{"id":34,"date":"2025-10-01T01:36:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T01:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/?p=34"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:05:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:05:40","slug":"inktober-shading-and-why-art-should-feel-like-riding-a-scooter-in-a-t-rex-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/inktober-shading-and-why-art-should-feel-like-riding-a-scooter-in-a-t-rex-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"3 – \u201cInktober, Shading, and Why Art Should Feel Like Riding a Scooter in a T-Rex Suit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Balancing practice with play\u2014because progress is way more fun when you don\u2019t take yourself too seriously.<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It’s only Tuesday, but it has already been an eventful week.\u00a0 I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that it was the last day of September.\u00a0 Wait, what happened to the other 29 days??\u00a0 Can you believe it\u2019s already the end of September? \u00a0I can happily say that I learned a lot this past month (some things with a little more pain than others).\u00a0 My Blog and webpage are coming along nicely, and I even seem to have a few people following me now (I will try not to disappoint).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tomorrow we\u2019re staring October straight in the face, and instead of pumpkin spice lattes (okay, maybe\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0pumpkin spice lattes), my focus is on shading.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Lately, I\u2019ve been diving deep into improving my shading techniques through Tattooing 101\u2019s Artist Hour<\/a> program<\/strong>. It\u2019s like going back to basics but with a sharper eye and steadier hand. Shading is where a tattoo really breathes\u2014it\u2019s the difference between a flat sketch and art that looks like it could crawl off the skin. And let me tell you, mastering it is no small feat. But every practice stroke is one step closer to leveling up.\u00a0 My latest sketch is the traditional style snake head flash.\u00a0 Let me know what you think.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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October also kicks off Inktober<\/strong>, Tattooing 101\u2019s drawing challenge. I\u2019m throwing myself into it because it\u2019s the perfect chance to push my creativity, build consistency, and just plain have fun. A month of daily drawing? That\u2019s like gym training for tattoo artists\u2014minus the sore muscles and plus a lot more ink stains.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Speaking of fun, my daughter recently sent me a video of my grandson riding his new birthday scooter. Sounds normal, right? Well, not when you\u2019re cruising the neighborhood in a full inflatable T-Rex suit<\/strong>. Watching him speed along with tiny arms flailing and tail dragging had me rolling, but it also hit me: this kid is definitely related to me. He\u2019s fearless, creative, and a little ridiculous\u2014and that\u2019s exactly the energy I want to carry into my art, and my life.<\/p>\r\n

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Because here\u2019s the truth: improving your craft doesn\u2019t mean losing your spark. It\u2019s about balancing the grind with the grin. Shading drills, drawing challenges, and technical practice all matter, but so does remembering why you started in the first place. If my grandson can be a scooter-riding dinosaur, I can certainly push myself to keep growing as an artist as I become as old as a dinosaur while keeping it lighthearted.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Shading. Inktober. Scooter-riding T-Rexs. Let\u2019s do this!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

John<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tattoo artist improving shading skills with Tattooing 101\u2019s Artist Hour while joining Inktober 2025\u2014progress, practice, and keeping it fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-with-title","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[19,16,20,18,21,14,13,17,12,15],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fun","category-learning","category-motivational","tag-art-motivation","tag-artist-hour","tag-creative-growth","tag-drawing-challenge","tag-having-fun","tag-inktober-2025","tag-tattoo-artist-journey","tag-tattoo-practice","tag-tattoo-shading","tag-tattooing-101"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}