This year I decided - on a whim - to participate in Inktober. I've seen artist friends tag some of their drawings "inktober," but didn't look beyond that. And some of my writer-visual artist friends and acquaintances. But it has not been anything I've considered for myself or had even looked into.
I decided that this year, with the now almost three years of continuous comics workshops I've been doing, and that I published a haiku comics chapbook, maybe this was my year to join. So I did. I decided on day two, so I made two drawings. Day three another drawing. Then I also decided to start doing daily writing because ...tada... November is just around the corner and - yes, I'll be doing that again. It's been a while since I've written every day, so I thought that maybe drawing as a warmup for NaNoWriMo wasn't quite enough.
On about, oh, day five or six, I noticed someone mention an Inktober prompt.
Prompt? There are prompts for Inktober?!
Yes, indeed. An Instagram search - because isn't Inktober kind of made for Instagram - found an "offical Inktober prompts" list, as well as many variations. Some individual prompts, it seemed, some group prompts. Which made me feel better, because I wasn't using prompts, I was just drawing.
Now, I'm still pantsing my Inktober drawings, but of course! But one day I was stuck in the grief mud, so I opened my writing Instagram account, where I saved as a favorite the Inktober prompts story I'd posted, and took that day's prompt from the "official" list and drew. It worked!
Here is a sampling of my Inktober drawings. I've also noticed that I'm starting to add more words into most of my drawings. No surprise. A writer writes, right?
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| In the heart of the city there is a soul still beating out a rhythm. Do you hear her? |
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| Transition: final appointment with my longtime naturopath and acupuncturist, who is retiring at the end of the month. |
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| Introducing Franz, the portable outhouse cleaner, who likes his job because it gives him reason to be a martyr; Mavis, a siren of the soliloquies, a gentle soul sent to give a message to Franz; and The River People, who are in need of a helping hand and not another rando saint. |
