INKTOBER 2025
This year has been pretty scary. It was nice to make art as a way to relieve all the stress I have been feeling. I used the Mabs Drawlloween prompts once again but didn’t combine with any other prompts. I just did whatever I wanted. I think you can always see a bit of my sense of humor in all of my paintings, but these ones I felt particularly silly. That Creature from the Black Lagoon on Tinder had me beside myself. I think I really needed some levity. I started each piece with ink washes and then added color when I felt appropriate. I definitely didn’t give myself as many rules this year. Levity and Freedom are probably the theme.
INKTOBER 2024
My mother passed away in April of this year and I had really only made one piece of art since then. It’s a portrait of her. It’s been a hard year, and although as an art therapist, I am well aware that art making is healing… I just didn’t have it in me. But I decided it was time to try to do Inktober. I only really did the Mabs Drawlloween prompts. Hopefully this is me starting to engage with those things I love again. My mother was an amazing artist. She did everything - painting, drawing, ceramics, wood working, floral arranging, sewing, quilting… she even made those big eyed charcoal drawings that were popular in the seventies. I was so lucky to have such an amazing person teach me to be passionate about creating. I miss her so much. Some of these pieces make me super happy… and some are terrible. lol. But I learned something with every one of them.
INKTOBER 2023
At the end of 2021, while taking a selfie of all things, I fell and broke my wrist. It put me in a cast for a month. The cast finally came off and I tried to make art. It was painful. My fingers ached. Then one day, my thumb just fell out of place. I found out that I had ruptured the tendon in my thumb, which necessitated surgery and a ton of physical therapy. This meant that I didn’t make much art in 2022, other than some left handed artwork. (I am right handed) I tried in October of last year, but everything felt incredibly awkward. There were lots of tears. But this year has been much better - and so I am back! I did the Mabs Drawlloween prompts and this time a prompt list from a facebook group of “weird” artists, of which I definitely think I am one. I tried to just be pretty relaxed about what I was making. I again mainly used Black and White, with a bit of color here and there. I actually really love a few of these. And I am so glad to be making art consistently again!
INKTOBER 2021
This year I again used two different prompt lists - Jake Parker’s official Inktober prompt list and Mab’s Drawlloween prompts. I decided that I wanted to make all of my pieces resemble some kind of scary movie poster. I think some of them are more successful than others, but I had a great time nonetheless! I also decided to do these in mostly Black and White with maybe one or two accent colors.
Inktober 2020
This year I again used two different prompt lists - Jake Parker’s official Inktober prompt list and Mab’s Drawlloween prompts. I really loved last year’s use of color - so I decided to try to do that again. Plus I have so much colored ink left over from last year! I am pretty happy with my results! I feel like there are five or six pieces that I love… and only a few that weren’t very successful. But what I love most is seeing how much I have improved since that first Inktober in 2016! Keeping up with the challenge was much easier this year since I am saving so much time not commuting! One of the few perks of what has been a super difficult year.
Inktober 2019
This year I again used two different prompt lists - Jake Parker’s official Inktober prompt list and Mab’s Drawlloween prompts. If you don’t know Mab Graves, you should. She is amazing and inspirational. I also try every year to do something unifying about each piece. This time, I tried using one color in each ink drawing. Not sure how well things are unified - but I did love painting with colored ink!
Inktober 2018
This year I followed two prompt lists - the official Jake Parker Inktober prompts and Mab’s Drawlloween. I also added an additional challenge by including a dark starry sky in each image. Can you find it?
Inktober 2017
This year, I followed the official Jake Parker Inktober prompt list and added Mab’s Drawloween… and then I also added striped shirts… because I love a challenge.
Inktober 2016
This was my first every Inktober - and I had never drawn with ink before, let alone tried to really draw daily. It was tough… but I did it. And I didn’t follow any prompts, because frankly - I didn’t even know I was supposed to. lol
