Inktober: just pick up a pen and start drawing

October 3, 2019 8:34 AM

It's October again, and artists all over the world take on the Inktober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. You can get inspiration from Instagram (might be daunting), Twitter and Tumblr (aren't always so polished), but it's not an exercise for people with fancy pens and tons of skill. Anyone can join Inktober, just pick up a pen and start drawing. [reminder via Mltshp]
posted by filthy light thief (33 comments total)

May I recommend the Inktober speed run? One minute per drawing. 31 minutes. Go fast go fast!

I did this with the middle and high school comics collective I advise at our local public library as an activity last year and they loved it; I'm reviving it as a public activity for our local comic con this month.
posted by Tesseractive at 8:43 AM on October 3, 2019 [12 favorites]

Trust me, it's purely out of respect that I don't.
posted by Naberius at 8:49 AM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've decided to do a modified Inktober with my Slack group -- we're all ignoring the ink issue to draw using any media and as many colours as you want based on the neural network's suggested terms (your choice from the 4 offered every day, the fourth is the special set in the subscriber email).

It's been a lot of fun, I'm glad to be getting back to drawing which I used to do a lot of.
posted by jeather at 8:54 AM on October 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'm terribly bad at drawing, but I'm taking a drawing class that's been fun. So I've decided I'm going to do #Inktober #butwithpencils and, since I want to ultimately be able to do scientific illustration, I'm drawing a different primate skeletal bit every day (or so). In the past two days, I've had fun and drawn a Diana monkey cranium and mandible! I think tonight I'm going to work on a Diana monkey cranium from a different perspective.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:02 AM on October 3, 2019 [9 favorites]

If you need some structure, web developer Dave Rupert created an Inktober-inspired drawing app designed for touchscreen devices called Prompts.

The app uses the "official" prompt list and again, is optimized for touchscreens, but will technically work on a desktop.
posted by jeremias at 9:23 AM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I love seeing what others come up with for Inktober, but as a cartoonist, it always feels like a lot of pressure, at one of my busiest times of the year. I drew a comic about it, shared in this Twitter thread.
posted by heurtebise at 9:48 AM on October 3, 2019 [9 favorites]

Louisiana artist church goin' mule has again put up her own Southern Gothic Inktober prompts. She posts to her stories the drawings that are shared with her, which means I've gotten introduced to a lot of new artists thanks to her.
posted by komara at 9:56 AM on October 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm 2/2 for 2 so far, but I am doing time restricted ones like Tesseractive suggests. I do it as part of my nightly journaling and I have a time limit for the whole shebang.
posted by tofu_crouton at 10:00 AM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

I decided to participate, though didn’t notice the part about it being ink-specific, so I decided to use my iPad and Apple Pencil (I could do with some practice with the tools and/or scraping the rust off my drawing skills). I’m posting them mostly to Mastodon, under the tag #inktober.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here is a catloaf and a badly drawn tentacle.
posted by acb at 10:00 AM on October 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

It's a good excuse if you always wanted to get better with a brush and a jar of ink (or pens, or ink spatter, or ink finger painting, or whatever).

This year I'm just drawing crows.

(The intimidation factor is real. It's not like there already aren't a million billion totally awesome crow drawings in the world, but, on the other hand, the only way to get better is to draw...)

I may try the 1 minute time limit 31 drawings thing one of the days.
posted by surlyben at 10:02 AM on October 3, 2019 [11 favorites]

I made my own prompt list. It’s been pretty good!
posted by egypturnash at 10:43 AM on October 3, 2019 [3 favorites]

I've been doing DeCarlober by redrawing Dan DeCarlo panels. He sure had a lot of fun drawing scantily clad teenage girls, but he also had an eye for really clear and expressive cartooning that I want to know better myself. The only downside is I generally only get to draw during my 30 minute lunch break at work, so there's only so much I can do.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:47 AM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

This year I'm just drawing crows.

I misread this as cows and got really excited. But I was not disappointed by the crows!
posted by carrioncomfort at 11:07 AM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love inktober, partly because a few years ago a friend on mine decided to do hers with a Chicago Mothman theme (Mothman in a Chicago t-shirt doing things around Chicago) and I got her to sell me the one with Morhman getting boba tea and Chinese takeout. I hadn’t thought of doing them all at once, but that might be really fun!
posted by bile and syntax at 11:15 AM on October 3, 2019 [5 favorites]

In the past I've always started to do Inktober and never finished and I never knew if it was because of less than ideal time management, overcomplicating things and psyching myself out, or feeling like once I'd told people "I'm doing Inktober!" that that was it and I was done now.

So this year, I made a new Instagram account just for art/drawing, I'm sticking to small, simple doodles, and I haven't told anybody I'm doing Inktober. So far, so good!
posted by helloimjennsco at 11:16 AM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Hell yeah! I'd been planning on an Inktober post but haven't felt well and have had many appointments the last three days.

If I can find the time and energy later I'll post some of my early favs.
posted by Caduceus at 11:30 AM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm actually pretty grateful for Inktober because last year having the self-imposed requirements pushed me past some of my mental blocks and helped me get to a better artistic place. I've produced more and better art in the last year than the previous 15 years.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:31 AM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Two weeks ago I had a spark of inspiration for a project that would fit perfectly into Inktober/Drawtober: Serotiny, a post post-apocalyptic story. I’m not posting my prompt list because it has no bearing on anyone else and it sometimes changes.

Since we’re sharing, my first entry is here.
posted by gc at 12:28 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I think this is the fourth year I've done Inktober. I have yet to follow any of the various prompt lists: rather I use this as a chance to practice monochrome ink sketching. Generally these are very quick sketches. This year my exercise is to do some field sketches with the combination of a black Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and a waterbrush loaded with gray ink. The Pentel brush pen is very bold which can be challenging to work with.
posted by Numenius at 12:46 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Brian Gordon of Fowl Language Comics is raffling off his Inktober drawings, according to his Facebook page. *drool*
posted by Melismata at 1:50 PM on October 3, 2019

This is my first year of Inktober, and I'm using a prompt list created by one of my favorite local stores, papercraft shop Runaway Art & Craft Studio. They encourage any use of ink, including stamping and coloring, so it's perfect someone like me who doesn't draw. Here's the list on Instagram; their tag is #runawayinktober2019. This is my day one (autumn) and day two (hat).

I'm really liking the flexibility, informalness, and variety of prompt lists for this challenge.
posted by Carouselle at 2:34 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

I appreciate it this year because it's challenged me to go back to drawing. I had left off doing it for a while with one thing and another, and it always does depress me a little that I'm not ever going to be the kind of artist I admire. But I do have a talent and I can do some things well, and Inktober encourages me to remember that.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:57 PM on October 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

This year I'm just drawing crows.

perfect
posted by i like crows very much at 4:35 PM on October 3, 2019 [6 favorites]

You know, this could dovetail with December card swaps and sending; if your drawings happened to land on card stock, and when folded, fitted standard envelopes. But, yeah.
posted by Oyéah at 5:00 PM on October 3, 2019

Never would have guessed that the first time I get linked within a MeFi post, it would be because of a little thing I put up for Inktober. I maybe would have spent more time making the handwritten "inktober" fancier, or at least taken a better photo of it. Seriously, though - I've been reading MeFi for over 16 years and darnit it's a cool surprise. Thanks for the reference, filthy light thief. :)

aren't always so polished

I have no formal art training, so I hope people will be inspired by my scribbling and think, "hey that doesn't look so hard" and join in. (If you're on mltshp, please do join!)
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 8:59 PM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm not Doing Inktober in a formal or public way, but all the artists in my social media spheres are so inspiring that I've set myself an informal drawing challenge to train my hand and eye.

I picked a nice photo of a cat and I'm doing a small 5-minute drawing of it each day. I'm hoping I'll have a good day 1 vs day 31 comparison of progress (and trust me, I have a lot of room for improvement).
posted by Glier's Goetta at 2:55 AM on October 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

This year I'm just drawing crows.

Haha! Likewise! I've eschewed the prompts this year as I lack imagination and find them very tricky. I'm sketching British birds instead! it's very soothing :)
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 4:27 AM on October 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Is there a second set of widely used prompts? Others seem to be using the a different set than I am (today's: "freeze"), but others seem to be using the same one I am as well.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:47 PM on October 4, 2019

The other one that I have seen people using is drawlloween.
posted by surlyben at 1:16 PM on October 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

This year I’m following the #badtober prompts. Here are mine so far :)
I love inktober.
posted by stellathon at 12:52 AM on October 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Many artists come up with their own prompt lists these days too.

So the problem with Inktober is the longer it takes you to sort through the drawings, the more drawings there are to sort through. I'm already risking a follow-up being less "here are some of my favorite pieces" and more "here are some artists I follow on Insta, they're doing Inktober." I'll see if I can pull together a top-five or something.
posted by Caduceus at 12:19 PM on October 6, 2019

Top-five lol

elby.draws drew a mummy for day 5
madiebryson has a werewolf witch for day 6
peachyteadesign has a cute builder girl for day 5
smoustart's Day 1: Ring
moonfriendart drew Sailor Venus for Day 4: Love
meggles.art is ahead? or drawing out of order, with this prompt 7: Spell (Man I'm a sucker for red blush on otherwise black and white character art what's wrong with me)
madie_arts for Day 6: Familiar
lunarjokester drew a Grim Reaper princess for drawtober Day 5 prompt
I'm not sure if cosmicspectrum is using a prompt list, but here's some sort of deer faerie(?)
a begowned elf from snarkies
relseiy is hosting their own double prompt list, here is lilac + croptop
lord_gris is also hosting their own prompt list, here is Day 5: Sister (lord_gris can get pretty nsfw but this one is fine unless spooky isn't safe for your work)
I love winklebeebee's work so much I couldn't pick just one: Day 2: Light and Day 5: Raven
strangegodsart brings a change of pace from all the cute girls with day 5: bearer of the hallowed mound
(and now it's back to cute girls from here on out; listen I'm not the artists here, i just follow them)
a witch with a spooky magic pumpkin from neimykanani
beverlylove has an OC and said OC's crows
audraauclair has a vampire out shopping for guests for her second piece of the month
margaretmoralesart has a Red Riding Hood Witch for her first piece of the month
0073.uv has this for a day 2 prompt of crack
lyfeillustration works on a self-portrait
inimeitiel has a cute and tasteful magical schoolgirl
lariennechan's thing has been animations lately, and they've made three for inktober so far:
Day 1 "Don't lose your head!"
Day 2 "Night in Ikebukuro"
Day 3 "Sewing Kit"
nataliadsw has some sort of armored witch for day 6
and finally, Raqueltraveilillustration does Moon Phases for day 5 and lives for gold ink now
posted by Caduceus at 2:26 PM on October 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

Inktober Challenge Pushes Artists To Flex Their Creative Muscles (NPR reports on this, on Oct. 30).

But they note that this is the 10th year Jake Parker has promoted Inktober as a prompt for creativity.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:41 AM on October 30, 2019