‘TIS THE SEASON FOR ARTISTIC CHALLENGES

With the lovely month of October comes an interesting tradition, for artists both new and old: Artists around the world participate in the Inktober Challenge, which puts artists to the test by making a new drawing every day out of ink, based on that day’s particular theme.

Inktober started in 2009. Artist Jake Parker gave himself a challenge to improve his inking skills and to help him obtain good drawing habits. Now, an the official Inktober Instagram page releases the themes for all 31 days of October a month in advance, giving artists a chance to brainstorm ideas for each day. Also, some other big art accounts on Instagram sometimes make their own Inktober art themes so that they can give artists some variety and they can look at more than one theme in a single day. 

Inktober isn’t always easy for the artists. It can cause massive amounts of stress and self-doubt for some, especially if they fall behind on the days. Inktober, of course, noticed this and released a post this year on how to handle Inktober in a healthy way. The first tip is to give yourself a reasonable goal to achieve, such as inking for, say, six minutes a day. You can obviously do more or less depending on what you think you can handle.

Another really big tip is to “drop your expectations,” the site said. “You can’t expect to put out masterpieces everyday. It doesn’t happen all the time.” Inktober lets artists know that there will be a dip in motivation while making a piece of art. It suggests that you keep pushing through it until you’re done. Start what you can finish.

The final tip for the artists participating is to focus on what you can control. An artist can’t control how good the piece turns out in the end, but can change how much work they put into their creation.  

If this year is your first participating in Inktober, don’t expect yourself to be able to keep up with the many other artists who have been doing this for years. You’re more than likely not going to be able to complete every day’s theme, which is okay. Use this first time as a learning experience, find out what went wrong, and try your best to fix it over time.

Inktober is only three weeks in, so far, so you can still participate for the last 12 days of the event. You can even try drawing the themes you missed, anyway, just for fun and for practice. The biggest thing is to remember that you’re doing this for you, not for anyone else. 

If you wish to participate you can find the prompt list on the official website or Instagram page. Whenever you post a drawing for Inktober, all you need to do is tag your Instagram post with #Inktober2019 and #Inktober.  This allows everyone to see the many pieces of art the participants make and it allows the people taking part in Inktober to see each other’s work and share their appreciation.

Remember, Inktober is an event that is supposed to make you smile, and to allow yourself to have a good time while creating.