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@smceccarelli hi, Simona! It’s good to have you back in the forums. Will you be doing Inktober next month?

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen thanks! I’ll look forward to see your work too.

Another still life pair. Over half way done with assignment 5!

Some recent client work watercolor some comic pages

Hallo Kristin!
Like you, I don‘t work in ink, so Inktober - as awesome as it is - has never had much appeal for me. I did it once a couple of years ago and used it to work on a project - a short graphic story I wanted to see in the world. I‘m happy I did it and it thought me a few things. For social media, I‘ve been creating my own challenges or joining others that are more aligned with the type of work I do. Here are two to check out: Colour Collective (spelled the British way) is taking place every Friday (submission at 7:30 GMT @clr_collective #colour_collective). It‘s a challenge based on a color, given out every week on Twitter. It‘s very active on Twitter, but you can use the handle on other channels too. Another one that I‘ve been thinking of doing now and then is Animal Alphabets (@animalalphabets), also on Twitter.
Both run continually, so it‘s a good „filler“ that whips up some social media interest without being a month-long committment.
But then, you can create your own challenge, as big or as small as it suits you! Doing 3 portfolio-level illustrations and documenting your process may be more useful for you and still give you some new followers!

I wouldn't really call what I do inking but it does involve ink. Mainly I'm outlining things in ink but nothing special about it. And, I never follow the prompts at all I do monsters usually with ink and watercolor. This year I will make monster coloring pages from kids descriptions. So far I just have 4 so, I may just work on inking for my other book project so I can get that started. I look forward to seeing the fauxinktober creations!

@Julia Hi Julia. I, like you . do books for a hobby. I have found 3 FREE programs that I am learning to use. Not sure if they work with Apple computers though. They are Inkscape (Illustrator subsitute), GIMP (photoshop substitute). and Krita a painting program that you can use a tablet with. They all work with each other. I suggest using GIMP for cleaning up drawings to print. I use the clone tool and that's about all I have ever needed just to clean things up. If they don't have these programs for Apple, maybe there are some other ones. Maybe you can look up Freeware for Macintosh and see if you can find anything.

I started out playing with stars in inkscape. It turned out into black shapes on dark green. I cut and pasted and rotated them in GIMP and drew a fairy on my touchscreen, filled with a bucket fill and then painted roughly over the parts. I played with a lot of filters and ended up wth some shadow and light stuff. Drop shadows and a couple different light ones which I can't remember now. I should probably write down the ones I know. It's not great, but I'm learning. Hoping t keep a hmemade looking style as that is what I like. I would have liked to make the wings more transparent. I need to figure out how to change teh opacity on just a portion of a drwing still. Thank goodness for google. Maybe next time.

BTW, feel free to give me some tips or even "assignments" to try if you like.

Anyone out there who can't afford, or doesn't want to pay for expensive digital programs, these are really pretty good. I found the Inkscape tutorials I like at TJ FREE Inkscape tutorials on youtube. They are nice for beginners like me. The lessons are not too long and give you enough to play around a while until you're ready for the next one.

Time to get off my butt and move a little! Good night!

@Braden-Hallett said in Your Classroom is Our Classroom:

I'd have to say that the number one thing I'm learning from doing these classes week by week (and having 'done' a BUNCH by just watching the videos) it is really important that you take some time to practice, and to let the info kinda 'soak in' if you get what I mean.

Totally agree!! I started by just watching vids, then realized I was treating it like netflix or something. Not a helpful way to do it.

One thing I learned by watching the How To Draw Everything (and other beginner drawing classes) is that you CAN draw everything if you remember to work from large (shapes) to small (details). I always have to start over when I forget to work that way.

Right now I'm going through the drawing folds and wrinkles class. Not finished yet, so about the biggest thing I've learned so far is that I'm too impatient haha!

@Laurel-Aylesworth Ugg that has happened to me before, but I have a habit of just pressing crtl+s every couple minutes.