October’s around the corner, and if you’re keen on drawing it’s also Inktober.  Inktober is a challenge to draw something in ink every day for the month of October, a cool project started by Jake Parker in 2009 as a personal challenge to help improve his skills, that now has people participating worldwide. I’m keen to join in again this year, and I hope you will too!
The official Inktober rules are:Â
1) Make a drawing in ink
2) Post it online
3) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2017
4) Repeat
Note: you can do it daily, or every other day, or just once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.
See, you don’t even have to do every day if you feel you “don’t have time”, just join in, no excuses! And no, it’s not too late. Start where you are, do what you can, and have fun ? And don’t forget to follow along with me on my Instagram! I haven’t quite chosen my theme yet, but I plan on using some coloured inks that I bought a while ago and haven’t had a chance to play with properly yet. Pretty excited, and more excited to see you join in 🙂
Here’s a quick video to get you into it…
Some resources and tips:
• Jake Parker’s Youtube page has lots of drawing tips, inspiration and Inktober advice
• Here’s the Inktober Facebook Page for more inspo
• Create a routine to help you make sure you get a drawing in every day (or according to any other frequency schedule you choose), i.e. do it for 30 minutes first thing in the morning, or during your lunch break, or when you get home from work/school. Whatever works best for you.
• Don’t get bogged down by details and let that derail you – use whatever ink materials and paper you have, or if you’re more into it go out and get some materials that will inspire you beforehand. Anything goes!
• I’m personally not a fan of using other people’s prompts and prefer to choose a theme that I find interesting and relevant. This helps keep me motivated and helps me get more practice in areas that I want to improve. If you aren’t normally a drawer or would just find it easier to use a list, here’s the official Inktober 2017 prompt list below. You’ll also find lots more created by other people if you search Google or Instagram, and will find loads of inspiration on Youtube from people documenting their past Inktober experiences and process.
• If you’re in South Africa, there are also Night of 1000 Drawings events happening all over the place. These aren’t related to Inktober but happily coincide and are a great way to get drawing with other people. Here’s the info for the Durban event. I’ve been to these in the past and they are such a super fun vibe. No one’s judging you so don’t stress about your skills, just join in, draw and have fun for a good cause (proceeds go to charity)
Happy Inktober!Â
If you’d like more reasons to start a daily or weekly project, read this post I wrote a while back to encourage you ?