Inktober 2019

About the project

Inktober is the challenge Jake Parker launched in 2009: one ink drawing every day of October, following an official list of 31 words. In 2019 I completed it in full — 31 drawings in 31 days, posted daily on Instagram without missing a single one.

Each word was an excuse to try out different ideas and compositions: from critiques of technology, clickbait and climate change to tributes to cinema and video games. The series features The Silence of the Lambs, The Witch, Jacob’s Ladder and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula; Skyrim, Dark Souls, Majora’s Mask and Fallout; the Ents of The Lord of the Rings, David and Goliath, and a bullfighter that echoes Lorca’s Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. In between, more personal pieces about mental health, the passing of time and happiness.

Visually, the series moves between hatching and stippling, solid blacks and the blackletter lettering that accompanies many of the words.

Every drawing has its own page with preliminary sketches, to show how it went from rough paper to finished piece.

Project details