I did a bit of inktober

I wanted to draw every day, but that turned out to be very unrealistic. So let’s focus on the positive, which is that I made some doodles, and probably had more drawing time than I would have had without the Inktober fun/stress πŸ˜€

I managed to draw some pizza and some people and stuff for this year’s Inktober. And I decided to only draw Inktober drawings in my sketchbook and with pens and markers (not digital drawings).

As I mention in the first post I chose to follow the Inktober prompt list by Agata Zlotko this year. I loved the list and it made it easy to think of something to draw. For other Inktober years I’ve literally spent all day trying to think of something to draw that would fit the prompt. Which made it even harder to get something down on paper.

Btw check out my Inktober drawings from last year via this tag: Inktober 2020 – and you’re very welcome to check out Inktober 2019 here and 2018 too, while you’re at it.

I don’t remember how it went, so I think I’ll have a look after writing this πŸ˜€

As you can see, I recently switched to captioning my posts on Instagram in both Danish and English, so if you follow me over there, just scroll down a bit to read in English πŸ™‚ I also switched my handle to jo_illu which kind of works in both languages, I guess.

I love writing in English, but sometimes it feels a bit strange, since most of the people who follow me on Instagram are Danish speakers and people I know. I’ll continue to write in English here, though πŸ˜€

I had a lot of fun drawing these three doodles for October 5, 6 and 7 from reference, which is something I don’t do very often. So I think I need to do that more, it’s very good drawing practice to draw random objects.

I’ve always found mugs and cups are incredibly difficult to draw. And I think these drawings show that I’m struggling. But I had fun drawing the patterns πŸ˜€

Weirdly, I made two doodles on the 20th which ended up being the last day of Inktober for me. Welp! Hope you had fun with this catch-up post.

I did a bit of inktober

Good parenting 😬

My first comic of 2021, and the first since baby. Woohoo!

After starting to draw again yesterday, I was apparently on a roll and managed to sketch out a comic.

Btw you can check out my previous comics via the tag: comic.

As you can see, me and my BF are just as goofy as ever even though we’re now parents.

Drawing process

I worked a bit differently this time. Normally I draw a sketch and then redraw it either on a new piece of paper or digitally, sometimes several times.

To make my drawing process quicker, however, I picked up my pencil sketch from yesterday and made a couple of adjustments, and then made the clean black line directly on top.

I don’t mind that the final result isn’t perfect and still shows some pencil and smudges.

I actually think I prefer working like this, because my initial sketches are always cooler than the redraws, I think. Don’t know why, but I’ve heard other artists say the same about their work. The first doodles somehow have more life.

Sorry for the blurry bits of text, photographing the pictures was a bit rushed.

Materials

I used a random, cheap black ballpen and my Faber-Castell PITT artist pens in the colours Warm Grey V 274 and Warm Grey III 272. And I use a sketch pad with cheapish, yellowish paper πŸ˜ƒ

Good parenting 😬

Baby nap doodles

I’m back! Ok so I’ve barely produced any doodles since producing a baby from my uterus. But today I decided to try to draw at least a BIT while the baby sleeps.

Nap doodles!

It’s an idea, let’s see if I can make it happen. Here’s a 10 minute doodle of some babies.

I don’t really know how to draw a good baby even though I look at one 90 % of my time 🀷🏼 I guess I’ll have to practice!

Post baby posting

I probably won’t write very much for each drawing. But it’ll be a success if I can draw some doodles, because I know it makes me happy. And I hope they also bring you a laugh or even some creative inspiration.

For a while after the baby came, I didn’t even think of drawing. I guess I didn’t have the energy or mind space.

Now she’s 3 months old and thriving and I really want to get back into drawing. It’s good for me to have down time that’s not screen-related – even though I still love my YouTube and Instagram scroll time.

Precious naps

I’ve realised that the challenge with having a hobby as a parent, or just getting anything done, really, is that nap time is so short and precious.

During baby’s naps I can eat or go to the bathroom. TBH I often take a nap myself. Or try to read the news, which is sad but obviously as important as ever. But really hard when your brain is occupied with poop, enough burps, milk, “is she cold/warm/bored/tired??!” and many baby smiles πŸ₯°

Fun fact πŸ‘–πŸ‘–πŸ‘–

Today I put on jeans for the first time since before Christmas. I dont know what it is, but wearing them always makes me feel somewhat accomplished, even before really doing anything.

Maybe they were part of the reason I got a doodle made πŸ˜… I only have one pair that fits my postpartum body, though, so I’ll probably stick to sweats most days still.

Thanks for reading all the way through! I definitely haven’t gotten less rambly now that I’m a mom, lol! But if you’re following this blog, you probably don’t mind the word vomit πŸ˜†

Baby nap doodles

Baby butthead

I made another comic about the baby teasing us from inside the belly πŸ˜€

It’s a quite messy sketch from my sketchbook that I made about 3 weeks ago.

Back then she still moved around a lot, but now I think she’s facing down (towards the exit!) Which is a good thing, because today there’s exactly one month to her due date.

At my last checkup the doctor wasn’t sure if she felt the baby’s head at the top of my belly – or if she “just has a very round butt”!

So she might be playing tricks on us!

I get a lot of wild kicks quite high up, though, but then again – they could be punches πŸ˜€

Last night, we went to a birthday party* and the baby had a dance party in my belly all the way home, so I almost couldn’t concentrate on my driving.

I’m not great at drawing babies, but I guess I’ll soon have a tiny model to look at and maybe improve a bit on the anatomy πŸ˜ƒ

*Seeing people is “allowed”, because Covid seems to be under control in Denmark at the moment – but we all kept our social distance anyway. We’re not trying to be reckless! Just thought I needed to clarify. We’re in fact trying to be extra careful from now until baby time.

Baby butthead

This week’s things

Some stuff involving food and animals happened in the house this week…

drawing peanutbutter and coffee sketchbook doodle
The heatwave + my pregnancy brain makes me do weird things and not remember I did them!
drawing cat and frog sketchbook doodle
But they apparently like to visit.

Neighbour Cat knows she doesn’t live in our house (I think). So she walked out the door willingly with a look that said “Oh hello Neighbour Humans,Β I was just stopping by. See you!”.

The frog, however, took a while to get to leave the basement. It escaped from my hands the first time I grabbed it, jumped onto the table and then hid under a closet. But in the end, I managed to get him into a bucket and ran out into the garden before he did another wild jump for freedom.

He didn’t seem to believe one bit that I was trying to help, that I would do my best not to squish him, and that living outside is much better for a frog.

This week’s things

Flower sketches

I thought I’d share these two different doodles. I made a traditional drawing in my sketchbook first, and a couple of days later it inspired a digital doodle of the same cute flower creatures.

Flower sketch made with marker and coloured pencil.
Flower doodle made in Gimp.

I like both doodles, but the digital definitely took longer to make. I tried out a drawing style that looks like it’s drawn with marker on paper.

Using my sketchbook as inspiration for digital drawings is nice. Then I don’t have to think of something to draw, but I can use my energy on trying new colouring techniques.Β 

When I made the previous post (Orange pepper), I realised that I didn’t have a garden tag on the blog. So now there is one!

Since moving into a house I have plants on my mind a lot of the time. I guess they’re a classic thing to draw, and I’m very bad at drawing leaves and trees and stuff like that. So I’ll probably post more practice doodles of indoor and outdoor green things on here πŸ™‚

Flower sketches