Inktober Challenge 2017

The Challenge
If you are not familiar with what “inktober”is, it is a challenge created by Jake parker in 2009. It’s basically about drawing an ink illustration,sketch or even a doodle using ink for the whole month, one each day.
Every October I feel like joining but there has always been fear inside me for some reason, Who would have thought that challenge in art can be so scary? Who would have thought that being creative require so much courage? Or is it the commitment of doing something daily that we don’t feel comfortable with?
This year I gathered all my willpower to be able to join, and not only to start but to be able to reach the finish line, It’s something I wanted to achieve for so long. Honestly, I cared for all the social media buzz it creates but my main purpose for doing it was to prove to myself that I can do it.

My plan
Just the day before inktober started, I recall having a long bus ride home, there was traffic and I knew i will be stuck in the bus for at least two hours. With a Terrible terrible headache I sat by the window gazing in the way raindrop created reflection in the busy streets. I opened my notebook and stared at the blank page. “Tomorrow I will be better, i wont be this tired ,I will be excited for inktober” I said to myself.
To pass the time, I decided to browse Pinterest and download some reference photos for inktober. I had absolutely no idea what to draw. I started by making a list of the things i would enjoy drawing to limit my options. The first thing that came to my mind was Animals. I searched “Deer/Photography” And that’s how it all started. I prepared a list of all the animals I would love to sketch and collected my reference images in a board. However, by reaching day 10 I was out of animals. My brain was not suggesting anything anymore, maybe it was the headache.
Then i thought of creating a theme for each 10 days in october, this way I will be able to practice more things other that animals and it really did kept me away from boredom. I ended up creating a list of three categories, Animals, Plants and Portraits.

What I learnt
By the end of October, I felt both so exhausted and exhilarated to the extreme. It really did taught me a lot of things which i am pretty sure that without doing this challenge I might have never learnt. Here is a bunch of things I was not aware of before

• Stop looking for excuses,There is always time to sketch daily. No matter how busy we are and how many errands we do, or even if we come work for long hours, there is always time to sketch something. I figured out it is a matter of giving priority to the things we love.
• Don’t be scared of making mistakes. If we are always scared of failing and quitting we will never be able to grow, Especially as an artist I realized that i need to struggle a lot and go on a process of trial and error to develop my own style.
• Simplify your work. As they say ” There is beauty in simplicity”.  Creating art is really a stressful job itself, you don’t need to make it harder for yourself by paying attention to the little details. Go for a more impressionistic look, or even expressionistic, Cover the things that you are not good at with washes and  block of colors. True, practice and Don’t stop learning, but don’t kill your creative self as well.
• Limit your color palette. I realized that working with. a limited color palette or a monochromatic scale is a huge relief when it comes to decision-making in creating art. Even though inktober is done, I intend to continue creating more and more works using ink.
• Hang you artwork in front of you, it will work as a motivation booster every time you work in your working area.
• Paint without outlines. In my “series of flowers” this inktober, I painted directly with no outlines, no sketching and no planning. I just dipped my brush in the ink and let the washes do its magic. I cannot express enough how freeing and relaxing it is to just hold the brush and start painting. There is no right and wrong, there is not erasing nor undo button. Simply meditating.
• “What is done with love, It is done well.” Love your art, love what you do.

Wall of inktober
My absolute favorite things about this challenge was the achievement of having a body of work in a matter of 30 days,It feels so motivating to witness a huge development in your style in such a short period of time. It will keep you wanting to create more and stick to a specific theme or medium in order to complete a series of artworks.
Here is my wall of inktober, It is still stuck before me in my studio making it such a pleasant view to contemplate at. Am having voices in me telling me to make a zine out of these sketches, So please let me know if that’s  something you would be interested in owning.

Wishing you a very productive month ahead.

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