I’ve started the #Inktober challenge this year, an art challenge to try and complete a piece of inked art every day in October.

I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to stay on-track for this challenge with a house move on the horizon, but so far, so good!

For the first few days of the challenged, I focussed on a relatively simple character design to get used to the tools.

Piece No.1: Anders the Imp

This guy is Anders, an imp who’s not convinced he’s up to the challenge of saving the world.

He’s from one of my writing projects, a middle grade (primary school/chapter novel) story where kids are trained to summon and tame demons to fight other, wilder, scarier demons trying to break their way into our world.

Do they have a choice? Not really.

Why can only kids be summoners? Reasons.

It’s terrible, awful, no good reasons, isn’t it? M-maayybe how did you guess.

(Materials used: Manga Studio art software with Frenden brushes.)

Piece No.2:Diego

And this is Diego, from my DIVIDE THE SKY project. I had fun nailing down this guy’s design and hairstyle, but I’d like to try colouring this piece some time.

(Materials used: Uniball Eye Rollerball pen.)

Piece No.3: Anders with Brush (Mewtwo Pose)/strong>

This isn’t a great piece, but I was getting used to inking with brushes again for the first time in years.

(Materials used: Indian Ink and brush.)

Piece No.4: Anders with Brush 2

Still not great with the brushes, but stronger than before.

(Materials used: Indian Ink and brush, Uniball for the finer facial details.)

Piece No. 5: Anders with Bandana (Line Weight Practice)

Went back to the Uniball pen, my favourite tool for the job, but figured out that I wasn’t varying my lines enough and started working on that.

(Materials used: Uniball Eye Rollerball pen.)

Piece No. 6: Anders with Scarf

Getting much more of a feel for this dude’s design now, though I’m still uncertain on his final colour scheme. Started incorporating some thicker-nibbed pens into my inks as well here.

He got the scarf as a present from his summoner, and he’s damn proud of it

(Materials used: Uniball Eye Rollerball pen, Steadler pigment pens for stronger lines.)

Piece No. 7: Anders, Sassy Pose

One last shot at this guy before moving on to other characters. It was fun to see his design evolve through this challenge.

(Materials used: Uniball Eye Rollerball pen, Steadler pigment pens for stronger lines.)

Bonus doodle:

Character Design Ramblings

To give you an idea of how much this guy’s look has changed, here’s some original concept sketches for him.

The original concept: a little too spiky and unfriendly, a little too human. I spent a while trying to work out how to soften his design while bringing it closer to a horned, demonic look more fitting for an imp.

I still like how roughed-up he looks, though.

Anders and his ‘ascended’ (tougher, scarier, more dangerous) form King Rat. Pinning down how his design could transform into something darker was a big part of finding an Anders design I liked.

It also meant I could mess around digitally and find a colour scheme that linked them both, but also implied a change (and personality conflict).

This guy’s a lot of fun to work with. His story’s on the backburner just now, but I hope to get back to it soon — fiery tempered, fighty imps are tons of fun to write.

So, with that 500 words of babbling done, this is an inked-out Emma signing off.