I know you’re all just about sick of hearing about Inktober already. Here is my final post about it this year, just to wrap things up. I promise.

At 29 complete paintings, I didn’t quite finish the challenge. I am really satisfied with the work I put in this year though. Compared to last year, I’ve improved by leaps and bounds. Plus, I really enjoyed this challenge. I absolutely love drawing and painting skulls. They’re just so beautiful. I can’t wait to do this again next year with new skulls.

In case you were wondering, I kept it simple again this year as far as supplies went. The only new inking supplies were some ink, the palette, white gel pen, and a brush. I used an old, frayed brush for most of the challenge, but treated myself to a new one toward the end. Everything else I already had on hand.

• Dr Ph Martin’s Bombay India Ink in Black, White, Sepia, and Red
• Dip Pen w/ B-6 Nib
• #10 Round Brush
• White Gel Pen
• Empty Watercolor Palette
• Pipette & Water Jar
• Paper Towels
• Glass Cleaner (for cleaning up dry ink)
• Pencil & Eraser
• Pebeo Masking Fluid
• 1/4 inch Masking Tape
• Canson XL Watercolor Paper

The simplicity of supplies and affordability is one of the reasons I love working with ink. One little jar of ink goes a very long way. That said,I pretty much finished off my jar of black this year and my sepia is really low.

I don’t recommend the white ink. I found it consistently difficult to use and it never turned out the way I wanted. I bought a white gel pen that worked considerably better and gave me the results I wanted. I think I read somewhere that it can dry in the bottle, but I don’t remember where I read that. My bottle is at least a year old and the consistency was funky. It’s possible my problem stems from it being old. If anyone has any tips for using white ink successfully, let me know in the comments.

Now that these paintings are all done, I’m not sure what to do with them. Should I sell them? Turn them into a book? I’ve seen a lot of artists turn their Inktober challenges into books. I’m really interested in that idea. Plus, it seems so sad to just let them sit on a shelf without anyone seeing them. Let me know what your thoughts are.

I’m not sure what I’ll be posting next week. I literally haven’t picked up a brush, except to put it away, since October. I’ve been in a funk for weeks.

Lately I’ve been watching a lot of art videos on youTube, which is motivating me to pick up a brush again. I just don’t know what to paint. Without a plan I feel stuck. I know I don’t want to start another daily painting challenge right now since I have a big one planned for January. But I need to paint something between now and then. I think I should dip my toe back into oils. I haven’t touched them since March