While many enjoy the spooky festivities of Halloween at the end of the month, October is special to artists for a different reason: It’s the month of Inktober.
Inktober is an online art challenge where artists post daily drawings based on a theme under the hashtag #Inktober. Some create elaborate drawings, while others use it to generate ideas and sketches to spur their creativity.
“I ended up using a lot of the ideas for bigger paintings and even stickers that I printed out and stuff,” Visual Arts teacher Kim Rohrs said. “I realized that if I do actually draw every day, that I’ll be able to use some of those drawings for my role as an artist.”
At Northwood, some students participate in the challenge, though not all post online. Art Club invited students to submit their Inktober drawings to feature the artwork on the club’s Instagram page and at their meeting on Oct. 8. and today. Senior Zara Dastur submitted her digital drawing of an owl to Inktober, considering the challenge an important break from school life.
“If you’re taking a lot of APs like I am, it takes a lot of hard work to try to find time to draw, and so this forces you [to],” Dastur said.
Although many use Inktober to improve their drawing habits, students such as Dastur might prefer to pick and choose which prompts they draw for to maintain the enjoyment of making artwork.
“A lot of people do it every single day, and the main idea is that you fail if you don’t do it every single day,” Dastur said. “That’s not how I do it, I don’t really take it that seriously. I just use it as a fun way to get ideas and inspiration.”
Although the event mainly attracts those interested in art, it is open to anyone who is interested in participating, whether they’ve just learned how to hold a pencil or have decades of art experience. Some might compare the quality of others’ artwork to their own, but Inktober is ultimately a personal challenge, not a competition.
“You just have to kind of realize that some people get this list of words a month ahead of time and really dedicate hours of their day to it,” Rohrs said. “And some of us are in school and we can maybe only dedicate only 10 minutes to a quick Inktober drawing, and that’s fine too.”
Regardless of how detailed their drawings are, many artists enjoy Inktober because it can provide the freedom of art and creativity without having any real consequences.
“For a lot of people drawing is very relaxing and therapeutic,” Dastur said, “and [Inktober is] a good idea to help people get back into drawing if you’ve been in a rut.”
