Inktober 2019, Day 24: Dizzy

Inktober 2019, Day 24, prompt word, "Dizzy." Dip pen and ink, 8 x 11 in. by Ciana Pullen [Image description: The picture plane is broken into several overlapping strips containing different images, like a collage. It's a black and white pen drawing. In the main center image a man and woman hold hands as the man leads her down a narrow outdoor stairway in an old city, much like a back alley. Under their hands and arms is another image strip of beer and wine bottles, and over them bisecting the drawing diagonally is a thin strip showing a winding tree-lined two-lane highway viewed from above with a car on it. On the right another image shows a fancy old apartment building with a domed roof and electrical wires with birds on them, and on the left is another image of shadows from blinds in a dark room. In a thin strip near the top is a hand and iPhone on a black background.]

Inktober 2019, Day 21: Treasure

I spent all day trying to think of what to draw for this and I just couldn't. I treasure a lot of things and people, but home and privacy, a place of my own in which to be a raging introvert, popped into my mind first and foremost.
Keenly aware that I was almost out of time for my Inktober drawing, I stole an idea from cartoonist Sempé of two lit windows across a city at night (although his was clearly meant to convey love and was highly two-dimensional and cartoonish in style). Then I used an old photo of Paris for reference and changed it very little in my drawing, except to scoot some buildings around and of course to add the lit windows. That's pretty rare for me, as I don't usually copy directly from photographs, especially photos I didn't take myself, and super-especially photos that are meant to be stand-alone pieces of art, as this old photo could possibly have been (as opposed to workhorse snapshots for some non-artistic purpose). Drawing from life is best, then next-best is from reference photos I've made for the purpose, then from video or gif that moves, or from a collection of photos that I can manipulate and combine to create something new, and then from crappy photos that are much improved by being turned into drawings. Anything else honestly feels like cheating. Stealing ideas, though, I'm okay with, as long as I have something of my own to add. Though I do prefer coming up with my own ideas entirely.
However, the Instagram public has spoken, and my least proud drawing turned out to be everyone else's favorite. Isn't it always that way? People are never impressed by what they ought to be.

Inktober 2019, Day 21, prompt word, "Treasure." India ink pen and ink wash, 8 x 11 in. by Ciana Pullen. [Image description: black and white ink wash drawing of a street corner in Paris, seen from above and to the side. Several fancy old apartment buildings with turrets, bay windows and wrought iron crowd the image, all lit from a street lamp below, and mostly in darkness. The horizon is dimly visible across the city's rooftops and chimneys. A window in a rooftop apartment is brightly lit up in the foreground, and in another building around the corner, a window in a middle floor with a balcony is also lit. The piece is overall very dark and moody and the lit windows jump out at the viewer.]