Happy Inktober!
Inktober is a month-long drawing challenge that asks artists to create (and share) an ink drawing using every day based on a prompt list released to the online community.
I've completed inktober three times now - in 2020, 2021 and 2022. I missed last year, but this year I'm taking it on again. I keep my drawings small and have previously peppered them as decoration through my bullet journal, which I think is why I've managed to finish the challenge three times - I can't bear to leave a gap in the spread. This year I'm taking it half-way out of the journal by using small post-it notes instead. The downside is that there won't be an obvious gap to motivate me if I miss a day, but the upside is that I can re-do a day if I need.
I get really excited for this month because some years (most years), October is my only consistent touchpoint with physical drawing, since I typically work digitally. There is something nice about being restricted to the medium of just black ink - it asks for such a different way to think about shading, depth and tone. You can't erase ink and - also unlike last year - this year I won't be working on white paper, so I can't use white ink for cover-ups either. Not every piece I love, some I think are pretty bad, but a few I'm really proud of and looking back on them years later I sometimes wonder "how did I do that?". Overall, there's something in the process of just doing it again the next day no matter how happy or sad you are with the previous days work takes off so much pressure. It's probably a good attitude to try to keep up year-round.
The official prompt list is too outdoorsy themed for me this year, and so I'm instead using an alternate prompt list from another artist (@furrylittlepeach) on Instagram. I'll be posting each day's piece to my stories on my creative work instagram (@paperindy) and saving to the highlights there as well, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to use this month to reignite my creative engagement in that space through October and beyond.
It's going to a busy month so some days will definitely be hard to fit them all in, but I know that looking back on 31 instances of finding 20 minutes a day to draw something for the fun of it will feel great when I get there.