In the artist world, there is more to October than just the spooky season. Artists around the world look forward to Inktober, a daily art challenge for the month of October where they get to whip out their inking supplies and utilize their creativity. Each day of the month, artists are given a prompt for their daily drawing. These prompts are provided on an official list that is posted each year. Participants must complete the drawing using some form of ink, such as markers, Sharpies, digital ink tools, and most commonly pens. Participants are encouraged to share their Inktober creations on social media, creating a whole Inktober community online.
“Most of my art classes have done it each year and it is a fun way to explore a medium I don’t use often and to find some inspiration for art that I wouldn’t have made otherwise,” Allison Reynolds, junior, mentions.
At Shadow Ridge, some art teachers encourage their students to participate in this challenge. For example, Mr. Wiegand, Drawing I and II, and AP Studio Arts teacher, has created a calendar for his students to put each of their Inktober sketches for the month on.
Inktober was created in 2009 by artist Jake Parker to better his personal inking skills and to create positive and consistent drawing habits. Since then, the challenge has expanded to thousands of artists of all ages worldwide and now helps people everywhere improve their inking skills.
“Inktober has helped me improve my inking skills because I only use a pen for it. It’s also tested my patience because using ink can be time consuming,” Chloe Winterbottom, senior, shares.
Artists can utilize this challenge to improve their pen and inking techniques and skills when drawing. Inktober provides artists with an opportunity to use their creativity to produce a unique interpretation of the word.
Winterbottom remarks, “I like Inktober because it gives me ideas on what to draw if I’m not sure. Though sometimes the prompts aren’t very interesting or too similar to another one of the prompts.”
Initially, people would create their own prompts to follow, but starting in 2016, Jake Parker took the liberty to create official Inktober lists every year.
“My favorite thing about Inktober is probably the struggle that it takes to come up with something to draw by giving you a simple word each day to inspire your drawing off of,” Reynolds shares.
Overall, Inktober is a challenge focused on self-improvement in both artists’ consistency and skills.
