Inktober; my tools for this month

Oktober is inktober! This month many artists will spend time every day to create beautiful ink pieces. This is my first year doing this and I am excited to share my work with you.

But first some inktober history.

Inktober was started by an artist by the name Jake Parker. He wanted to get better at inking so for the whole month of Oktober he decided to ink a drawing a day.

The rules of this challenge are very simple; 

1. Make a drawing in ink

2. Post it online

3. Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2016

4. Repeat

You can read much more about all this on the website of Jake Parker & inktober. Don’t forget to check out the tool he as a real professional inker uses as well.

Why do inktober

Apart from getting better with ink, inktober is a great challenge. You get to build your drawing habit which helps you get more practice in the long run.

Online inktober is quite big as well so participating is a great way to find new artists, create and get involved in the community. It also helps you build a following since much non-artist also like to get involved in inktober.

You don’t have to necessarily do a drawing every day. Some people do them only when they have time. Some choose once a week.

But now for my weapons of choice;

Brush-pens; 

The secret weapon of every artist who is going to ink stuff. Brush pens give such beautiful results.

Personally, I will be using my Pigma brush pens which I bought in France. I hadn’t seen them here before so when  found them in France I immediately bought them in 3 different colours . So now I have a simple black one, a nice brown and purple one. Until now I only have been using the black one but there are still 28 days left to try the rest.

I also might be using the pentel brush pen and a Pitt artist pen.

Fineliners; 

I used to be terrible with fineliners but I feel as if they are quickly growing on me. I think that the finer the tip for me, the better they work.  Currently, I love the uni-pin fineliners since they have always been my go to. A new one though is the Derwent Graphik line marker which is also gorgeous.

Ink and dip pens; 

In high school, we always had to ink with dip-pens. I wasn’t very good with them then but it does mean I have some experience. I already tried some ink washes again but I am also looking forward to inking in the more traditional way.

If you are curious about the pros and cons between dip pens and fineliners I wrote a whole post on that as well.

(I also use brushes of course for the ink-washes like in my first work!)

So these are the things I will be using. I feel like everybody makes their own rules for this challenge but the main point is to have fun. If you want to colour all you inked drawing don’t be afraid to do so.

In the end, we are all making art and there is nobody who can tell you how to do that!

Let me know which tools you prefer. 

Also, if you don’t want to miss any of my inktober drawings you can follow me on Instagram! 

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