In wanting to get active with my fellow doodler community, I wanted to stop in and introduce myself. My name is Dalton Stark, I live in Texas, and i'm a doodle addict, and an advocate for the possibility of anything. For me, doodling is my purest state of being human. My sketchbooks are a very sacred place for me to practice this expressive and arcane form of imagination meditation, which I'm always trying to find more excuses to spend more time in. It is to me, all about intuition, making discoveries, surprising yourself, having fun and maybe even making yourself and others smile or laugh sometimes. I look forward to being a part of this beautiful inky ecosystem with y'all, here are some very secret sketchbook spreads.
While reading Don Quijote a few years ago, I drew sketches like this one for each chapter. Check out all 128 illustrations at www.yagmourian.com/gaston/projects/drawnquijote/
A challenging media—Crayola wax crayons!
A self-portrait: I find that I’m grasping for something that always seems to be out of my reach. I didn’t bother to enter the official competition because I don’t have access to the specific colour set that they specified in the brief. I did enjoy drawing this self portrait with a medium I would not have considered. An awesome change of pace!
Superstitions: Virginity.
The most bizarre superstition about virginity was the notion originating from Central Europe that a woman who gave birth to seven illegitimate children thereby regained her virginity.
(gel fineliner pen on 115mm x 87mm paper) I did this piece to test out those cheap fineliner pens that you can buy for £1 for 3 from TheWorks stores. They're pretty good for what they are, as you can see. They're 0.38 in line width and the gel ink is quite opaque.
Outside my drawing table window are straight and weeping birches. We lost one of the birch trucks and, tragically, a beautiful OLD Japanese maple during an ice storm a few years ago. The third trunk is still in my mind's eye.
I started this with the Doodle Addicts Pre/post quarantine diptych drawing challenge in mind, but I didn't make the deadline (I started it on the day of the deadline, so it was a little ambitious!). The first half of the drawing represents before the corona virus and the second half is after the virus and kind of living with it. No pencil, just straight into the drawing with ink. It's rough, but I like how it turned out and there are some fun characters.
I drew some dogs on commission for a friend (the simpler Corgis), then wound up messing around after I'd scanned them. Dogs dogs dogs. As far as the snout can sniff.
Due to financial/logistical reasons, I can't do literal linocuts as often as I'd like, so I draw my illustrations in reverse, flip them digitally, have them printed, and then color them in by hand. The result is basically an "artist's print". I only make one of each. These were watercolor, but I've recently discovered gouache, so keep an eye out for future pieces that incorporate that.
Whew!!! About 50 hours of work split evenly over line work and color. I think it’s finished ( famous last words)! I’ll check on it again in a few days for any final details... and get some good camera shots instead of phone camera. .... but I’m happy!
Here are more Inktober paintings! My sketchbook is getting crinkly when I turn the pages from all this ink. I love that sound. It echoes the sound of crunchy leaves outside. Ah, fall. HALLOWEEN FOREVER.
The angel featured here looks a little bit like she was barfed out by Tim Burton. I drew these while I was watching Westworld. (Feel free to just talk about Westworld in the comments if you'd like.)
