Brushing off the dust bunnies sleeping on the sketchbook and picking up their pen, artists face a challenge.  It’s time for Inktober.

Inktober is a drawing challenge that occurs every October for artists to experiment and practice using ink. The idea of the challenge is fairly simple: create one ink drawing daily. It is difficult for many artists to complete an acceptable illustration in a day, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t able to participate. Many people do it every other day, a couple per week, or just push through create 31 drawings in an ink marathon.

Artist Jake Parker originally created this challenge at 2009 to develop his inking skills. At the end of the month, he found improvement. The consistency of drawing one illustration a day seemed to cultivate good drawing habits and bring confidence. Eventually, this small task caught on and developed into a worldwide endeavor for all aspiring artists.

Here are the rules for Inktober:

1. Create an ink drawing
2. Post it online
3. Hashtag #inktober or #inktober2017
4. Repeat every day of October

Some people may find it easy to come up with ideas on the spot, but others may not. This is why Parker created a list of prompts. Here are his prompts for this year:

On Parker’s website, you will find a list of tools and resources. It contains a variety of brush pens, brushes, ink bottles, and more. Not everyone has to have fancy, expensive tools or be a great artist to participate. This challenge can be used purely for improvement or fun. Either way, anybody can pick up a pen and draw.