For those that follow comic artists, or illustrators in general, you may have seen a hashtag called #Inktober or #Inktober2015 flying around, and no, this is not a call to pay homage to our Squid Overlords whom blessed us with the power of ink.
Inktober is an artistic challenge, set in the month of October and first started by Jake Parker in 2009. He set himself the challenge of drawing 31 pictures for the 31 days of October. The rules are simple: make a drawing in ink, post it on social media, give it the #Inktober hashtag, and do it all again the next day. Ink used hasn’t been specified, but the popular choices are multiliners, brush pens, fountain pens, and nib pens. What originally started out as a personal challenge caught internet traction in 2013 and has been growing ever since.
Want to get involved, but worried that you missed the first of the month? No worries! The rules also state: “Note: you can do it daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post 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.” So don’t worry if you’re a little late to the party. There’s still plenty of fun to be had.
Not interest in inked drawings? Have some other creative juices flowing? Fear not! There’s probably a creative challenge for you, too! Just take a look at this list of timed artistic challenges such as Inktober, NaNoWriMo in November, and NaNoMangO in June and November. Or, there are old-faithfuls you can look for online such as the 100 Themes Challenge on deviantArt.