Pinktober 2024

Sep 1

This year I'm going to be joining a tradition started in 2009 by artist Jake Parker, which you can read all about at Inktober.com. Jake Parker started Inktober to challenge himself to grow his drawing and inking skills and to improve his discipline, since the heart of the challenge is 31 days, 31 drawings. I learned about it from my Starzology podcast partner, Alison Price, who started her own astrology-themed drawing challenge, Starztober, several years ago. You can follow along using the regular Inktober prompts, or Alison's, or mine, or all three. Or, if you prefer, you can just watch the fun unfold on Instagram, by following the hashtags above.

I'm honestly not sure how this challenge is going to go for me, since I haven't been drawing lately, but this seems like an excellent way to force myself to draw something, anything, every day for one month. I'm setting some guidelines for myself to make it easier. First of all, Alison's excellent advice to set up your sketchbook ahead of time, make sure it's 62 pages at least (one side for the prompt, one side for the drawing), with headings added throughout the book before you get started. Listen for more advice in our episode about Starztober here.

You'll notice that my prompts are all badass goddesses, or mythical creatures like fairies, mermaids or centaurs. If you're drawing along with me, I want to challenge you to be creative about how you interpret the prompt, meaning you don't have to be too literal about it. I'm planning on making it a little easier for myself by setting a 20 or 30 minute time limit for the initial drawing, then inking afterwards and adding as much color as I feel is needed. If the prompt is Athena, though, you don't necessarily have to draw the goddess Athena. You could draw just her helmet or spear. If the prompt is Arachne, you could draw the goddess or just a fabulous spider or spiderweb. It's just about drawing something.

Also, if you've never heard of one of the prompts, just google it and you'll find the mythology associated with each goddess, and lots of images for inspiration. I've also included a few pop culture "goddesses," like Furiosa and Elektra, just for fun.

Valkyrie, the warrior maidens and death spirits of Norse mythology.

A few years ago, when I was drawing a lot, I used to go to a monthly gathering of artists in Vancouver called Dr. Sketchy's, which sadly disbanded during Covid and never got back off the ground. It was a three-hour drawing class which took place in a local restaurant where a burlesque dancer would go through a series of poses starting with 1-minute warm-ups and eventually building up to a 20-minute pose at the end. I always came away with excellent material to create finished drawings from after the class, scanning them into Photoshop and adding color, backgrounds, etc. and several years' worth of my astrology and goddess calendars resulted from those classes.

Ixtab, Mayan goddess of the moon and patroness of suicides.

I went to Dr. Sketchy's alone most of the time, but it was always more fun when I was able to convince someone to come with me. On several occasions, my mother (who is a dancer, not an artist) came along and drew with me. Once, my partner Rodger came with me and he is not an artist either, but his experience setting tiles in the 90s enabled him to get around the "I can't draw" instinct that so many adults have, and dive into each drawing by laying it out like a grid. His proportions were excellent as a result, which was probably more surprising to me than to him! My friend Charlene was a makeup artist, so when she came with me, she focused on drawing the models' faces, and we always had a great time drinking and talking throughout the evening.

So grab a drink and join me (or Alison or both!) this October for a fun drawing challenge and post the results using the hashtags #inktober, #pinktober, #inktober2024, #pinktober2024 and check out the Starzology blog for Alison's hashtags.

Listen to our podcast episode about Starztober here.