Inktober '26: What I Did, What I Learned, and What's Next

Inktober '26, Day 1. Brush pen and acrylic paint markers.

Hello, Autumn! My favorite season for writing, drawing, dreaming, and especially for seeing my neighborhood trees turn so many shades of gold it's impossible to not paint them. Which I would've done if I hadn't been busy with Inktober, the season of 31 days of ink drawing, no paint.

For this year's Inktober challenge I decided to shake things up a bit. Instead of following the list of drawing prompts provided on the website, I chose to immerse myself instead in figure and fashion drawing. Reason why: I'm planning to illustrate the novella I wrote last year in England (the manuscript I usually refer to as "the book I wasn't supposed to write") and I want to include drawings of my characters. The problem with this, though, is characters need bodies, faces, and clothes. They also need me to know what I'm doing--and I don't! So I decided to use Inktober as a chance to learn and toward this end I set a few parameters:

1. Work with toned paper. For the entire month I worked exclusively in a Strathmore 9 x 12-inch tan-toned spiral sketchbook. I find tan or gray paper less intimidating than a bright, white page. I also like the way you can add white highlights that really pop.
   
2. Concentrate on gestures and keep my drawings as loose as possible rather any attempts at realistic "perfection." For me, the best way to do this was to use Pilot brush pens as well as my Sailor fude pen. The fude pen was a natural choice because it's nearly impossible to get anything close to a predictable line from the bent nib. Every mark I made was a complete surprise; I never knew what would happen and my pages were full of "happy accidents."
   
3. Lastly, I wanted to stay true to the inkiness of the challenge by sketching in pen alone--no pencil under-drawing or outlining--and no, no, no erasers. Admittedly I did later add the occasional scribble with acrylic paint markers or colored pencils because they were so much fun and I couldn't resist! But the essence of the piece was always ink.
   

Once my boundaries were in place, the next thing I needed was a series of reference photos. As much as I would have liked to have drawn from my imagination, I needed pictures and the majority of the ones I used for the challenge came from retail catalogs or more traditional fashion magazines such as Elle or Vogue. Thanks to the Tiny Library at the end of my street I never ran out of resources:

Woolly coats . . .

Skimpy scraps . . .

 

Boots and shoes . . .

 Don't forget your bag . . .

 

The other core change I made to this year's challenge was to skip social media. Traditionally you're supposed to share your daily drawing on some kind of social site, but as I had closed my X account several months ago and have never liked Facebook, and have yet to create an Instagram account, I had to remain unseen. Yet in the end, staying out of the spotlight was great; not posting meant no comparisons, no critiques, no stress, no pressure; just the freedom to do what I wanted, how I wanted. And I AM sharing a few sketches today, so I didn't completely abandon the rules!

 

Regardless of my renegade behavior, the main thing is that I sketched in ink for 31 days straight, and to my mind, that's what matters. By the time the month was over I had a full sketchbook (goal accomplished!). I also had some important insights, starting with:

1. Don't be afraid of a messy drawing. Because I went for loose and sketchy, there were quite a few "bad" sketches and disappointments. Which meant I simply turned the page and tried again the next day!
2. Details are the least of a sketch and can often be completely ignored. I've never seriously tried drawing faces before so rather than getting hung up on "not being able to draw noses right" I decided to go without and learn portrait drawing next year.
   
3. Repetition does indeed build muscle memory. Working consistently on one subject or technique over a number of days really does get you to where you want to go!
   
4. Creativity doesn't always require huge blocks or stretches of time--it's showing up that counts the most. There is always a spare fifteen minutes somewhere and more than once during the course of a day (or night). Break your sessions into small chunks and there will be many more hours available than you ever thought possible. You can do it!
   

So now that the challenge is over, what's next? Oil painting! In the past I tended to think of oil painting as "too much trouble" for my small apartment and lack of working space, but now I'm thinking it could be exactly what I need to continue with people-drawing and painting.

 

Something else I want to try next year as a result of my figure studies is to sign up for a life drawing class. I haven't been in an art or writing class for a long time and I'm looking forward to the company.  I was sorry when NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) closed its doors for good last November; those midnight group writing sessions in downtown Albuquerque years ago are amongst some of the best memories of my life. There's something about working on a project or challenge with friends that makes it twice as special. Not only can you hold each other accountable ("What do you mean you stayed in bed all day?") but you have a group of people on your side encouraging you to get things finished. That said, however, most of the time we do have to work alone and appreciate that solitude has its own unique joys and benefits: e.g., no interruptions! 

 

To close out, here are a few more sketches from my very productive--and uninterrupted--time spent with Inktober:

Contour drawing trying to get the lines in place  . . .

Taking a more stylized "fashion illustration" approach.

Two figures at once--bonus points! 

 

Tip of the Day: The best part of any challenge such as Inktober is the chance to return to "beginner's mind"; discovering what you don't know and making the effort to learn. In my case it was figure drawing; for you it could be cats or landscapes or urban sketching; it could also be sonnets, screenplays, or song writing. Whatever the discipline, there's a challenge somewhere on the web just waiting for you to join in. I hope you do! Happy "beginning!"