Project Description

INKTOBER 2022 Day #28: CAMPING.

Anyone for a rousing card game of Go Squid?

I fell in love with camping as a youth in Boy Scouts. It was exciting to be outdoors in all temperatures and weather conditions, surviving with my skills, carrying only what I needed-including shelter-all on my back, all packed and organized. I learned a lot of independence and gained a lot of confidence while camping. I have tried to give those experiences and lessons to my own sons -as well as many other parents’ sons-as a den leader and scoutmaster for over a decade. Going camping as a youth helped shape who I am as an adult, and it’s an activity I continue to enjoy (and have picked up an interest in sewing in order to make my own camping and hiking gear).

I don’t say it very often, but I’m really pleased with the way this one turned out. I think it’s the first time I’ve tried using the ink splattering technique in an Inktober piece (whether white or black ink). It’s not perfect (that lighter, hatched band in the sky is supposed to be the Milky Way. In hindsight, I’m thinking I should have made the whole sky black and just built up the splatters of white paint to create the effect I was envisioning), but I like the composition, I like the “story”, and it captures a bit of nostalgia for me. The tent PMD and the squid are in is based on my memory of my very first tent, which was a 2 person dome tent that looked like in igloo with the rain fly on. I loved that tent as a kid, I thought the shape was so neat, and I spent many memorable nights in it under the stars, adventuring with friends. It would be in rough shape these days, but I think I still have it out in my barn somewhere.