Inktober 2020

After hearing about Inktober from some friends and classmates, I decided to try it out last year. I really enjoyed the challenge and seeing what I could come up with each day, so I wanted to continue and do it this year as well!

What is Inktober? It's an art challenge that takes place during the month of October, with a list of prompts for each day. A drawing is then done, usually in some form of ink, based on the prompt for that day. It's a great challenge to just get some art and creativity into each day, even if it's a quick drawing.

For me, Inktober has helped get me out of my comfort zone and draw in different styles and subjects. A lot of times, I prefer a realistic style and use photo references for my artwork, but for Inktober, I generally draw without references. This means that it usually ends up being in a much different style, so I get to practice and experiment in that style more. It also gets me thinking and adding meaning or a story to my art more since it's based off of a word instead of just an image.

Something I like to experiment with in Inktober is drawing people in different positions to practice how they would look. This might be a dancing position, a crawling position, a hand reached out and bent so that it's foreshortened, or sliding headfirst down a waterslide.

I did use reference photos for some of the drawings, either when I wanted to focus on shading practice with pen (such as in Day 11 and Day 18), or when I wanted the drawing to look like someone specifically (such as the Swedish Chef and Buddy the Elf).

And with that, here's all of my Inktober drawings from this year!