Historically during my Inktober endeavors, this is the span of days in which I fall behind, feel uninspired, or just don’t carve out the time to get the creative momentum needed for 31 ink drawings in 31 days. This year is going slightly better than previous years. I’m only falling behind by 1 day at a time, or managing to stay right on top of the deadlines.
So here are days 6 through 10 with non-optional commentary:
Of course, John Carpenter’s The Thing could’ve been used on several of the prompts this month (Freeze, being the first thought, and Snow being the second.) Though the “Husky” prompt gave me pause to hold off until day 6. This also marks the first time I’ve had to time and motivation to scrap an entire drawing!
My initial design was an attempt to replicate (much like the alien organism from the film) the scene in which the stray husky dog reveals itself to be an extra terrestrial being while trying to consume and replicate the other dogs in the compound. The finished product (not pictured) looked more along the lines of the Demogorgon dogs from the second season of Stranger Things. So draft 2 steered in the direction of the Blair Monster from the film’s finale. Which for some reason, still kind of features a dog monster protruding from it’s “belly.”
Day 7 was a doozy (as you can probably see…) 2016 gave us the creep-tastic New England folk-horror The Witch (or the VVitch, as it’s spelled on the poster) and I’m amazed I managed to forget this bonkers bit of cinema.
This piece also allowed me to start playing with heavy shadows and contrast a bit as well. Drawing from memory wound up looking a little too cartoony to bring across the extremely visceral nature of the scene, so photo-referencing the screen grab turned out to be the right way to go about this one.
Have fun with those nightmares, new moms!
The Machinist is another film that kind of tows the line between “thriller” and “horror.” Ultimately, it’s a fantastic little send up to classic Hitchcock style storytelling.
Two parts paranoid protagonist with a secret (that he’s even unwilling to let himself in on. Two parts score consisting of 90% theremin and creepy strings and put in a blender with a 85 pound Christian Bale and this is one unsettling piece of cinema. This paired nicely with the Day 8 prompt “Frail” and turned out far better than my entry for the same film last year.
This one stumped me for some time. How to interpret “Swing” appropriately for the theme?
Eventually I threw in the towel and decided to dial this one back for the sake of completion of the project. After all, one of the pointers on the official website is to not stretch yourself too thin. If simplicity benefits the long run, go for it.
So, Pit and the Pendulum it became. I’ve never seen the movie. I’d read the story in high school. C’est la vie. I think it turned out pretty good either way.
Day 10 was a fun one. “Pattern” could’ve gone a few different ways, but I’ve become fascinated by the chevron floor pattern used throughout the multiple entries of the Twin Peaks mythos.
The original series maintained a certain camp to it, almost laughably, for its initial 30 episode run from 1989 to 1991 but always had a sinister element just creeping behind the (ominous red) curtain. This lingering dread was thrust to the forefront in the 1992 follow-up film, which was VERY poorly received at the time for leaving the series cliffhanger in the dust in lieu of a prequel focus on the last days of pilot episode murder victim Laura Palmer.
Eventually, audiences would come back around to this entry (just in time for the delightfully bonkers and, oftentimes, thematically terrifying de-facto 3rd season The Return.)
Meanwhile: Posts are being made (mostly) daily on my Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Days 11-15 write ups will be arriving soon!
Wil Smith Illustration 