Wrapping up With Inktober

     October is usually seen as the month of autumn and Halloween. But some might not be aware of this October social media event – Inktober 2016!

     The Inktober Initiative was originally started by artist Jake Parker in 2009, but now it has extended worldwide as a drawing challenge. Artists are required produce one ink drawing every day for the entire month of October. This challenge is designed to improve inking skills as well as developing healthy work ethics for art-conscious individuals.

     Inktober has especially exploded on social media, such as Instagram and Twitter, with the hashtag #inktober2016. A list of prompts is provided for artists, that are usually centered around the Halloween theme. These prompts can be vague, such as Jake Parker’s official list, which has examples such as Fast (Day 1) or Creepy (Day 27) in order for artists to have free expression over their art pieces. Or artists don’t even have to follow any list at all, choosing to make their own prompts and sharing them on their social media accounts.

     As an artist, Inktober is a very useful challenge to help push better and harder content to one, and due to the constant flow of art means that obsessive perfectionism is scrapped in face of frequency. Just like sports, artists must produce artwork to spur their creativity and improvement. Inktober provides no excuse – it’s a goal that artists feel very accomplished to complete.

     Inktober isn’t just a simple art tag, though. As Inktober is focused on darker, stranger themes, this also means that an artist can theme their works around edgier concepts. Artist Shawn Cross, creator of hit comic Cyanide and Happiness used Inktober to personify mental illnesses. Cross spoke to Indy100 that “ Initially I was just using [mental illness] as a subject for inktober… then after that first week, my social medias just exploded and I realized I was onto something unique and important.

     As we begin to reach the end of October and closer to Halloween, Inktober has given artists a conducive period of time to improve at their craft and create fantastic art using just one media tool. Inktober 2016 shows the success of persistence and hard work.