Inktober – 31 illustrations on 31 days

First time I heard about Inktober has been 2 years ago. It’s an online event where illustrators draw 31 pictures to 31 prompts. It’s open for everyone, and if you tag your pictures properly, you can get in touch with other artists on social media.

I wanted to participate last year, but my head has been so deep into music, that I barely had the patience to draw any trace on a sheet of paper. This year the timing has been excellent as I just released my album and needed a musical break.

It’s been the first time participating on Inktober. Roughly 3 weeks before the festival, you can read all prompts on the website. I must admit, that I have been overwhelmed and puzzled by most words, but 10 illustrations popped into my mind quite quickly. Soon I realised that I cannot force myself to draw everyday or draw every prompt, but I did my best. Originally, Inktober wants you to draw with ink, but it’s not my favourite way to paint. Instead, I decided to draw only the prompts that spoke to me and dust off my watercolours that I haven’t touched for 20 years. It took me a while to remember how to use them, but I had a lot of fun. I loved scrolling through the hashtags and see how different people interpretated the promopts.

All in all, Inktober has been a nice experiment, though I didn’t paint 31 pictures. I found some new strengths and weaknesses. For example, drawing animals and colour gradients were super tough, while I discovered my love for drawing food. I may participate in figure, but only under the condition of (a) picking a medium of choice and (b) don’t draw all 31 pictures.

For now, you can see my illustrations only on Instagram. Maybe I find the time to scan the best of them and upload onto my website.

Did you participate?