THERE are several things to celebrate during the month of October. For beer drinkers, it’s the Oktoberfest; and for consumers, it’s the Consumer Welfare Month. There's also the National Statistics Month and the Cooperative Month.
However, for artists all over the world, October is the month to challenge their skills by doing one ink drawing a day for the entire said month.
Created by the illustrator Jake Parker in 2009, Inktober is a popular, month-long art challenge that focused on improving skill and developing positive drawing habits.
“I created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve my inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year,” Parker said.
Every day of October, anyone participating in the Inktober challenge will have to create an ink drawing, usually basing it on the prompt list provided, and post it online.
The prompt list is list of words, one for every day of the month that can be used as the theme or idea of your drawing.
This year's Inktober prompt list include: 1.) poisonous, 2.) tranquil, 3.) roasted, 4.) spell, 5.) chicken, 6.) drooling, 7.) exhausted, 8.) star, 9.) precious, 10.) flowing, 11.) cruel, 12.) whale, 13.) guarded, 14.) clock, 15.) weak, 16.) angular, 17.) swollen, 18.) bottle, 19.) scorched, 20.) breakable, 21.) drain, 22.) expensive, 23.) muddy, 24.) chop, 25.) prickly, 26.) stretch, 27.) thunder, 28.) gift, 29.) double, 30.) jolt, and 31.) slice.
There are only four rules in Inktober: 1.) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want). 2.) Post it on any social media account. 3.) Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2018. And 4.) Repeat.
Despite it being an ink drawing challenge, using markers and colors are not prohibited thus, some artists who prefer to use colors in their art are still on the challenge.
According to Kyla Janelle Caballa, who participated in the Inktober challenge, doing the said challenge has given her the spark to motivate herself to draw.
“Sumali ako sa Inktober kasi it gives you the spark na ma-motivate ka sa mga prompts and also dahil hobby mo siya so nakak inspire,” Caballa said.
Anyone can do Inktober, just pick up a pen and start drawing.