Pictured above: An example of a Day one ‘Crystal’ piece.
Courtesy of Gavin Hadro | The Crow’s Nest
By Baron Reichenbach and Gavin Hadro
Pick up your pens, brushes and copic markers because the Inktober art challenge has returned for its 12th consecutive year.
The rules of Inktober are simple: make an ink drawing and post it to social media with the hashtags #Inktober and #Inktober2021 as a regular routine for the month of October.
The Inktober challenge was started in 2009 by illustrator Jake Parker with the aim of developing “positive drawing habits.”
Since 2016, one-word prompts for each day have been posted to the Inktober website, though they are not inherently necessary to participate in the challenge. Examples for this year include “crystal,” “loop” and “slither.”
While the best-known version of the challenge encourages daily drawing, the Inktober website makes note of the “half-marathon” and “5k” approaches where one can draw every other day or every week respectively. Regardless, the challenge is primarily about developing a lifelong habit of consistent artistry.
The Inktober website also provides a number of recommended tools for inking, though ultimately it stresses “the spirit of the challenge is very open to people being creative in what tools they use, how they use them, and what they create.” The site’s FAQ even notes writers and typographers may participate.
More details about the Inktober challenge can be found at inktober.com.
