What is Inktober?
This is a month long art challenge, in which everyday you have to create an ink drawing following a prompt list throughout October and post it online. It was originally created by Jake Parker who wanted to focus on developing drawing habits and improving his skills. It shortly became a worldwide phenomeon among artists and millions of people participated this year as well.
The determination
I sat down intently and determined on the 1st of October this year and promised myself that I will get through this Inktober without shortage. My number one goal was self-improvement; I started to look back at my works in the past few years and was looking for my weaknesses (which was composition, animal depiction, environment drawing... there was a lot, which is totally normal, 'cause we always have more and more space to improve as we gain more and more experience as the time goes by).
I also wanted to build up a feed on my instagram which looked professional, slick and neat. I decided to go for a framed framework, which happened to be the perfect choice! With an added theme (witches, magical creatures, halloween, etc.) it started to look super cool. Suddenly I loved to look at my instagram and it made me feel collected and organized.
I wanted to work digitally...
I always find comments on the debate of digital drawing. Especially linked with this challenge, which was originally created to traditionally draw with ink, but let's not forget that digital art is not less valid because of that. It is also stated on the official Inktober website, that "if you want to improve your digital inking skills then doing Inktober digitally is a great way to challenge yourself". Not only I worked digitally but I also parted from using the classic ink-like brushes: I started to work with a graphite brush.
Up until now I always made sketches manually first and then scanned them into Photoshop to outline them. I drew traditionally for many years and I only started digital drawing when I entered university. I loved working on these pieces, and as I look back to the beginning I'll have to admit that I improved a lot!
Why it's important to participate in these type of challenges?
Beside taking your art to the next level it also develops your work ethics, helps you to improve you time management and most importantly - it gets you addicted to drawing daily. As I had a lot to do in the last few months with my film, graduation and work as well, I completely forgot the joy of simply creating for fun and since the school started I always suffered with an artistic crisis. Creativity can only be reached if you deal with it on a daily level. As soon as I started Inktober I suddenly noticed that I am getting better again in my school projects, motivated and organised considering my film's future. It also helped me with my mental health - I think that art and creating in any form gives you so much energy and lifts so many weights off of your soul. Nowadays everybody is rushing, but art gives you a break, time to heal and finally helps you take care of yourself.
Mostly because there're no rules with these type of challenges I encourage everyone (not just artists) to try it out because it really helps.
Thank you for reading and check out my Instagram for the whole Inktober experience :)
- love, Fiorella
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