Welcome to October: Ink & Eerie Tales

Audio message for October and what's coming up this month for subscribers and paid members

Hello! And if this is the first post you’re reading, welcome! You may like to read this welcome post which tells you more about the membership and what to expect from being part of The Creative Flock.

Below is my regular monthly audio message and links to things I mention:

• October art challenges - Inktober, Peachtober, Birdtober, Peacetober

• Folktale Week

• Sarah Dyer’s Patreon (check out her Folktale Week content)

• Creative Cocoon witches and familiars drawing session

• Ember - Art journal companion to Entwined, an anthology of creativity and motherhood by

  Sarah Shotts
  .

  EDIT: I mentioned in my audio message that you can still pre-order this book, but as it was fully funded (which is great news!), pre-ordering is now closed. You can buy these books when they’re published; I’ll let you know when they’re available to buy!

Head further down the post to see what’s coming up this month for both free and paid subscribers, including the details for our monthly live drawing session which is taking place on Tuesday 22nd October 7-8.30pm (paid members) plus a BONUS collaboration with Beth Spencer of the Introvert Drawing Club on Tuesday 29th October, 6-7.15pm BST/ 1-2.15pm CST

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All the dates and links for the live sessions are in the calendar post, updated each month:

Live Sessions Calendar

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Why Ink and Eerie Tales this month?

I fell in love with using inks during my illustration degree; I enjoyed the immediacy of it as a medium, and how, in a matter of seconds, I could put down intense areas of tone or colour, straight from the bottle. It allowed for expressive painting, and mark-making with few tools or extra processes.

Mostly I love the tonal, atmospheric quality of ink, it works well with the type of subject matter I’m interested in, which leads me nicely on to the other part of this month’s theme - eerie tales.

I’ve always been drawn to stories that are leant more towards the supernatural, strange or spooky, preferably old stories or modern ones set in the past.

October felt like the perfect for exploring both these areas, and I’m excited to spend some time experimenting with one of my favourite art materials and delving into my library of spooky stories.

Experimenting with homemade ink

Some months back I came across a workshop on homemade ink methods using foraged materials, and although I was too busy to take part in the workshop at the time, the idea of it has been on my mind ever since and i’ve been researching various methods and found some excellent youtube videos and online tutorials such as this one by The Alchemical Arts.

I’d like to try and make drawing ink this month and i’ll be sharing the experiment with my paid members. If it’s successful then I may put together a short workshop later in the year.

This month’s live drawing session (paid members)

Tuesday 22nd October 7-8.30pm BST

Our session will be influenced by this month’s Ink and Eerie Tales theme, more details to follow..

Quink sketch of Dracula (from the 1992 movie feat Gary Oldman)

BONUS 80’s Halloween drawing session (paid members)

Co-hosted with

Beth Spencer

of the Introvert Drawing Club on Tuesday 29th October, 6-7.15pm BST/ 1-2.15pm CST. (Replay available)

I’m so excited to be collaborating once again with Beth for a special 80’s Halloween drawing session. This is available to paid members of The Introvert Drawing Club or Creative Flock. Sign up link in the calendar post:

https://thecreativeflock.substack.com/p/live-sessions-calendar

Co-sketching sessions this month.

Following the popularity of these sessions, there’ll be two more this month, open to all subscribers.

I’ve found these one-hour periods of concentrated drawing time so useful and they force me to focus on creativity instead of admin or my ‘to-do’ list. Thank you to Emma Carlisle for introducing me to virtual co-working!

Details are below, sign up via luma.com to get these sessions in your time zone and receive handy email reminders.

All subscribers co-sketching:

Monday 7th October, 12-1pm (BST) https://lu.ma/gqry4p09

Friday 18th October, 2-3pm (BST) https://lu.ma/f0eim9rb

These co-sketching sessions are not recorded, all participants will be muted on entry, but you are welcome to switch your microphone on at the beginning to share what you plan to use the hour for, or you can use the text chat function.

I look forward to sharing a golden hour of creativity with you! 💛

What else to expect this month:

• A post where I explore and share the creative uses of inks in making atmospheric artwork and looking at ways we can make inks at home from found and foraged materials. (Paid members)

• A curated post of my favourite eerie stories, perfect to get you in the mood for Halloween. (all subscribers)

Also:

From the Archive - Witches & Familiars drawing session (all subscribers)

I now have a year of recorded live sessions in The Creative Flock archive, some of which are available to all subscribers. This month, to go with our spooky theme, I’m sharing the Witches & Familiars session from last October.

Chat Threads

If you’re unfamiliar with the chat function on Substack, it’s like a group chat or live hangout. I love this space as it’s a great way for us to get to know each other and encourage supportive conversation among The Creative Flock members. Chat works best in the app, but you can join in on desktop too.

I have two threads:

• Every Friday: Share Good Stuff from your Week (all subscribers)

• Beginning of the month: A general creative chat thread (paid members)

  I’ve not been doing enough to encourage conversation here, so from this month i’m going to try something different and use it as a place for you to ‘Toot your horn’ 📣 and share your wins, passion projects or anything that deserves a big ol’ pat on the back. I know a lot of us are bad at cheerleading ourselves, so let this be a place for that.

Paid members are also able to start new chat threads to kick off community conversations, ask questions or even share a brilliant new art material you feel we all need to know about.

I’ll kick off a ‘Toot Your Horn’ chat thread and look forward to joining in these chats with you 😊

Discounts on art materials and my print store

If you’re new to The Flock you may not be aware of the discounts I share with my subscribers and paid members, details below and in your welcome email.

Deep Deep Light - 10-15% off site wide:

All Creative Flock subscribers receive 10% off at the Deep Deep Light store, and paid members receive 15% off. Use code emmacarpendale10 for 10% off, paid members will receive their discount code in their welcome email after upgrading.

Cult Pens 10% discount:

Cult pens is my preferred online store for pens and inks due to their wide range of products. Click this referral link or use my name (Emma Carpendale) at checkout for 10% off your order at Cult Pens. https://cultpens.mention-me.com/m/ol/va0hf-e-carpendale

My online print store:

https://www.emmacarpendale.co.uk/shop

Free subscribers receive 10% off my giclee prints, paid members receive 20% off. Use code printshop10 for 10% off, paid members will receive their discount code in their welcome email after upgrading.

I’m looking forward to a new month of creativity, I hope you will join me!