Are you an artist struggling with your style or with art block? Well then, this is the perfect month for you! During the month of October, artists tend to participate in “Inktober.” This month-long event is a great way to get out of art block, make yourself draw more, and to help improve your style. All you need is to type into Google, “Inktober” as well as the current year. After choosing a list, it’s quite simple. On each day of October, grab a pen and draw something based on the prompt.

Inktober was created by a comics short story creator named Jake Parker, also known to his fans informally as “Agent 44.” Parker created the drawing challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits for himself. Currently working as a freelance illustrator, Parker started his career in 1999 as a teacher and writer, and since then, his body of work has impressively encompassed work from comics and picture books to animated films, with some of his more notable work being Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Rio (2011), and Epic (2013), all under the production banner of Blue Sky Studios.  

The Inktober challenge prompts usually consist of vague and simple words that allow the artist to then create whatever he/she desires based off of the word. The Inktober website also gives two small tutorials and introductions to those that are new to inking and encourages participants of all ages to pick up a pen and start drawing!

To further explain, October 4th’s prompt is, “Spell.” For some people, their first thought would be to draw a witch casting a spell on someone. So, they’d draw exactly that. It’s that simple. If you’re still confused, Inktober isn’t anything new, so you can look up other people’s drawings online by typing in, “Inktober,” and any random or specific year into Google or any social media platform.

The key part about Inktober is being creative. When drawing, you can use and color with a black pen, use two colors, go into specific detail, not go into any detail, draw fun pieces, draw dark pieces, or just do anything you want. The best part about art is the freedom you get, so you shouldn’t feel obliged to stay in the prompt 24/7 or to base your drawings off from someone else’s personal rules.  Nor should you feel forced to share your drawings with others or even

stress about completing a drawing each day. This is for you, no one else. So, just have fun with Inktober.

FOR MORE INFOMATION, GO TO https://inktober.com/