It’s been an exciting month for artists, thanks to Inktober. Artists from across the globe are picking up their pens and sketching at least one picture a day, based on the themes shared worldwide.
Inktober has been a tradition where artists take up the drawing challenge in the month of October, not to win a competition but solely to participate in the global phenomenon and improve their creative skills.
Data scientist Karthik Jannu took up the challenge last year but it’s in 2018 that he took to it seriously. He says, “It’s been an exciting year already. Within the second day the challenge prompts were released, there were over 2 million posts with the hashtag #Inktober and #Inktober2018. It shows the number of people joining in just for the fun of it. I’m glad that I am part of that community too.”
Despite his busy schedule, Karthik makes it a point to spend about an hour every evening sketching. As each day has a topic to follow, he comes up with a design to draw by the end of the day and works on it before it posts it on his Instagram handle (@k.art.hikjannu). “I usually ask my friends what comes to mind when I say a certain word. Depending on their response, I take inspiration from that and draw when I get home. For example, one of the themes was ‘Muddy’. A colleague told me that she thinks of her heels drenched in mud which struck me. That’s the idea I used to translate on paper,” says Karthik.
Unlike last year, illustrator Anupama Nalinakshan has been consistent in sketching every day this year. She says, “It’s a great creative exercise for artists like me. I’ve also realised that it’s easy to create something in colour but a black and white picture is challenging. Since the challenge started, I can see the improvements in my work and how fast my mind works as well.”
On some days, she draws for the fun of it, but on others, she tries to put out a message along with her work. She explains, “There’s a friend of mine who is depressed. She’s reached a stage where she doesn’t want to be around people. I took that as my inspiration and sketched a piece which said that it may be hard but one needs to get out more and see what the world has to offer.”
Taking the Inktober challenge up a notch is Karan Talgeri who uses 3-D designs for his work. “I am not as regular as the others out there and I don’t use the hashtag on social media. I upload my work every two days as it takes that long for the 3-D figure to render,” he says. Karan has been terrarium models and making different worlds in them.
He likes the response he has been receiving from friends and other fellow artists. “It’s great to see that people have been responding well to my work. Sometimes they leave comments or a simple ‘like’ to the post. With other fellow artists, it turns into a detail discussion when I meet them over the weekend,” Karan laughs.
What is Inktober?
Inktober was started by Jake Parker in 2009. Anyone who has an interest in sketching can participate in the challenge. All you have to do is draw in ink or pencil, post it online with hashtag #Inktober and #Inktober2018 and repeat the process throughout the month.