Introduction

Inktober is an artistic challenge for the month of October in which the artist uses ink to create a new piece of artwork every day from a master list of prompts. While there is an official list of prompts set by the creator, Jake Parker, artists will generally create their own or follow someone else’s, after all, the Inktober challenge is really an event to help artists create for 31 days, no matter what list is followed.

That being said, I decided to create and follow my own Inktober prompt list of, “Movies and TV Shows I Like.” This allowed me to freely create without the chains of confining list of adjectives or verbs, and being a bit of a movie nut, I never found it difficult to create a new piece every day, which is the biggest challenge of this event.

Attempting to create every day, any artist will tell you, is such a daunting task and I found this especially true for myself. From work to the mundane tasks of household chores, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking etc. I found myself exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was pick up a pen and start drawing. While those outside factors were reasons for the physical to not want to participate, my own mental needed tweaking itself. I’m a perfectionist, as most artists are, and if I didn’t create a sensational piece every day, then what was the point? If I didn’t FEEL like drawing or creating that specific day then I simply didn’t. It’s a mentality that I carry with me (while not as prevalent today as it was years ago) today and it’s definitely a constant battle of discipline to control. While thinking like this, any commitment to a challenge of this magnitude is daunting and seemingly insurmountable, and this was true for Inktober 2019.

Inktober 2019 I had told myself that I was going to finish all 31 days. I was going to follow the official Inktober prompt list and I was going to create masterwork pieces every day. Instead, I quit after 4. The discipline wasn’t there, I was insecure, I was angry with my results and the perfectionist in me just quit after seeing (what I had deemed) as imperfect art pieces. However, it was a learning experience and without failing 2019, I doubt I would’ve been able to achieve the completion of Inktober 2020.

The biggest takeaway experience from Inktober 2019 was I did away with pencil. Relying on a pencil sketch took too long and ultimately increased the time of an Inktober piece from about 1-2 hours to about 5-6 hours maximum. I think the problem speaks for itself when you have to create an art piece every day for 31 day, it wasn’t practical. The next takeaway was that I said no to the vague adjective and verb prompts from the official Inktober prompt list. I would spend too much time thinking about what creative or original idea I could come up with to complete the prompt and combined with the pencil sketch time, the Inktober pieces ended up feeling like another chore rather than a fun, engaging challenge. Ultimately, these 2 changes helped me complete Inktober 2020 and I was able to even do multiple pieces a day.

Switching strictly to India ink, ink wash, a single brush pen and some minor white acrylic for 2020, I was able to dive into an Inktober piece and finish it in no longer than 2 hours. Making the decision to draw film and television characters, I had put myself in a position of success because I could never get bored of drawing some of my favourite film characters and actors. I was able to find enjoyment in this challenge, almost wishing for more days in October because there wasn’t enough time to draw all the actors/actresses and film characters that I enjoyed. The conscious decisions I made to overcome Inktober also helped me overcome (a bit) the perfectionist I am inside. Switching to strictly permanent materials means I didn’t have the crutch of erasing and making sure this line went here and that line went there. I forced myself into making a commitment by only using ink with photo references as my guide. I was forced out of my comfort zone and used materials and techniques I hated. The biggest change for me during this time was switching to portraiture.

I hate realism. I never liked it in art class and my cartoonish style was developed almost in defiance against it, but it was my focus for Inktober 2020. A dangerous precedent for a perfectionist like myself, realism in ink. No ability to erase and forced to improvise around whatever stroke I made with the ink brush. It seems like a recipe for another failure and yet, I had a blast. Yes, some of the pieces are derivative of the actors and actresses faces but I feel no insecurity in that (except one). Overall, I had fun being forced to capture their likeness in one sitting. Leaving my comfort zone, I found enjoyment in different work flows and techniques. I found success in my work that is imperfect and not “up to standard”. I found myself coming out of this experience wanting to learn more about art techniques and styles that I had such a bias against before. I feel as if I completed Inktober 2020 the way it’s supposed to be done, with my artistic journey shaken up and coming out of the challenge a better artist.

As you scroll through the Inktober 2020 gallery, I hope you find as much enjoyment in seeing a favourite character, actor/actress or film that you like as I had drawing them!

​

Jacob (Taquito) Forrest