My Inktober adventure
Reflecting on my Inktober stamp challenge, and a gift for you!
Hi friends,
As many of you know, I just finished the month-long art/illustration challenge Inktober, in which participants set out to create a work of art using ink every day in October, usually following a set of Inktober prompts.
As is tradition, I decided basically at the last minute to participate in Inktober. I had been making a lot of tiny stamps, and when September came to a close I realized I could use my tiny stamp momentum to complete the Inktober challenge.
Now, the tiny stamps I had been making were the result of 1) my need to distract myself from more important work and 2) having a lot of small pieces of rubber carving block leftover from an illustration project. So, when I started out at the beginning of October I carved many of my stamps from odd-shaped pieces. It was a challenge to look at each day’s prompt and choose a piece of rubber block that would work for it. But the bigger challenge came as Inktober progressed and I realized that my project was becoming something bigger than I had planned.
The prompt for the first day was “backpack.” Rather than making a stamp of a backpack, I instead designed a silhouette of a little hiker wearing a backpack. The next day was “discover,” and I made a tiny stamp of that same hiker standing before a mountain range.
Moving forward, I chose to feature this little hiker (and his hat) throughout the Inktober challenge. Though he’s not always shown, he’s always present in the image in some way, at least in my mind.
This little hiker soon become an explorer traveling the world, and I found that I could no longer fit his story on small, leftover bits of block. His story was getting bigger, so the stamps had to get bigger too. Though they still had to fit onto a 2x2 inch square piece of paper!
So, my explorer explored the world, but when I reached day 20 and the prompt was “uncharted,” I had no idea what to do. So, my daughter said (maybe half joking?) that he should go to the moon! Why not? I thought. So to the moon he went! By this point my project had grown from a daily exercise based on prompts centered around a theme to an actual visual narrative (which is kind of the point of me doing all these illustration challenges and stuff). I was thrilled! Where was my little explorer going to go next?
The prompts got a little more challenging after this. Rhinoceros? Scarecrow? How could I use those prompts and still have my little hiker continue his exploration of the moon and beyond? Well, this is how!
I might not need to tell you how much fun I was having with this project. At this point I had started planning out my stamps a few days in advance, and I honestly had a hard time making myself wait to make them! I almost didn’t want this project to end.
But October, and therefore Inktober, was almost over, so I had to wrap the project up. But I didn’t want it to just end. I wanted to finish telling my explorer’s story. I had to get even more creative with the prompts.
Jumbo? My explorer would zoom past Jupiter (you can see this and all the stamps up to this point by checking out last week’s newsletter).
Navigator? Why not show the inside of his rocket ship, with him at the helm?
Violin?? This one almost stumped me, but it turns out my explorer is a musician and an astronaut!
And finally, landmark. After a long journey, I brought my explorer home.
There is a small detail in the last stamp that’s symbolic, and I would really love to tell you what it is, but I’m wondering how many of you might notice it if you’re paying attention. Hint: It’s something to do with the explorer himself. Here are all the stamps together:
Which stamp is your favorite?
Thank you for reading this far, and a BIG thank you to those of you who have been following along and cheering me on during this Inktober challenge. You made it extra fun! In appreciation, I’d like to offer you a free download. It’s a PDF of all the stamps together, free for your personal enjoyment. The PDF is a cleaned up version of the image above. You can download it here:
I’m going to frame the original and hang it in my family room!
If you’d like to see some of my art in an actual book, check out my illustrated middle grade novel, Mari in the Margins, a story told in poems, doodles, and art journal pages!
Oh my gosh now I can frame it too!!
Just wanted to update you that my niece is loving Mari in the Margins! 🥰