Inktober 2019

This year, for Inktober, my goals were to form a sustainable work schedule for balancing content creation with full time work, as well as get more comfortable with my lineart as solid standalone work, and to achieve cleaner lineart more effiently.

This was my third attempt at Inktober, and I was determined to finish all thirty-one days. I opted to follow a single subject matter: a story in progress of which I've been actively overhauling an existing first draft. I also chose to stick to digital inking to increase my chances of finishing with a full time job in the mix.

Overall, it was successful! I finished the challenge, and while I did utilize occasional color and grayscale tones more often than my original goal dictated, I'm happy with the result!

Here is the lineup of the pieces that came out of it!

DAY ONE: RING - A modulator, a device that drives and stabilizes the expression of superhuman abilities called "Compatibilities."

DAY TWO: MINDLESS - When traumatic circumstances do away with modulators, Compatibility becomes a permanent bad time for all the recruits, but especially for this one.

DAY THREE: BAIT - "I'm sorry, we're sending Void where as what, now?"

DAY FOUR: FREEZE - Patrick, our protagonist and 6'10" deer in the headlights.

DAY FIVE: BUILD - Patrick wasn't athletic before entering the ICNS, and thanks to his Compatibility, he grew 12 inches taller like 2 weeks ago. He has a lot of catching up to do.

DAY SIX: HUSKY - The recruits' trainer and caretaker. Former gymnast, ex-military, hired to take a pack of teenagers coerced to join the ICNS and turn them into a superpowered task force.

DAY SEVEN: ENCHANTED - This wasn't in the original draft but stories have a way of telling themselves and these two deserve each other, anyway.

DAY EIGHT: FRAIL -

"It's okay, I feel fine today."

"And yet your cane's out. Hand over your bag, James. Come on, give it."

DAY NINE: SWING - Well, she's gotta fend off that humanoid plant thing somehow. Presentation's half the battle.

DAY TEN: PATTERN - "James was often tempted to think of the marks as his misdeeds branded into his skin; a testament to his cowardice and failure. But they were really a byproduct of his efforts to set things right. The marrow-deep stains of the Q-13 were a badge of courage, not of shame."

DAY ELEVEN: SNOW - It's pretty and all, but James is a crotchety old man who has to drive back home in that eventually.

DAY TWELVE: DRAGON (fly) - "Those are good luck, you know."

DAY THIRTEEN: ASH - "We can't save each other, but we can find out together what good the world still holds for us, if you want."

DAY FOURTEEN: OVERGROWN - A couple of fugitives, neither fitting well on the pullout mattress, but Patrick just got his best friend in the world back. He's happy.

DAY FIFTEEN: LEGEND - "I look like a vampire!"

(Embracing Compatibility had some unforeseen side effects.)

DAY SIXTEEN: WILD - "Collin! It's me!"

(Subconscious defensive instincts. Definitely not a problem.)

DAY SEVENTEEN: ORNAMENT - Anyone arrested under political circumstances are tagged with a huge hole cut out of the cartilage of their right ear. While some choose to leave the hole to scar, this one wears a silver tunnel gauge in his.

DAY EIGHTEEN: MISFIT - "It felt like the beginning of a confession. That maybe Patrick would never feel like he belonged to this group of kids, as he had never quite fit anywhere, but that he wanted to fit with them. If that was okay."

DAY NINETEEN: SLING (s) - A lot's happened. He kinda needs a haircut. And a nap.

DAY TWENTY: TREAD - "There had been rumors that the government was developing a new kind of threat."

DAY TWENTY-ONE: TREASURE - "Welcome home, Mom."

DAY TWENTY-TWO: GHOST - Compatibilities are, in part, selectively activated with the use of a modulator and inert the rest of the time because their bearers would be impossible to keep track of otherwise. Especially the team's youngest.

DAY TWENTY-THREE: ANCIENT - "James Siles dreamt he was at the end of his life."

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: DIZZY - The telepath's biggest risk in the field is getting attacked while she's in someone else's head, and, therefore, not amazingly present in physicality. Pulling out too abruptly is disorienting.

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: TASTY - "Pan Dulce!"

Care packages are coming in from the recruits' parents. Patrick is half Mexican on his mom's side, and she knows where to get all the good comfort food.

DAY TWENTY-SIX: DARK -

"I'd like to make sure he's all right."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would. Your very own human weapon."

"My ally. Mel's son. Your brother."

"But not just Derek anymore. Just Derek wasn't good enough for either of you."

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: COAT - "Patrick had always allowed his Compatibility to feel transitory, a body plan he could assume but which wasn't fully real. Donning a uniform tailored to accommodate it felt like inviting it to stick around, to become more than just a pretend state of being."