This month, social media users are seeing an influx of drawings on their feeds. This is because artists worldwide are participating in Inktober, an art challenge where participants create one drawing for each day of the month to share on social media. GHC sees local artists of all ages getting in on the fun too.

According to the Inktober website, illustrator Jake Parker created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve his art skills. It has since become an annual event that attracts thousands of artists from all over the world.

“Fall is a period of cultural explosion,” said art professor Brian Barr, “that’s a perfect time to do something.”

Barr said that students should treat Inktober as a serious challenge while still having fun with it. He explained that art students can use Inktober as an opportunity to “work out” their artistic muscle and create a satisfying body of work.

The Inktober website describes the challenge as “focused on improving skill and developing positive drawing habits.” The framework provides artists with a list of 31 single-word art prompts for each day of October. Some of this year’s prompts include “outpost,” “wisp” and “crawl.” Some artists add another layer of challenge by keeping a consistent theme throughout the month or by creating more than one drawing per day.

Mallory Hobson, online student, said that “the prompts challenge me to draw things away from my particular musings.”

Hobson has participated in Inktober for the last five years and describes their work as “people-driven,” often taking the object prompts and turning them into characters.

Hobson is participating in Inktober tentatively this year and will be sharing their art on Instagram.

Inktober is an opportunity for younger artists to hone their skills as well. Grace Kozee, 12 year old daughter of english professor Julie Kozee, is trying the challenge for the first time this year. Grace is self-taught and chose art as a way to stay occupied and have something positive to focus on during homeschooling.

Grace’s mother, Julie Kozee said, “Honestly, Grace’s ability just came out of nowhere.”

Inktober is Grace’s first time drawing with ink so participating is a way for her to gain experience with the medium.

Artists are sharing their Inktober art via social media using the tags #inktober and #inktober2020

Students who are interested in having their Inktober art featured in a follow-up story can send their art to [email protected].