Halloween Coloring Pages | Inktober 2016

It's almost the end of Inktober 2016! This was my first time taking part in Inktober, which is a 30 day art challenge running every October. Read more about the Inktober challenge and the art supplies I used. My goal was to execute seven ideas and sketches I had into ink drawings and some of them into coloring pages. I didn't set out to make 31 Inktober drawings, because I knew I wouldn't have the time. Not only was I making the ink drawings, I was also scanning and editing them for coloring pages and art prints, taking photos for Instagram and Twitter and filming and editing the inking process for YouTube. It would be fun to make a 31 page coloring book during Inktober, though. Maybe some other year. Have a look at the coloring pages I made and read what I learned from taking part in Inktober.

Halloween Coloring Pages to Print

The coloring pages I usually make represent the beauty of girls and women of different ethnicities and cultures. For Inktober, since it's the Halloween month, I wanted to more mythical women. I created a sugar skull girl, a Harlequin clown and two vampires. I ended my Inktober with two more culture girls.

All of these coloring pages are available as digital downloads in my Etsy shop. When you buy, you'll get a download link instantly after your payment is processed. You can print out the coloring page / coloring book as a PDF and color traditionally. You also get a JPG version to use as a digital stamp or to color digitally, if you want.

The way I made coloring pages during Inktober, was to ink only the outlines first with varying line weights, scanning the outlines for coloring pages and after that continuing to fill out bigger areas black. That way I have to scan each ink drawing twice, but the final piece with bigger black areas would not work as well as a coloring page.

Inktober 2016 Drawings

I made my Inktober drawings using black acrylic artists ink, white ink, dip pen and nibs on A4 size paper. I transferred my sketch onto drawing paper using graphite transfer paper. I used a brush to fill out black areas. Then I added details with white ink and fixed up mistakes (like spilled ink) with correction fluid. For the playing card design I added a bit of color using watercolors.

Short description on each Inktober drawing

Inktober 2016 Day 1. I started my first Inktober with La Calavera Catrina Sugar Skull ink drawing for the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos. La Calavera Catrina (Elegent Skull) is a representation of a skeleton dressed in an upper class outfit and has become the icon of Day of the Dead. José Guadalupe Posada's original La Calavera Catrina was a satire of indigenous upper class Mexican people who imitated European style, made their skin look white with makeup and denied their own cultural heritage.

Inktober 2016 Day 2. This graphic circus clown drawing was inspired by Halloween Harlequin clown make-up tutorials on YouTube. I altered the original sketch for an acrylic painting by adding patterns to the background and "CIRCUS" sign to make the clown pop. This was a really fun ink project.

Inktober 2016 Day 3. Halloween Vampire Girl ink drawing in black and white with very detailed hair flowing above her head. I enjoy vampire stories and series like Dracula, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot and wanted to modify my old vampire sketch for Inktober and into a coloring page. Now the hair is a zentangle like mess with bat wing shaped negative spaces.

Inktober 2016 Day 4. Angry Halloween Vampire Girl ink drawing in black and white with her hair flowing above her head.  I changed the original hair into an old tree like shape with bat wing shaped negative spaces. After inking and scanning, I changed the background color to black with GIMP.

Inktober 2016 Day 5. For this inktober drawing, I carried out an old idea: a playing card design of two sisters who are polar opposites and one of them is always upside down, no matter which way you turn the painting. The sisters ended up looking quite similar, but they can differ in their characters. This is not a design for a real deck of cards, it was just a fun, little sketch I wanted to ink for Inktober. I was actually watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians in the summer and sketched Kim and Kourtney really quickly in my notebook, because I was inspired by their long hair. For the actual playing card sketch, I only used my original sketches as references, not any photos. For the card, I chose queen of clubs, for no particular reason.

Inktober 2016 Day 6. Drawing a coloring page of a muslim girl wearing a hijab. For this Inktober drawing, I decided to make a coloring page of a sketch I drew for my Eid look acrylic painting. She's a muslim girl in her Eid jewelry, makeup and hijab. She has intricate Indian or Bollywood style jewelry on her forehead and pearls in her hijab. The background is a beaded curtain with flowers and heart like leaves.

Inktober 2016 Day 7. Inking a drawing of an Egyptian girl with flowers in the background for a coloring page.  I drew a sketch of an Egyptian girl in my sketchbook based on an old holiday photo from Cairo, Egypt. She just happened to be in the background of one of our Giza pyramid photos. I plan on making a painting of this sketch later, but for now I gave her a floral background and inked this piece for Inktober and into a coloring page. The flowers are lilies, hibiscus, mallow, cornflower and frangipani etc.

Inktober Videos

I filmed each Inktober day drawing process. You can watch my Inktober playlist here. Some start from transferring the sketch onto drawing paper and some show only the inking part.

What I Learned From Inktober

 

1. Inking with a dip pen is actually quite fun! And it's easy to change line weight even with the same nib.
2. Transferring the sketch onto a new paper before inking a coloring page, creates a lot cleaner outlines and is much easier and faster to edit after scanning. (I used to ink my sketch, scan that and edit out the extra lines and mistakes to make coloring pages. The higher resolution your scan is, the more there'll be to edit anyway. So it's best to have the ink drawing be as clean as possible before scanning.)
3. A patterned background will make the figure pop. On the other hand, a very detailed line art figure doesn't need a background at all.
4. You can ink with a brush, too. I prefer to only fill in black areas with a brush, though. I can't draw precise enough lines with a brush.
5. You can shade with water diluted ink. I tried this for shading the face and clothes of my last Inktober drawing: the Egyptian girl.
6. It's ok to make mistakes. Just fix them with correction fluid.

Happy Halloween!