Inktober '23

For Inktober 2023, I chose to experiment with a variety of digital ink brushes and textures, focusing on improving my sense of composition and dynamism.

Here are a select few illustrations that I particularly enjoyed creating, each accompanied by a brief excerpt detailing my thought process behind them-

1.DREAM

Came up with the idea from an actual dream I had where I was shrunk down to the size of an ant. For some reason, the image of a giant, feminine snake speaking dialogue akin to a biblically-accurate angel seemed like the obvious next step.

2. SPIDERS

Think Mad Max, but with jet-fueled rocket spiders instead of cars.

3. PATH

This was originally supposed to be a mentor handing his apprentice a sacred artifact as reward for reaching the end of a seemingly endless path, but I later changed it to two adventurers trying to navigate their way around the path instead.

4. DODGE

Based on the classic “hero faces a towering monster” trope seen in popular media like Dark Souls and Elden Ring. This was also a means for me to learn how to better portray movement and use varying line weight for the same.

5. MAP

Heavily inspired from one of my favorite video-game series’ of all time,
“Monkey Island”. I really wanted to show a zany pirate crew discussing the whereabouts of treasure on a magical map that shows everything live and in 3D.

6. GOLDEN

Expanding on the pirate theme a bit, something about the idea of a pirate shark getting its tooth replaced with a golden one seemed hilarious to me.
I also really loved drawing tiny men working with absurdly large dentistry tools.

7. WANDER

I was sketching at a McDonald’s when this idea sprung into mind. I started with the concept of a straw being a “Sip n’ Slide” for miniature people. One thing led to another, and it resulted in a group of people claiming pieces of fast food as their territory to wander about.