Inktober: my reasons for joining the challenge
Illustrator and cartoonist Jake Parker
started Inktober in 2009 to challenge himself to improve his skills and develop
positive drawing habits. 31 days, 31 drawings. Since then, Inktober has grown
into a world-wide challenge with thousands of artists taking part each October.
In recent years, Parker has provided an official prompt list but before that
people came up with their own ideas for each day. You don't have to follow the
prompts, and I've seen lots of alternative themed prompt lists, but I quite
like the official list so that's what I'll be following. Here’s the prompts for
this year:
Despite being a colour pencil artist,
there are a few reasons why I committed to taking part.
Firstly, Inktober gives me a reason to
draw every day. My everyday art practice had been going well until recently,
but there have been a number of days lately that have caught me in resistance
rather than production. After finishing my last drawing, I found myself having
no particular reason to crack out the art supplies and I was looking for
something to commit to. Inktober has filled the void.
Secondly, I am provided with a list of
drawing prompts. So, I can’t use the excuse that I don’t know what to draw.
It’s already been decided for me, and the restriction on what to draw actually
helps me work more creatively (there’s lots of evidence to support this, and
I’ll be going into that more another time).
Also, the ‘rules’ of Inktober stipulate that this is about sharing your work, so we are encouraged to post our drawings
on social media using #inktober2018. As an artist emerging out of my cocoon, I
really want to get comfortable sharing my work regardless of whether I think
it’s ‘good enough’ (whatever that looks like!). Inktober puts the emphasis on
practice and development, not on skill, so I’m comfortable posting my attempts.
Lastly, it’s a challenge to work in ink. I
still get to work on my drawing skills, but I’ve been put out of my comfort
zone with ink. Colour pencil is about soft layering, and so far, I’ve found ink
to be a little bit bold, loud and… oh so permanent! I can’t say I’m loving the
results, but I am enjoying the process and that’s what I’m really trying to be
about: value the process over the product.
I’m on day 4, and already I’ve got so much
more out of Inktober than I realized I would. There’s a real community spirit
around Inktober – people that are part of my online community on Skillshare and
Instagram are participating, posting and commenting. It’s great to see some of
the artists I follow crank out some simple drawings rather than the fully
finished artworks they usually post. It helps put things in perspective. Plus,
#inktober is topical, which has led to a few new followers already! Hooray!
My first two drawings were of fish, so I
decided to keep that as my overarching theme for the challenge. We’ll see if
giving myself the extra restriction turns out to be helpful later down the
track, or maybe I'm just a sucker for a challenge.
You can follow my Inktober challenge
on Instagram. Wish me luck!
Until next time,
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