10 Years of the 10th Month

It’s that time of year again. Tomorrow, the official prompt list for Inktober will drop. If you don’t know, Inktober is an annual drawing challenge with fairly simple rules.

31 drawings in 31 days.

Everything else is just how much of a challenge you want to make for yourself. The original idea came from a long-time digital artist to get out of his comfort zone and go back to working with ink and paper. While going as analog as possible is the arguably true spirit of the challenge, it can also be a very good way to quickly learn a new tool. For example, if you’re a longtime traditional artist and want to learn a digital program like Procreate, Clip Studio, or Affinity, the drawing prompts can work just as well for you and give you a project or framework to work within.

I’ve been participating in Inktober since 2016. Some years I work on two lists at once, doubling the total illustrations, sometimes consolidating them. I’ve used digital, I’ve used ink, I’ve used a mixed media approach, and I’ve even done some 3D modeling (though that year was a little bit lackluster on reflection). There was one year when I had to cut it short because I had one of my cats put down and needed a mental health break. The end results are posted to Instagram because I think that’s the best platform for the spontaneity of the challenge, and it seems to be a place where a lot of first-timers gravitate towards, so you get to see some interesting results. At the end of the month, they all go in one single project upload to Artstation and Behance.

As for my approach this year, not much has changed except that I’ll be using fountain pens. If I need a big fill of black, I’ll break out my Sharpies, but the linework will all be in pen, black ink on some nice square mixed media paper I’ve been saving (fountain pen inks and Sharpies can get pretty rough with lesser paper). I’ve got some pens from Pilot and a pair of Kawecos, all in different nib sizes for different line thicknesses. We’ll see which one ends up being my favorite/go-to by the end of the challenge.

While the spontaneity is one of the more appealing aspects of Inktober, I do a fair bit of prep work, hence talking about this a full month before the challenge proper begins in October. I’ve whipped up a spreadsheet to help me keep track of which days' prompts are done and which are still in development. In the case of the latter, my rule is that I can start making rough sketches and brainstorming as soon as the prompt list drops. When it comes to uploading the finished pieces in October, the earliest I can start on that is the weekend before the 1st. That way, I’m not scrambling on the first day. The majority of my work ends up getting done on weekends, and in no particular order. Some years I’ll have the very last drawing done by the first day. It’s all rather frantic-sounding, but that’s the state of my creativity. It’s like what often happens in writing; some days you’ll be lucky if you can get a full sentence out that you’re happy with, and other days you’ll have multiple chapters in the bag, leaving you in a fugue state with barely half the cognitive capacity needed to wonder where all the time went and why all the coffee-flavored ice cream is gone.

One last rule that I make for myself is that I’m allowed a cheat day. If a prompt just isn’t working out or a drawing just isn’t coming together, I’ll try another medium. To make up for this, I’ll sometimes take a piece and then make a self-contained spin-off of sorts. This can involve simply coloring in the monochrome drawing, or remaking it altogether. This will get posted to my DeviantART page.

So, here we go. ten years of 31+ drawings in the month of October.