What Inktober Challenge Taught Me…

Hi there, I’m Charline – as known as Winona Adamon. And I’m French. It means :”Excuse me for my poor English.”

First of all, what “inktober” is?

A drawing challenge created in 2009 by Jake Parker, one ink drawing a day the entire month of october to “improve [his] inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.”

I jumped into it for the first time in 2014 – almost by accident – I was trying to keep an artistic activity despite my full time job (which was not in the artistic domain at all). I made it, 31 black and white drawings in a 14,8cm x 21cm sketchbook. But it wasn’t enough, I rose to the challenge one more time in 2015. And 2016. And 2017.

Every time I was telling myself “I don’t think I will do it again” but every year I added some challenges in the challenge itself :

– In 2014 and 2015, I only used black ink and drew the first thing that came to my mind.

– In 2016, I suddenly remembered about coloured inks and started following the prompt list gave by Jake Parker himself, coupled with the Drawlloween one (another october art challenge based on Halloween spirit) and a bigger sketchbook.

– In 2017, same as mentioned above, more details and a huge mix of the official inktober prompt list with some other art challenge lists – more or less connected to the fantasy, esoteric and sci-fi universes – like : #Ghostacular, #31MoreWitches, #ASteampunkAdventure, #MabsDrawlloweenClub,…

What Inktober taught me ? Evolution and “moment enjoyment”.

In 4 years I saw my own work change, I saw myself becoming more consistent, more efficient and it led me to do more concrete things, as creating artbooks compiling these drawings.

And self-surpassing, self… surprise and, I admit, a genuine pride. Even if it occurs to me that I’m my very own tyrant…

Just try it one time, even if you don’t go so far, just try. Not only Inktober, there are lots of art challenges, for example in May, you have the MerMay challenge !

And after 31 days of real struggle against the time and yourself, I can assure you that taking all the time you need for making this or that is a pure delight.

More info: winona-adamon.com