Inktober 2018 was the first art challenge I completed! Inktober is a month long art challenge created by artist Jake Parker that is focused on improving skill and developing positive drawing habits. Every day for the month of October anyone participating in the Inktober challenge creates an ink drawing and posts it online.
day 1 - Poisonous
Have you been so hungry that you ate whatever looks edible even though you know it can kill you?
day 2 -
Tranquil
Just a dude, chilling. 🙏🏽🌙
day 3 - roasted
I miss Istanbul so much sometimes. This picture shows a kestaneci selling roasted chestnuts and a little refugee girl gathering courage to buy some.
day 4 - spell
I was sure, that most people will create an ink drawing with the ‘magic spell’ meaning of the word so I wanted to make something with ‘spelling’. .
day 5 - chicken
When you look into their eyes, you understand that deep inside they are still an apex predator 😱
day 6 - drooling
I always thought that Renoir was a colossal perv. Have you seen how many sketches and pictures he made about unsuspecting young girls bathing?? You can even see how much more attention he payed to the ‘exciting’ parts of the body like tummy rolls and booties while neglecting the boring proportions 😂 His paintings are still great.
day 7 - exhausted
Just an exhausted guerilla trying to get some rest in a stable.
day 8 - star
A supernova within an eye.
day 9 - precious
Precious is seeing my boyfriend sleeping peacefully in a perfect burrito-formation every day when I get up in the morning.
day 10 - flowing
I drew dancers cause I think dancing is the ultimate flow experience. I love watching dance choreographies on youtube. Some of my fav dancers and choreographers are: Andrey Boyko, Rodrig Dibakoro, Guillaume Lorentz, Koharu Sugawara, Dylan Mayoral
day 11 - cruel
The reality of farming in our time is that ALL meat and dairy product we consume is connected to endless horrible suffering. I don’t believe that it’s the individual’s resposibility alone to change a whole industry by going vegan. But living in denial and comforting ourselves with bio/ eco/ free range labels is also sensless. We gotta know and think about the price others pay so we can eat meat and dairy and fight for conditions to change.
While drawing this, I realized that: 1) I don’t want to draw another damn chicken for a while 😂 2) I had to expand the cages around the swine and remove bars. If I drew it the way it looks in reality, you just couldn’t see that they are pigs. Maybe it would look like loaves of bread in cages 😀 All in all, those cages are way smaller, the sow spends her whole life held down, unable to move.
day 12 - whale
When we were teenagers we hung out a lot in public places just to save money. In parks, playgrounds, behind a concert venue, passing around a bottle or two and just laughing at everything until our side hurt and we were fighting for air. Those years were so full of comradery, magic and a sweet anticipation for our future. I’m at a much better spot now in my life but I miss the intensity of those friendships and that fleeting magic terribly. Almassy ter, Dunapart, west balkan, kulti, kolibri, kakikommando es hereturizmus ✊🏽🙈🍾
day 13 - guarded
Some people have guardian angels. I’ve always had guardian demons. 😅
day 14 - clock
Pendulum clocks are perfect hideaways 💕🐁
day 15 - weak
Those who always look strong on the outside need the most help.
day 16 - angular
Don’t ask me what this is, I have no idea 😁 But it has them angles!
I love the texture that came out on the parts that are evenly covered in ink but it was super difficult to photograph.
day 17 - swollen
Trench foot inspection in WW1. I drew the soldiers in British uniform but these could be any soldiers at any side of the fight. And trench foot was the least of their problems. I included some pictures about how bad it can get and what kind of knee deep mud these man had to spend weeks/months/years. Mud that was rich in rotting bodies.
Listening to Blueprint for Armageddon by Dan Carlin changed the way I look at WW1 and war in general. Everybody should listen to it. It’s captivating, interesting, educational and just pulls you into another reality entirely. For this reason drawing this one was very emotional for me.
day 18 - bottle
My mom was an alcoholic. She used to drink liquor from coffee cups and acted insulted whenever me or my sister pointed out that it’s not coffee. It was really silly and frustrating. So although she did not hide bottles in every corner of the house, her illness constantly surrounded us despite her efforts to hide it.
She was also an amazing woman and I miss her very much 💕
If you are struggling with any kind of addiction, you gotta know that recovery is possible and it’s never too late to try! 🌱 .
day 19 - scorched
The forest spirits were not pleased at all by the aftermath of the wild fire.
day 21 - breakable
The Flying Sneakers (Motýlí čas) was one of my favourite childhood movies. It was a really beautiful movie about how friends can protect each other and how fragile the trust is that makes a friendship so powerful. Rehor is a lonely kid with really busy parents. His dad works abroad. One day he sends him some interesting butterfly pupae from Africa. Later these pupae hatch and Urugu, a little godess with her butterfly servants emerges. It takes time to trust each other but Rehor and Urugu become besties. The movie has a bittersweet ending, but not as bad as this drawing ended up.
When I finished I felt sad that I killed Urugu. I’m sorry Urugu, I wish I could have saved you!
day 22 -drain
> Do you think we can still use this for something?
> I’ve told you a hundred times Zlorg, human samples are completely useless.
> 😢
> 😒 .
day 22 - expensive
We all know the saying ‘Being poor is expensive.’ Still, when it comes to the concept of poverty, most people believe one can work their way up if they have good money saving skills.
Unfortunately this is not always the case.
Disadvanages add up just as much as advantages in life. What you can afford to save will return back to you as icome later. Savings that you had to miss out on will manifest as expenses later on.
If you can only save very little money, chances, that a big emergency will erode your savings are very high. The worse the set-back, the most likely it is that the avalanche of expenses will push you deeper and deeper into poverty.
I included a list of activities and circumstances that work as investments in our life. All the items in the ‘Investment’ column of the table help us to stay strong and accumulate wealth. Missing out on an item on the ‘Investment’ side not only means the lack of it. Most likely you will experience it as an ‘Expense’ later on.
I also added items we have no control over. All the support we recieve as a child or young adult impacts our life greatly. In this sense, none of us starts from 0 as an adult. If you didn’t recieve enough support as a child, you are spending your life trying to dig yourself out of an avalanche.
day 23 - muddy
Nom nom nom nom 🙈
day 24 - chop
Slay the demon
day 25 - prickly
It’s a mood.
day 26 - stretch
I’ve heard you like CATS. Some stretching cats for your viewing pleasure
day 27 -thunder
I loved summer camps. Especially staying up late and telling each other scary stories in the dark. When you are deeply absorbed in the scariest part of the story and then suddenly lightning strikes, thunder rolls and everybody goes crazy!! 👻🙈 That’s just the best 😁
day 28 - gift
“Look!! This time I didn’t kill it so you can practice! 🙌🏽 Human!! Open the doowwr!!”
day 29 - double
I drew my favourite twins for this one 🌸👱🏻♀️👱🏻♀️🌺
day 30 - jolt
“What was that?!! Guys did you see that??”
day 31 - slice
Soup for the void.
Conclusion:
pro:
-some people reported i made them feel things!
-it was exciting to come up with new visual ideas every day
-i was forced to complete creative ideas that otherwise would end up on my ‘do it later’ list
-it felt good to get serious about my art
-now i have a lot of finished work
con:
-intense month at work + inktober = burnout
-i miss spending time with my boyfriend
-i miss spending time with me
-i miss doing sports
-it was sad to see how pressured accomplished artists feel to participate in order to stay visible. Social media is an opportunity to establish a livelihood but it can also turn into a slave master. The most disillusioning aspect of it is how once you are dependent on it, you feel inclined to fake a certain level of effortlessness and positivity even in times when you are super busy and overwhelmed.
my favourites:
breakable, whale, drooling, precious, clock
your favourites:
thunder, stretch, bottle
i learned:
-things about composition
-things about light and dark
-things about time management
-more about what you guys find the most likable/fun
-being better at conveying a message
-that xxx watercolor paper is awesome quality!!
-being happy about finished illustrations even if they didn’t turn out too well.