Inktober 2023 was my first large project after graduating. I completed the Inktober challenge once before while I was applying to art colleges during my gap year in 2019. I participated both times for the same reasons: I needed more work in my portfolio and to get my art in front of an audience.
Here are some tips I picked up this time around.
Tip #1 - Digital Design Decision Test
A couple of pieces during the month did not go as planned. I reached a point in the inking process where it was time to decide how to communicate what I wanted.
“Do I leave this section white or fill it in with ink?”
“Would this look better with a thinner or thicker line?”
I would proceed with my gut instinct, sometimes to my detriment. I was used to working in traditional media as one does in an art college studio class. Try a technique, see what the professor thinks, make changes in the spur of the moment, and if it ends up being a bust, well… it's only a three-hour painting. My mindset didn’t make good use of my time or materials. The college pressure to try as many things as fast as possible wasn’t present, and it was time to change my approach. My husband Luke, a motion design artist, urged me to try out my ideas digitally first. The new system involved:
Recognizing when a design decision needs to happen
Putting down my pen
Taking a picture on my iPad and drawing over it
Decide if that is the route I want to take
Asking for a second opinion before you return to inking is also a good idea. If you’re looking at your work for hours on end it can become easy to miss errors.
Tip #2 - Make Your Reference Work For You
Most artists utilize references in their creation process. I divide my reference photos into two categories:
Subject reference (such as a pose you want to replicate)
Stylistic reference (other artists’s techniques you’re going to reproduce)
Combining two or more of these photos creates a mood board. When looking for subject reference to ink, look for images with elements that are easily simplified. This could mean areas of high contrast or strong shape silhouettes. For stylistic reference, some of the ink artists I drew inspiration from this month are Bernie Wrightson, Franklin Booth, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, Syd Mead, and John Paul Leon. I cannot stress how important it is to find other people’s work you admire while pursuing your artistic voice.
Keep your two kinds of reference visible throughout your drawing process. This will help you stay on course with your original artistic goal for the piece. My collection of copyright-free reference photos came from pexels.com. All other inspirations come from my photography, art books, or Pinterest.
"I cannot stress how important it is to find other people’s work you admire while pursuing your artistic voice."
Tip #3 - Set Aside Time Committed To Inktober
I discovered early on that I had to be firm with myself about using my dedicated time slots for Inktober only. If I didn’t give myself enough time, I would rush the process to catch up, not enjoy drawing, and overall end up less satisfied with the final product. At this point in my career, I am an independent creator, searching for galleries to show my art and clients to sell to. That means aside from gallery submission due dates, I have these vast expanses of unstructured time and a lot to get done within them.
My rhythm came to me through Inktober, and I have included a breakdown of my schedule below. Granted, a large factor in my ability to stay on time was working ahead. I tried to keep a buffer of between 3-5 days between when I created the art and when I posted it.
Morning (9:30 am-12:00 pm)
Finish any necessary research and reference collection
Sketch out the linework
Post the video I had previously recorded for the day to four separate social media platforms
Afternoon (1:00 pm - 5:30 pm)
Ink and record my piece for the day
Upload my raw footage to my computer
Search for a soundtrack to use for my video
Edit my footage in Adobe Premier Pro
Make sure I have enough reference for the next day
If the art for the day was simple I would fit two drawings into an afternoon. Often I had to set aside a couple of hours after dinner to finish editing videos. Luke also helped by editing a handful of videos for me when I simply didn’t have time.
I recognize my Inktober schedule this year is on the extreme side. I’m using it as part of my marketing and portfolio-building strategy, which is my full-time job right now. This is by no means the only way to complete the challenge. It is also not intended to discourage anyone who has less time to dedicate to it. When I first completed Inktober in 2019 I was working full-time and decided to only post the final image to Instagram.
Let me be clear: it is okay to fall behind. Posting something completely original every single day for a whole month is a lot to ask for. You are not a bad artist or a failure if life catches up with you. The pace at which Inktober operates is not a long-term sustainable workflow for most folks. I, for one, am overjoyed to get back to projects that take me multiple days to complete. That is my happy place.
Tip #4 - Plan Your Content Posting
The platforms I post my 60-second time-lapses to are:
TikTok
Instagram
YouTube Shorts
Pinterest
It takes me about an hour to post my daily Inktober video on all four platforms. It helps to have a notes file handy with all the hashtags to copy and paste from. Research to see which hashtags are popular for your art niche. It’s helpful to include broad category tags and specific tags when casting your content into the web.
Research content posting times based on your time zone and decide if you want to commit to that schedule. You can decide to use your entire lunch break to post because that's when everybody else is on. You can set up beforehand a posting schedule inside the app if you have the content ready. Or you can post when you post and let that be that. Luck is a large contributing factor in who will see your work.
Tip #5 - Size Matters
I chose to work on 7 by 8.5 inch sheets of Bristol paper instead of in a sketchbook. This allowed me to have more freedom when filming since I wouldn’t have to contend with pinning the book open while I worked. It also made things easier if I messed up a page and had to start over.
If I could go back to the beginning of Inktober, I would choose to work with paper 8 by 10 inches or larger. You can always increase the size of the paper you’re working on, but pens can only get so thin. I realized that in some cases the smallest pen I owned, a felt tip 005 Micron, was still too thick to capture the detail I wanted at my chosen scale. I was forced to simplify the design instead and move on. While working on a medium-sized paper did allow me to draw a little bit faster since I had less distance to cover, going with a larger scale would’ve given me the chance to draw in more detail. It’s a factor I will take into account next time I do a project in ink.
In Closing
Inktober is a wonderful way to practice fast-paced content creation. I recommend artists at any stage to participate. Art challenges are good opportunities to step outside your comfort zone, share your art, and bolster your portfolio. Most of all, they provide a safe space for you to learn to set goals for yourself, an important skill applicable to every area of your life. So pick up your pen, get lost in your imagination, and go make some art!
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