#inktober2015 – Josh Hancock

As I mentioned in my previous post, part of the cool thing about doing Inktober this year was getting exposed to some amazing artist. Artur Sadlos‘ Inktober work blew me away for a number of reasons: 1) his sense of composition and design; 2) his creation of a sci-fi/fantasy world (which I’m always into); and 3) the simplicity of his quick sketches which had me believing I could actually try out his technique. His entire 2015 Inktober collection has been posted here on Artstation.

I’m definitely in the copying phase of learning right now. I’m trying to really build up my visual drawing vocabulary through live sketching and copying the work of others. Of course, I do venture away from these practices from time to time, but it’s scary:) I’m comfortable with it and I’m learning a lot. I think this is the quickest way for me to improve right now. So…I decided to try my hand at copying Sadlos’ Inktober work. Over the past few days I’ve done some sketches in my sketchbook and they’ve been hella fun–the kind of thing that keeps you going back to the sketchbook. I hope you enjoy checking them out as much as I enjoyed doing them and hopefully they can introduce you to this great artist.

Artistically speaking, this is kind of a big time for me right now–not because I got a big break–not because my art career is taking off (I’m not even sure if that is a goal). It’s a big time because it was around this time last year that my friend Jeremy Dale passed away unexpectedly at the age of 34. Jeremy was a comic book guy. Not only did he live and breathe the comic book world, but he also had built himself a nice career there. When he passed away, it made me want to do art. I wanted to honor him in some way…carry on his legacy a bit. My goal in trying to get better isn’t really to “make it” like Jeremy had. My goal is to carry on the legacy…to just draw.

So, last year I started drawing, and over the past year I’ve filled up three notebooks. And more recently I participated in the annual Inktober–a tradition started a few years ago where folks are challenged to do an ink sketch every day in the month of October. Not only did I find some amazing artists sharing their work like Karl Kopinski and Artur Sadlos, but it also got me into ink–pushing my brush pen, dip pen, and traditional brush inking in ways I probably wouldn’t have on my own. Even though a lot of my work ended up being quick sketches inspired by the work of others, I was able to fit in a couple original pieces that I’m proud of:

As well as a couple pieces I liked that were inspired by movie stills:

Well, I’ve got three more notebooks sitting around that need to be filled, so I guess I better get back to it:)

Tag: #inktober2015

Artur Sadlos Master Studies

Inktober 2015