Ah! Inktober. My favorite spectator sport. Time to sit back, relax, and let everyone else stress out over doing a new ink piece every day!
For anyone uninitiated, throughout October artists everywhere are invited to “take on the Inktober drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month.”
Jake Parker started Inktober in 2009. The idea of daily ink prompts caught like wildfire and has gone on to inspire innumerable artists (and innumerable ink spills, no doubt) across the world.
It’s hard to overstate the impact of this particular monthly challenge. The annual event has given rise to millions of new drawings. No exaggeration there, in just the first three days of Inktober 2019 there were already ONE MILLION posts on Instagram alone.
Whether or not you hit a new piece everyday is here nor there to me. After all, it’s how you play the game!
Here’s a look at artists who are inspiring me this month with their ink work.
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Muddy Colors’ own Annie Stegg Gerard is busy being publicly exceptional every day of the year but particularly during the month of October. Her devastatingly beautiful work is all the more poignant in ink.
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Simply put, I adore Tony’s work. Endless enchantment, imagination, and playfulness coupled with a masterful command of line. Tony has this magic ability to suggest whole worlds in just a few, superb marks. It’s why I return to his work time and again. It’s like a fountain.
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It’s as if Jo’s Inktober offerings are transcending the very idea of Inktober and crossing over into full, beautiful illustrations. They are remarkable.
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Where to begin with Shen Leidigh? He’s one of my oldest friends and he’s nearing the completion of his debut graphic novel. It’s a massive work of startling beauty and heart.
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Leave it to Jason Caffoe to facilitate, at long last, me posting about Miyazaki and The Legend of Zelda on Muddy Colors. (How has this not happened before?) In any case, it’s like he’s planned each of his Inktober pieces for me, personally. From moments in Ghibli films to Zelda to other Nintendo things, Jason’s been knocking it out the park every single day this month and I can’t wait to see what he’s done next.
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The incomparable Becky Cloonan is serializing a comic, a page every day this month in her new story, so you know, I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life. These pages are not in sequence, I just grabbed a couple that grabbed me so go read the whole thing! It’s amazing!
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Ah! Courtney (Godbey) Wise. Why, it’s my own little sister! She returns to Inktober with a wonderful series about a small witch reflecting on what it takes to find a friend (and all the ups and downs along the way). The writing and captions which go along with each piece are great so it’s worth reading the series start to finish, in context. Plus, no one does cute gorgons like Courtney. I mean, just look at that third drawing there. Snakes in a pony tail? It’s perfect.
Timothy Von Rueden and Drawtober
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Bonus! So it’s not Inktober, in fact, it’s Drawtober! Timothy Von Rueden created Drawtober, a weekly series of drawing prompts throughout the month of October. Goodness, if Tim’s drawing aren’t just a delight. They’re an inspiration.
Thank You so much Cory! :}