Throughout the year, many months have been used by different groups of people to be the subject of a larger-scale project. For example, in the past, we have talked about NaNoWriMo, which declared November the National Novel Writing Month.
The month of October, apart from being the month when everyone is preparing for Halloween, is dedicated to all artists out there. Because for illustrators and other people with a knack for drawing, October has become Inktober. Sure, Inktober has been going on for a few days by now, but it’s still worth having a look at it.
October Becomes Inktober
If you want to be part of Inktober, there are good news: everyone can join! All you need is some paper or even a sketchbook, and a pen!
What Is Inktober?
Inktober was the idea of Jake Parker, an illustrator from Utah, USA. He came up with the idea in 2009 in order to improve his inking skills. What started as a personal little project, soon became a worldwide phenomenon as more and more artists, illustrators and people that draw occasionally joined in.
The premise of Inktober is not that difficult. Anyone can join by drawing one piece of art a day during the month of October. The piece of art has to be done in a traditional way. This means, no digital drawings. After all, Inktober was named after the art form of inking a previously made sketch.
Inktober Prompts
In addition to coming up with the idea for Inktober, Parker also provides a list of drawing prompts for all 31 days in October. This list is regarded as the official prompt list for Inktober each year. However, participants are not obligated to stick to it. Basically, everyone can draw anything they want for each day. However, when stuck, such prompts cam help to get the creative juices flowing.
Sometimes, however, these prompts aren’t enough. You can look at a word, think about it, but nothing to draw comes to mind. But we have a little something that might help you in these situations…
Ambient Noise For Inktober
Many times before, we have talked about the inspirational quality of ambient noise. This is not only true for writing, but for drawing, illustrating and painting as well. Thus, check out the following examples for inspiring and enticing ambient atmospheres.
Also read: Music For Drawing And Painting
One way to draw inspiration would, of course, be taking the prompts from above and using them as search terms for the perfect ambient background sounds for said prompt. Take day 19 for example, which is the prompt “cloud”.
When searching for clouds on the Ambient Mixer, you will find several background noise mixes that can bring you in the right mood to draw something related to clouds. For example: Walking on Air
If you don’t feel like using one of the official prompts, there are many other things you can search on the page that can spark your inspiration. Of course, you can also browse different categories that contain the motivation for your Inktober drawing! Such as:
