Stuart Ruecroft
Stuart Ruecroft is a 2D digital artist from Cheltenham, UK, who amalgamates traditional pen and ink drawing with digital art. He has been using Affinity Designer for over three years and loves to explore natural patterns and textures in his work.
“Vector patterns and textures combined with subtle colour blends and transparency have become a significant feature of my drawings. I frequently use vector objects to create assets (brushes, objects, patterns and styles) and have released a limited number to the resources section on the Affinity Forum.”
“This is my fifth year of taking part in Inktober; I try to be creative with the word prompts and not use them literally. The drawings tend to evolve into something more complex and intricate as I work, and it is rare for me to complete the challenge, but I believe it is important to take part.”
“Last year was more of an experiment with vectors and texturing, but this year I wanted to make use of my custom brush sets (raster and vector). As an example, I used my InkPainter-Sketch raster brush set on the fish to achieve a ‘scratchy’ hand-drawn appearance.”
You can find out more about Stuart’s work on Artstation.
Anddresart
Andrei “anddresart” Delcea is an 18-year-old illustration enthusiast based in Romania who has just graduated from high school. He has a passion for experimenting and implementing different styles in his illustrations and joined Inktober this year to get out of his comfort zone and to try to be more creative.
Check out more of Andrei’s work on Instagram.
Stephen Jones
Stephen Jones is an illustrator based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a trained and practising industrial designer but has always loved doing illustration simply for the joy of it.
“Over the years I’ve dabbled here and there and worked on many personal illustration projects—most of which stalled out. Then I bought an iPad Pro and Affinity Designer and began pursuing my art in a more purposeful manner. The cost-effectiveness and capabilities of the Affinity products and the portability of the iPad have really taken down the barriers (or excuses!) that were keeping me from pursuing my personal creativity.”
“I primarily work in two very different styles: crisp flat vectors focused on simplifying and distilling forms, and more recently a clean illustrative style heavily influenced by the ligne-claire style of classic French comic artists like Herge and Moebius.”
“Like a lot of artists and illustrators, I have a not-so-secret desire to write and illustrate my own stories. So instead of cranking through a prompt list this year, I decided to use Inktober as a time to create a few illustrations to begin building the world and mood of a story I’ve been thinking about for some time.”
“It’s the first time I’ve used Affinity Photo so heavily (I typically work in Designer) and it’s proving to be a fantastic tool!”
You can follow Stephen’s work on Instagram and Artstation.
Renato Pedrina
Renato Pedrina is a 29-year-old creative from Paraguay. He has always loved to draw and studied drawing from a young age, moving to digital illustration as he grew older.
“For the past three years, the Affinity Designer app has been my main tool to create illustrations that could easily be used for multiple artistic and commercial purposes. I create my illustrations mostly using fine lines to create light and shadow effects.”
“The biggest part of my content is about my country; animals, flora, people and situations around it. I believe it is really important to be able to show some aspects of my culture through digital art.”
You can see more of Renato’s work on Instagram.
Tosha Bapat
Tosha Bapat is an artist bringing happy vibes and bright colours onto paper and screens. Her work is inspired by everything around her that stirs an emotion.
“I recently switched over from free drawing software to Affinity Designer as an investment in a better drawing process. Using Affinity for Inktober was my way of making sure I learn how to use this new application and pick up the new features. The great textures and brushes in Affinity are definitely a plus!”
You can see more of Tosha’s work on Instagram.
Parth Trivedi
Parth Trivedi is a 26-year-old self-taught illustrator who works full-time as a quality engineer. He first started drawing by using comic books as reference materials and studying the works of Jim Lee and Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series). In 2018, he completed his first (fully digital) Inktober and that success carried forward for Inktober 2019 and 2020.
“Having Affinity Designer on my iPad Pro gives me the freedom to work on my illustrations, both raster and vector, no matter where I am. This year I have taken on Inktober 52, Inktober 2020 and Drawlloween as part of a personal challenge to do more of what I love!”
“My illustration that has been featured is part of Inktober 52 (Week 35—Balance). This was a difficult prompt but I heard Obi-Wan’s voice in my head asking me to “Bring balance to the force,” which then inspired me to do this drawing in Affinity Designer of Yoda lifting Luke’s X-wing (one of the best moments from Empire Strikes Back!).”
To see more of Parth’s work check out his socials: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Patricia Tokarz
Patricia Tokarz is an illustrator from Germany. After being stuck in a rut with watercolours, she decided to focus on digital illustration for this years Inktober.
“Personally, I like how especially Affinity Designer is able to combine the ease and freedom of digital work with the look and textures of traditional media without any hassle.”
Check out the rest of her Inktober challenge and illustration work on Twitter and Instagram.
Cayleen Blackmore
Cayleen Blackmore is an aspiring writer, and last year she decided to learn how to illustrate as well.
“With the events of 2020, I had a lot of downtime and opted to go ‘back-to-school’, essentially, to learn and improve my art skills. I discovered SVSlearn.com and found so many great classes and support and encouragement. By the time Inktober 2020 came along, I felt brave enough to jump in. It was about that same time that my graphics tablet decided to stop talking to the free drawing software I was using, and Affinity Photo came to my rescue! It has great brushes, fast processing, it’s easy to dive into, and there’s a helpful community for the questions I can’t figure out on my own.”
“For my ‘Radio’ prompt, I had a few sources of inspiration. One was that I have always been enamoured with space exploration, probably due to staying up late watching Star Trek with my dad (Captain Janeway will forever be my hero). I also love the idea that regular folks can chat with astronauts on the space station with amateur radios; there’s something just so down-to-earth about it. Finally, as an illustrator, I want to create illustrations that help us see the potential in ourselves, and help more kids envision themselves ‘reaching for the stars.’”
You can find Cayleen’s art posts and posts about her learning journey at cayleencreates.com.
Sundeep Toor
Sundeep Toor is a multidisciplinary creative, specialising in 2D animation.
“I am always looking for alternative ways of doing things and I’ve wanted to learn to use Affinity Designer for a while now. Inktober was the perfect excuse to work on my illustration skills. I’ve found Affinity really easy to use and I’m looking forward to exploring different types of illustration styles with it.”
You can see more work from Sundeep at sundeeptoor.com.
Isabelle Russell
Isabelle Russell is a 26-year-old freelance cartoonist and illustrator living and drawing life in her hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, for a variety of national magazines, and she is signed with a New York cartoon licencing agency.
“I love to create playful illustrations to capture moments in time and tell stories big and small, with inspiration coming from my day-to-day experiences, current events, childhood nostalgia, hobbies, and legal practice. I work as a lawyer during the day, before moonlighting as an illustrator, which I really enjoy as I love having a creative outlet, but equally, I find the disciplines and ways of thinking sort of cross-pollinate one another. I’ve also been known to recycle my friends’ witty quips into the odd cartoon caption here and there!”
“2019 was my first Inktober and I was thrilled to be featured in the Affinity Spotlight Inktober round-up. I’m super excited to be inking again for the 2020 challenge, and returning to Affinity’s annual round-up! This time around, I was keen to do 31 cartoons as my focus.”
Isabelle’s Inktober art and other work can be found over at isabeller.com and on Instagram.