bethan’s garden theme was very timely for her. However, October in central New Mexico where I live, is smack dab in the middle of Fall, so I relied on past gardening experience to create my daily ink drawings.

I hope you enjoy my 31 Inktober2024 tiles, inspired by Bethan Burton’s “Inktober in the Garden” prompts. I decided to only complete one tile/day; in the morning while sipping a cup of tea, I’d sketch a drawing with only ink (using a Pilot Varsity nib pen). Then later in the evening I added the color coaxing pigment from my limited number of Venus Spectracolor colored pencils (the remains of a 40+ year old set which constantly break and refuse to blend).

A big thanks to Bethan for sharing her Inktober2024 prompt list, and for being a constant inspiration through her podcast Journaling with Nature, and for bringing the world-wide nature journaling community together for her annual International Nature Journaling Week, where we can explore, share and celebrate a passion for nature. To learn more about Bethan and nature journaling through her podcast, participating in future International Nature Journaling Week, sign up for her Blog and Newsletter, follow her YouTube Channel and Instagram account, visit her website at: https://www.journalingwithnature.com

Here’s a bit more about this thing called Inktober

Inktober was originally created by Jake Parker in 2009, and since then has been deemed an annual event that takes place throughout the month of October. The rules devised for participants were, and still are, pretty simple …… Every day 1) make a drawing in ink; 2) post or share it; 3) hashtag it with #inktober; and 4) repeat.

Since 2009, there’s been an official prompt list shared every year by Jake and his Inktober group (https://inktober.com). But there are also many alternate lists generated, which participants can follow if they wish, or they can choose to work from their own prompts. Also since 2009, participants have not only worked in only ink, but have created colored drawings. Actually any media is fair game (wonder if anyone uses collage?), as bending the simple rules seems to be the norm. As Jake notes on the Inktober webpage, “you can do it [Inktober] daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post once a week. What ever you decide, just” remember “Inktober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.”

And if you’re interested in participating in future Inktober events, just do it! Find a prompt list or create your own, and join the month-long party beginning each year in October!

This concludes my 9th year of Inktober!
As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Photo display correction has been made in this second post, which has the identical in text as the first post presented earlier in the morning, please disregard the first post and apologies for any confusion. Barb

September 23 – October 7, 2024
For the last 7 years, I’ve participated in the annual, 2-week long sketching/drawing, painting and mixed media event, Sketchbook Revival, founded and hosted by a talented sketchbook artist, Karen Abend. Every year, Karen brings together a cast of creative artists for a mega on-line teaching marathon. Each day, 2 1-hour recorded sessions are available to hundreds of participants from around the world, providing an opportunity to interactively learn a skill or technique designed to begin or expand on a regular sketchbook practice. These sessions may include book binding, mark-making, collage, creating imaginary characters, urban sketching, composition, landscapes, flowers, mammals and bird painting, people or pet portrait drawing, nature journaling, Zentangle, map making, story telling, textiles, and on and on! Techniques shared by instructors involve a wide-variety materials, like watercolor, gouache, acrylic, markers, pencil and pen, colored pencil, and many forms of mixed-media.

The whole fun event is designed to stretch your creative comfort zone by experimenting with art supplies and new approaches to art making, and encourages play. And as incredible as it sounds, all you need to participate is your time and whatever materials you have on hand. Otherwise, it’s totally free! Wowza!

Not every session needs to be done (and this year there were 30 sessions in 15 days); I usually find time to complete about half of them. But this year I did all but one session (and may even complete the one skipped). From the very diverse cast of artists/instructors, I was able to learn new tips, techniques, approaches, and was invites to try new art supplies that would be useful in my regular sketchbooking and nature journaling practice.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy my 2024 Sketchbook Revival “play!” Not all are great or even good (a few are downright awful!) but it was so much fun! Maybe something from my collection will have you laughing, or maybe even entice you to give Sketchbook Revival 2025 a whirl!