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Challenge Accepted, part 2

I am so excited about pen store launching a new “pen store talents” challenge. It feels like I’ve waited for ever for it tbh.

In spring 2023 I decided to buy a pen pack from the Swedish store “Penstore”. The pack contained 8 different pens, pencils and markers. The challenge is fairly simple. You have to create a work using all of the pens (and only those pens). I’ve basically waited this then to do it again! Especially since it’s also been a chance to try materials I wouldn’t buy myself and definitely wouldn’t assemble and use together.

This time around the challenge contains 6 different pens, pencils and markers. I’m not gonna lie, the task is somewhat daunting. I find it a bit challenging that I only have pink, yellow and green tones to work with this time around. Ever since I got the pack 1,5 weeks ago. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to make using this limited pallet. I was also hoping they’d choose a fineliner that was slightly smaller than a 05. 😂


I use fineliners a lot, but mostly 003, 005 and 01. So, the nib on a 05 feels incredibly large!

the nice thing about this pack tho is: I don’t know pentel had released fineliners (I will have to get a complete pack so I can test it out) and I didn’t know talents had launched and entire marker series with Pantone. 😍 both feels pretty major to me!

at the same time I’m really excited that this is a challenge that truly challenges my way of thinking around my own work. To have to work on thoughts such as “what the heck am I to do with a yelllow highlighter”. Which is a somewhat negative and limiting way of thinking around it in stead of a more positive attitude: how can I utilise this?

And also that I have until October 14th to come up with something.

so far I’ve only tested mixing the different materials.

if you would be interested in checking this out here is a link to https://penstore.no/no/talents

disclaimer: I am not associated with pen store in anyway. I am not sponsored by them. This is not an ad. I sought out this challenge of my own accord and paid for it using my own funds. 🙂

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It’s been almost a year..

…Since I posted anything to this site. Idk how a year almost went past without a post. Maybe my goals were too high? Life was too stressful? It was probably a combination of many things. Life has been super busy and combined with some pretty high-goals for this page, it was all just a little too much. Geekytown is all about my love for paper, pens, paints, markers and drawing. So, now I’m trying to kick it down a notch.

In that regard it feels proper (and extremely giving) to do a solid photo dump. Not a WHOLE years worth, but at least couple weeks.

In the past few weeks ive been giving into my love for pink-paints. (Just look at these shades of pink). So many to choose from and I’ve been having a ton of fun with it. Many a shadow person has been drawn on pink-watercolor backgrounds lately, a couple has also been made using a pinktone for their foundation). The pink coupled with sepia fineliners from sakura pigma micron is extra nice looking.

This is probably my fave shade of the bunch. Not only does it pop. It kind of sucks me in and holds me captive.


I’ve also been enjoying some great pink sunsets as well. Which has really underscored my pink-obsession.

love,

Gina

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The drawing challenges of October

There are many drawing challenges out there. The most well known challenge is probably Inktober.

For those who don’t know what this challenge is: The people who run the challenge creates a prompt list. There is a new prompt for every day in October. Their stated purpose is to give both amateur and professional artists a challenge as well as a way to gain some potential attention for their work. They share several works by different artists for every prompt. There are no requirement for you to do all the prompts. You will have to decide this for yourself. They also have a weekly challenge where they have a new prompt for each week of the year.

There also are other alternatives to inktober in October. Some of them go for a 31-day prompt list with an overarching theme, while others go for shorter prompt lists with an overacrhing theme. Such as the drawtober challenge which gives you a six prompt challenge with an overarching theme that changes each year. This year they even had prices you could win.

There are instragram pages that run new monthly challenges all year long. There is the “Mermay” challenge hosted by a page on instagram every may for those who are intrested in mermaid-art. In other words, if you want to challenge yourself for what ever reason or if you want access to prompt lists that might help you with ideas and personal development as an artist. There are many available options for you. Simply googling “prompt list art” or “inktober” should provide you with some good choices.

Personally, I find these challenges to be super hard. So, I guess its not for everyone. When I have attempted both the inktober challenge and a challenge called drawtober. I often get stuck on the idea that I have to do every single prompt, even tho that is not a requirement. Its not like they track each and every individual artists involvement and progress. The challenges in and of themselves is something that is offered to you as a place to get ideas, stay engaged, but most of all challenge yourself.

I guess, I will just have to work on not being so hard on myself when i fail to reach some pretty large goals that I often don’t really have the time or energy to finish. I also thought it would be fun to talk about some of them now that we find ourselves in November. Safely away from inktober (insert laugh/cry emoji here).

Ive tried inktober several times with varying results. This year I decided to give the drawtober challenge a try. 6 prompts seemed far more doable than 31. I managed 3. As it turns out Im not good with the whole following a prompt-list. I work far better if I have an idea and follow that idea until completion. Luckily, I have ideas for drawings all the time and a fairly good system of how to keep the ideas for later. I keep a sketchbook where I do quick sketches with notes. That way i don’t loose them. As a practice this works really well for me.

Drawtober 2023

Prompt: overgrown cemetary

(note: I was not happy with how this turned out so i lost a bit of my motivation)

Drawtober 2023

prompt: a devious meal

inktober 2021

Prompt: loop

inktober 2021

prompt: Vessle

drawtober 2021

prompt: send in the clowns

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with inktober, drawtober, mermay or any other Instagram pages or companies that run art-challenges. The purpose of this post is to talk about existing challenges as a way of sharing my personal experience and share some related art.

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Face your fear

In late 2021 I got the opportunity to co-create a magazine issue. The art magazine «Agora» was a Prague based art magazine that sadly closed its doors in April 2022. The title and theme for this issue was «Movement».

For the magazine I developed the idea for a four-picture story called «face your fear» featuring Poxy and a small cast of Shadow People.

This was the layout that was featured.

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Metamorphosis

A story in three pictures.

Confined

Confined

Constricted

Consumed

(I just want to add that i really love the idea of the shadow people. Who went from being a simple idea of things that live in the shadows and have morphed into something else. Now they play many roles tbh. within the Geekytown universe and like every other character they are also me)

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Lessons learned, part 1: Alcohol Ink

This post was intended to be a review of the product, instead Ive decided to start a new series of posts called “Lessons learned”. I guess one could say that life in general is littered with mistakes, big and small. This one was of the messy sort that could have had a big impact on my furniture.

The good thing about making mistakes and about all of these mistakes in particular is that it worked out fine. Nothing was ruined beyond repair.

I came across a sale at a bookstore that had these great packs of alcohol ink from a reputable maker. Ive never tried this product before. After seeing other people making beautiful things with alcohol ink, Ive been dying to test it out.

My mistake was: I didn’t read up on the product before i opened the package.

I have experiences with alcohol ink in the form of markers. So, when I found two boxes of Marabu Alcohol Ink in a sale at bookstore I was super excited, but really unprepared for what type of product this is.

I live in an apartment with mostly white furniture, these bottles of ink contain highly pigmented liquid that is difficult to remove. I put down my drawing board on the white, living room table. Tried to open the bottle with scissors. Luckily for me. The bottle of purple ink was difficult to cut open. This was also the time i decided to move my operation into the kitchen sink. XD

Lesson learned: Read up on new and unfamiliar products before use. Youtube is a great place to learn from people who do have experience. Observe the type of set up they use when working with a product or material that is unfamiliar to you.

I placed my six bottles of highly pigmented ink in the sink and continued to cut open a bottle of a bright pink.

The result was pink ink in the drain, on the sides of the sink and on my hands

All of it had to be removed using nail-polish remover.

I still finished what I set out to do. I used the special, non absorbent paper that came with the box to make color tests.

A drop of each color was more than enough to make some nice, colorful blotches on the paper.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the maker of this product in any way, shape or form. This is not an ad and I have not been asked to test the product, to write a review or received any type of compensation.

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Fleeting adventures

When I started drawing using stippling as a technique I started drawing hot air balloons. Ive never been in one, but seeing them in real life, in pictures, in clips: They are pretty cool, aesthetically beautiful and work great as a vehicle for aesthetic purposes.

When I made these two in 2021, all I wanted to do was dot and create something aesthetically nice to look at. I also wanted to test other ways of making the balloon. Until I made these, I typically made other choices regarding the balloon. I had never used stippling as a way to create texture for the balloon itself. I started working on them after Id finished “Into the Galaxy”.In a way, I enjoy the contrast of the sets. One in black and white, one in color.

I’m pretty happy with the results.

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Into the galaxy

I live in a city and as with most cities we experience light pollution. If I was to make a written bucket list seeing the Milky Way at night would be featured at the very top of it. On a starry night, we can see the stars, but only the strongest ones. There are of course places you can go to heighten your chance of seeing the Milky Way. Im not gonna lie, all of that sounds like a lot of work and planing.

Luckily I create pictures using myself as a character and I can send her on whatever adventure I feel like. This is how the two part series “Into the Galaxy” came to be. Poxy is in a balloon. Floating around in a star-covered scenery.

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Challenge accepted

Earlier this year I saw a Swedish stationary store announce a challenge/competition they were hosting. It sounded really intriguing. Hard to pas up. It was a pay-to-enter. The rules were fairly simple. You had to get a pen-pack. The pack contained 8 pens. You had to use all of the pens for your project.

I started the challenge by doing swatches of all the products involved. I also started drawing out some ideas so I could get familiar with the different types of pens I had to use. This took me on a creative ride that was pretty fun.

I also feel the images that came out of this is such a good example of a creative journey. How you might start with a color pallet and an idea, but by the time you finish some central elements might have changed. When I post on Instagram its often stuff I’m super happy with, that feels worthy of showing off. The mistakes, the bloopers and the stuff I’m not that happy with is often not put on display. (I know I’m definitely not alone in this).

Here Ive failed to add the paint-marker from pilot. It was a beautiful baby blue. Underneath is the final image that was submitted to the competition (I did not win, nor make a top 10 placement).

It is pretty fun to look at the different types of ideas and pictures I made before I landed on that final image. It started pretty rough. I was curious to see what would happen if I used a blue sharpie to make the sky. I have to admit that this is not my best work. Trail and error is an important part of the learning process tho.

While making the first image I did kind of fall for the idea of the hot air balloon being fueled by a lighter. The second image I created centered around that idea.

The same went for the third and the forth pictures. At the same time I also narrowed my idea down further.

This is not the best picture I could possibly take of the final result, but Im pretty happy with what I landed on.

Choosing to do the sky in this was also inspired me to do several other pieces with the same background.

Dotting in the sky with a 05 sakura pigma micron pen was enjoyable to say the least and also very relaxing.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the pen store in any way, shape or form. This is not an ad for the company or their competition. I’m simply sharing my experience.

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Review: Derwent Line Maker, Sepia

Derwent is a renowned company that makes art supplies. It has a pretty long and rich history. The company itself dates back to 1832. Which is pretty impressive. They originated in England, where they have a Pencil museum located in one of their original factories. They still produce their products in England. Which I find to be a cool fun fact.

They have a large line of products and are known to make high-quality pencils, colored pencils, graphite blocks, and accessories.

Personally, I have limited experience with their products. Beyond using their graphite pencils, I don’t have much experience with their extensive product line. I do have a massive interest in fineliners. So, when I discovered their “Line Maker” I had to try it.

There is a limited amount of art supply stores in Oslo. One of them carry the fine liner “Line maker” from Derwent. One of the things that piqued my interest was the shape and look of the fineliner. I like the hexagon shaped end of the cap and the translucent plastic. It makes it very identifiable from other markers.

The pens used in this is the 3-pack of Line maker containing 01, 03 and 05 pens in the color Sepia.

Sepia is the name of the color and is a shade of brown. The shade often vary depending who makes the pens.

I used the pens on my prefered paper for fineliners Hahnemühle´s nostalgie which is a 190 g/m2 paper in natural white. The size of the paper used is A3. The ink of the pens looks really good on this paper. The flow of using the pens were good. Until one of the nibs frayed.

One of the things that are important to me about fineliners is the longevity of the ink. How long the ink in the pens I use the most will last.

I dotted in the background using the 05 pen. I didnt experience much smudging which is great.

The durability of the nibs are also important. For this I ended up using the 01 pen the most. Although I wish I had a 005 pen available.

I experienced fraying of the 01 pen as I was working on the mountains, which over all gives me a negative feel about these pens of the variety: wouldn’t buy again.

Disclaimer: I am not in anyway affiliated with Derwent. I bought this product of my own free will and with my own money. This review is created on my own initiative and reflects my honest opinion based on my experience with the product.