Ready, Set, Ink! - Inktober 2016
- Pirre Vaarala
- Oct 2, 2016
- 2 min read
It's October again, and time for what? Forget Halloween preparations, it's Inktober time of course!
Inktober (ink+October) is a yearly challenge that started already back in 2009. A Utah-based illustrator Jake Parker challenged himself to make one ink drawing on each day of October to improve his inking skills, and since then the challenge has grown into a worldwide phenomenon. The rules are simple: make a drawing with ink, post it online with hashtag #inktober, repeat every day for the whole October.
Unlike one might expect the point of Inktober is not to compete with other artists over skills and prizes but instead to focus solely on enjoying, improving and sharing one's inked dreams. Everyone is free to make the kind of art they personally want to - there are different prompt lists to help people come up with ideas - so you can either choose between the official Jake Parker prompts, nature based prompts and Halloween prompts (to name a few), or just draw whatever feels the best for you!
The official prompt list of 2016
What makes Inktober worth pondering over in my media diary is the role of social media: pretty much half of the fun of the challenge comes from sharing your artworks in your preferred social channel, mainly Instagram and Tumblr. Artists who take part in the challenge can find new people to follow, make it rain with likes and stop by to leave nice comments. It's all about having a good time together with other artists all over the globe! And it doesn't stop to traditional ink either, if you are a digital artist you are just as welcome to show your digital inking skills. Some digital drawing applications like Autodesk SketchBook even offer free trials specifically for this month!
For several years I have personally wanted to take part in the challenge but each and every time I backed away at the last moment. This year I finally got a grip of myself and put the precious inks I have paid more than just a single money for to a good use. If you're interested you can follow my progress in my Instagram! (Shameless self advertising, hha)
The beginning of my journey (let's see how long it continues)
If this got you interested - worry not, it is totally fine to take part a bit later too! So find your inks and sketchpads, sit down and start creating! ☆
Happy inking!
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