I'm very pleased to say that I completed Inktober this year and did all 31 drawings, posting on time every day.
Completing all the drawings consistently was a huge win for me, making only 18 drawings last year. Last year I fell behind a few times and then had to rush to make up for days I missed, while this year I got ahead a few times and would complete the next day's drawings early to give myself the next day off drawing.
Hover or click on each drawing in the gallery below to see the prompt word.
The biggest challenge for me was being consistent in drawing almost every day. I couldn't afford to do multiple thumbnail sketches to plan out every one as sometimes I'd only be able to do about 45mins-1hour for a drawing. Other days I could draw for several hours, and even start sketching ideas for the next day after I completed that days drawing. I kept the prompt list close to my sketchbook and I'd think about 2-3 prompts at a time so that the words were present in my mind and ideas came a little easier. I found it refreshing to keep cycling through prompt words, even if I felt that my drawing for the day was below my expectations, each day was an opportunity to move on and start the next prompt. It also became slightly easier to draw every day that I completed, similar to building a daily habit.
I think it's important to acknowledge that completing any drawings for Inktober is still great regardless of how many prompts you complete. I would be happy to have done just a handful of them.
Thanks for checking out the drawings, I hope you enjoyed looking through them all. If you missed seeing a drawing per day in October, follow me on Instagram @jthongbai.art to see more as I'd definitely like to do Inktober again next year :)
Joel