Inktober is a 31 day art challenge founded by artist Jay Parker. The challenge is to make ink drawings as per 31 prompts for each day in the month of October. Over the years, artists and people all over the world have attempted the Inktober in their way to challenge themselves and evolve their craft.
This was my first attempt at Inktober and also the most special. I still remember trying to wrap up my college assignments late in the night and then sitting with a blank piece of paper to draw my day’s prompt. By the end of the month my classmates would walk up and ask about the next prompt and how they’ve been following my Inktobers on Instagram. That was just the extra motivation I needed.
My second attempt at Inktober, also the time when I finally felt confident enough to draw in my sketchbook. There’s a lot of permanence, that comes with drawing on a sketchbook with ink. The pressure to not ruin the sketchbook and also create something that I do not immediately hate was a crazily-fun limbo to go through. Getting through those 31 days and finishing the sketchbook successfully helped me gain more confidence in my abilities.
Amidst the global pandemic, 2020’s Inktober was my attempt to channel and express my thoughts through this period. I crowd sourced my prompts for the month through Instagram by asking people to describe pandemic as- Life in 2020 is like… With so many prompt suggestion pouring in, it felt really good to put these thoughts out through art and attempt to spread a little bit of positivity during this bleak year. The series also featured in an article on Firstpost.
In 2021, I took the challenge completely digital, crowdsourced my prompts (again) and posted every prompt on my feed. I was one day in when I realized I may have made a mistake but since art teaches us to “trust the process”, that’s what I did and I couldn’t have been more grateful.
This year, I took the challenge of animating daily during Inktober and sharing them on Reels. It's safe to say if I were to retire from Inktobers, this would be it. I also had the most fun while working on this.
Here's the link to the Inktober 2022
