Inktober 2024

The project: complete all 31 drawings for the annual art challenge, Inktober. This event includes 31 one word prompts that are meant to act as the inspiration for each piece.

This is a challenge I’ve attempted a handful of times with only partial success, so I changed my approach for 2024. I went into it with a partner and a character. Having someone else inking the pieces alongside me kept me accountable and using a consistent character made it feel like I was illustrating a story instead of 31 random pieces.

The official prompts are release in September and that is when the brainstorming phase began. Initial ideas were thumbed on paper before moving to a digital format for refining and inking.

My partner and I agreed on me creating the final sketches that we would both ink in our own styles. With that in mind, I designed the character, Frogward, with the intention of being simple and able to transfer well to however we wanted to approach the inking. To further distinguish mine from theirs, I added the theme of a zombie apocalypse and chose a gritty style instead of my cleaner default style.

We were both able to finish all 31 drawings by the end of the challenge, marking the first time either of us had completed it. I got the illustrations printed into a book for my personal collection.

Included with each illustration here is the prompt and the caption I added to them when I posted on social media.