Have you heard of Inktober? I think it first crossed my path a couple years ago as I began seeing a few Inktober posts on Instagram. The idea, which was started in 2009 by an artist named “Jake Parker,” is pretty simple:
1. Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).
2. Post it online.
3. Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2020 (or the current year)
4. Repeat every day for the entire month.
I looked up the history of Inktober for this post and was curious as to why the name “Jake Parker” is in quotes.
Anyway, somehow this became a Thing and in 2016, the Inktober people began making a list of prompts for people to use if they should so desire. I don’t think you have to, but it’s nice for people like me who will just stare at a blank piece of paper waiting for inspiration to strike and then have to wander off to find something else to do when it doesn’t.
I decided to give it a try this year, using the prompts and also my own challenge was to find a way to include the word for the prompt in each drawing. I missed the first four days so on the fifth day, I did five illustrations and now I hope to stay caught up.
Inktober has a HUGE following on Instagram. There are 1.2 million posts for the hashtag #inktober2020 already and it’s just the beginning of the month. I made the mistake of going to the page to look at other entries and have to admit to being a little intimidated by the incredible artwork that people are doing for this. But I’m firmly in the amateur category and have to remind myself that it’s a challenge to myself, not a competition.
So, after loads of “ado,” here are my first few entries:
It’s been surprisingly fun to figure out what to do each day.
I’ll be too busy to delete this post in the morning – gotta keep up with the Inktober Challenge!
Lynniebeemuseoday 