Original Art Sundays No. 240: Inktober, days 1 and 2

Back in the art game! I decided to do Inktober, so I will be posting my ink sketches every day or so on Facebook and doing weekly compilations here.
For those not familiar, Inktober is self-explanatory. You do an ink piece every day in October.
We're only two days in, so a light week.
First up, a Star Trek pastiche- a quasi-Vulcan lady with overtones of Kes from Voyager.

 The light ink wash I did to set the character apart from the background a bit served primarily to wrinkle the paper and mess up the scan. I suppose I could have waited until tomorrow and scanned it on the good scanners at MCAD after teaching, but I was eager to post, so I'm letting the ugly stuff show a bit. Giving an allusion to setting with the star field window.
I've been enjoying Star Trek a great deal lately, but still haven't seen the latest film. From the friends I've talked to, it may be just as well, but as always, I'm trying to keep an open mind on it.
Materials on this one:

• Faber Castell India ink artist pen (ink marker)
• crowquill and No. 6 synthetic brush
• Pro Art India ink
• FW artist's acrylic white
• Canson 55 lb. paper sketch pad
• Preliminary done with lead holder, #4B lead and Magic White eraser. 

That was yesterday. Today was this.

This one is a stylistic departure for me. This is a preliminary for a piece that's been tickling the back of my mind for a LONG time,  and I want to fully realize it before I comment on it in any depth. Yeah, it's a pastiche of a young Blackhawk, but I'm not saying any more about it right now, at least as far as content.
Materials used:

• Faber Castell India ink artist pen (ink marker)
• crowquill and No. 6 synthetic brush
• FW artist's acrylic white
• Pentalic Corporation Paper for Pens. I've had this tablet forever. I don't even remember where or when I got it. I've never used it before, but I really like it! It's strong, durable, takes well to erasing and drybrush, especially since it has no discernible tooth. I'll be using this a lot more! Tough, responsive paper!
• Preliminary done with lead holder, #4B lead and Magic White eraser.

I do hope I can keep up with Inktober. I like it. It feels good to just do art again, for its own sake. The graphic memoir is important, but the content weighs on me, making it difficult to get anywhere. I understand why Stuck Rubber Baby and Fun Home each took years! I've not abandoned Sharp Invitations- far from it. Scripting for the Daddy's Song chapter has had a breakthrough, and my revisiting of the Curt story is coming better than its absence here would imply. Re-pacing it from the rough version proved elusive, since it was such a complex time. It's hard to clarify the elaborate without boring a reader, but I think the improvements to the script and pacing will prove worthwhile.
Next: either more Inktober, some Sharp Invitations, revisiting the Blackhawk thing, or a miscellany I have laying about.

Original Art Sundays (Tuesday) No. 231: Next Sharp Invitation, p.3

This story is now done, but I'm still posting a page at a time until I get them all out there. Why give away the farm?

Once again, enjoying the local color of the paper as picked up by the scanner.
This page went through several iterations. I tried the resort sign for the first panel, and what is now the last panel was originally larger and on the opposite side of the page.
The level of detail could be higher in places, notably in the woodsy scene in the last panel. I was torn between fleshing out the detail and keeping the energy. Once I have the grant requirements fulfilled, I will go back and take more time on each page.
This page also offers the challenge of being an exposition-heavy page. So much of this work is thoughtful and solitary, it's a real challenge to break up the text!
Right now, my primary concern is getting a completed version of the work done and printed by May 15!
Again, digital lettering using ComicCraft's Colleen Doran typeface. I find it has much more character than the one I had previously used, Clean Cut Kid.
The hawk logo in panel three references Blackhawk, of course, though I think it's actually the Hawkman logo. It comes from a typeface called Hall of Heroes that is just superhero logos!

I presented this work last Thursday at MCAD as a work in progress. Attendance was scant, about a dozen people, all fairly receptive. I was honored and humbled to present the work. The meaning and scope of what I'm doing becomes more clear by the day.
Next: page 4.