“InkTober” 2015: my month of model sheets

When my friend (and Watusi jam participant) JB Winter first pitched me “Inktober“, a drawing challenge to do one ink drawing a day for the entire month, I wasn’t initially interested in participating. After all, I figured, since I draw in ink all the time, it’s really not that big of a challenge to me. After checking out Inktober instigator Jake Parker‘s website on the project (including his review of his go-to inking tools), and seeing some of the amazing drawings that participants produced during the first few days, I figured I could at least do the “5K” option of posting once a week. So I decided to indulge my general love of model sheets and draw up some decent ones for four members of my Watusi cast. If nothing else, having that reference should help me be able to keep my characters in proportion to each other! For those of you who missed them on my twitter feed, I’ve collected them here for your enjoyment.!

The first choice was a no-brainer:

Next up was Professor Harvey. He shows up pretty regularly in the strip, and figures prominently in the next storyline– a storyline that starts today, coincidentally! Unfortunately, I think he came out a little stiffer than usual in these drawings…

And if Professor Harvey’s around, Mitchell can’t be far behind! I was pretty happy with these; not needing to do a front view/back view/side view, but just a variety of monkey poses helped breathe some more life into these drawings:

To round out my quartet of model sheets, I was at a bit of a loss for who to draw. When I remembered how I kept taking notes on police uniforms as “The Case of the Purloined Pocketwatch” (which starts here) wore on, I figured I could use this chance to clarify what I wanted before the next time I needed to use a police officer. I thought Delores would be more fun to draw than Chief Stone, so:

The “Inktober” challenge turned out to be better for me than I first thought. Who knows, maybe I’ll even try a more ambitious project next year…