Inktober : What This Drawing Challenge Taught Me
- AH
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 6
Every year, countless illustrators take part in Inktober, a creative challenge created by animator and illustrator Jake Parker that has become a must-follow event on Instagram.
The concept is simple: create one ink drawing every day throughout the month of October, following a predefined list of daily prompts.
Having joined Instagram only recently, I took part in the challenge for the first time in 2025. Here, I'm sharing a recap video showcasing my participation.
Why Take Part in Inktober as a Freelance Illustrator? Beyond the creative challenge itself, taking part in an event like Inktober offers many benefits for freelance illustrators.
Stepping Outside Client Work
When working with clients, you're usually creating within a well-defined framework:
editorial and technical requirements
deadlines
assigned subjects with limited creative freedom
a predefined art direction
Although Inktober has its own constraints—creating a black-and-white ink drawing from a single daily prompt—it gave me the opportunity to reconnect with a more experimental and personal approach.
It's a chance to test new ideas, explore different moods, work more spontaneously, and even draw in new ways. Exercises like this often feed back into professional projects.
Inktober also rekindled my enjoyment of black-and-white drawing, and I experimented with a variety of graphic styles and traditional tools, from fine and broad-tip markers to charcoal and graphite pencils.
Building a Consistent Creative Practice
One of the most rewarding—and demanding—aspects of the challenge is its consistency.
Creating a new drawing every day means maintaining creative momentum, making decisions quickly, and resisting the urge to overthink or endlessly refine every illustration. At first, it's tempting to search for the perfect idea for each prompt. But with a daily posting schedule, you quickly learn to generate several simple concepts and commit to one without hesitation.
For a freelance illustrator, developing this kind of discipline is incredibly valuable.
It helps maintain a steady creative rhythm, even between client projects.
Sharing Your Style and Creative Process
Art challenges are also perfectly suited to social media.
They encourage regular posting—something I sometimes struggle with on Instagram—while providing an opportunity to showcase your visual style, share works in progress, and create a cohesive series over several weeks.
They're also a great way to make the work of an illustrator more visible and accessible. Outside of challenges like Inktober, I also enjoy sharing behind-the-scenes content, including creative process recaps and time-lapse videos.
More broadly, participating in creative challenges is an excellent way to get noticed and attract new followers. I discuss this in another article, which I recommend if you'd like to learn about different ways to build your visibility as a freelance illustrator.
You'll also discover many talented artists to follow, helping you grow and strengthen your creative network.
A Valuable Complement to Professional Work
Although Inktober is first and foremost a creative challenge, it can have a very real impact on a freelance illustration business, as I've mentioned above.
Personal projects like these help increase your visibility, experiment with new ideas, and enrich your portfolio.
In a profession where much of the work is driven by client briefs, preserving a space for personal exploration remains essential.
What Creative Challenges Bring to Freelance Illustrators
Taking part in Inktober allowed me to reconnect with a freer, more spontaneous approach to drawing while indirectly enriching my professional work.
Challenges like this also serve as a reminder that, for illustrators, personal projects often play a key role in shaping a unique visual style and in finding new ways to share creative work on a regular basis.
And Inktober is far from the only creative challenge out there! Mermay, Character Design Challenge, and Sketchtember are just a few of the many popular events that bring illustrators together each year. For many freelance illustrators—including myself—these challenges provide both a space for creative experimentation and an opportunity to share their work more consistently online.
You can also find me on Instagram, where I regularly share my illustrations and creative process.