October 02nd, 2016

Inktober, what it is and why I'm doing it

Inktober is this magical time of year where artist all over the world take on a drawing challenge for the month of October. It was started by artist Jake Parker in 2009 as a way to improve his inking skills and develope positive drawing habits. Since its start on Instagram it's participation has skyrocketed.

How it works:
A list of prompts is given at the start of the month (see below), and the participant uses ink to create art inspired by the prompt.

Easy right.......

Why am I doing it?

When it boils down to it, I want to challenge myself.

I work mostly in acrylic, watercolor, and pastel. I haven't worked with ink in a long time, and alway just goofing off. I love what ink can do. I grew up dreaming of drawing comic books, but always getting discouraged when it came to inking.
Black is not a color I keep on my pallet either. It's such a definite opequeness that becomes very overbearing when not handled properly.

What do I expect....

I just went through a similar type of challenge where I tried to paint as many paintings as I could in 30 days. The things I've learned to expect is that I will get frustrated, I will not start out making masterpieces, I may not have any masterpieces, and that I will want to stop. The good thing is I've learned that, and I've seen what it's like at the end. It feels great. You get to look back at everything, and good or bad it doesn't matter. It's ok if you don't do them all, as long as you are doing them.

So I expect to not know what to expect, and enjoy the results 😊