For the Fun of It - an Inktober rant

art challenges and the trappings of social media

Hi! My name is Ashlyn Anstee, and I tell stories with words and pictures. Sometimes, that’s picture books (like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Select “Hedgehog”), or graphic novels (my series “Shelby and Watts”), and sometimes it’s animation (I’ve directed at places like Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network).

This column, “For the Fun of It”, will also have words and pictures. Sometimes it will be stories, or how-tos, or thoughts. A little bit of everything. Hope you enjoy!

Over the last week or so, I’ve been doing some pieces for ABLArtFest. This art challenge is set up by my agency, Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and the goal is to create some new portfolio pieces around the kidlit space!

this was for “Too Many Pets!”

There are no shortage of art challenges in October. There’s the original Inktober, Peachtober, and more. Some happen in other months, like Mermay (started by my friend Cheyenne). There are so many that there are lists of all the art challenges!

What’s an Art Challenge?

Art challenges have been around for ages at this point. Some involve just creating work around a theme (Spooky or Mermaids!), and some have more involved lists, with a word for each day. The spirit of it is to try to create a piece for every day, and to post it on socials. You can brows the hashtag created for the challenge (like #ablartfest or #inktober)

So what’s the problem?

I promise this will never be a hot take type of column. But I DO have rants for this sort of challenge. Mainly because of the relationship to social media. Creating art for social media is a tricky game with your brain. I think what I’d like to present is moreso helpful things to think of as you’re doing these challenges. I see a lot of artist burn out, or get emotional about them, and it’s tough because these are challenges where there’s not a financial reward for the finish line. So I’d like to present a few things to think of as you’re doing these!

• Do these challenges to grow and learn, instead of the likes.

  Especially with a challenge like inktober, the spirit of a challenge of creating in ink is to try not to undo, and to work quickly in a medium with limitations. I remember there being discourse about digital inktober, or inktober with a pencil sketch first- and they’re all totally valid ways to create art. Totally cool to post for inktober! But also- part of the point of these challenges is to sketch with ink- straight/no pencil. So do what you like, but try the other version too!

• Portfolio pieces.

  So part of the benefit of these challenges that your work goes into a hashtag (like inktober), and people go through these hashtags to find new artists to follow. What ends up happening is that there’s a lot of pressure to make each piece some sort of involved fully realised scene. My favorite is when it’s a huge rendered piece but the caption is “A quick lil sketch”.

  

  just a tiny little sketch that took me two minutes

• Take breaks and pick and choose which days you’ll do.

  I think part of the reason people get burned out doing these challenges is that they take up a lot of energy to create a fully realised piece each day (especially if you’re doing big, portfolio size pieces, see bullet point two!). As much as the challenge is to draw each day, take a day off if you need to! I’ve heard of people recommending to plan out your month- which I think is good if that’s what’s calling to you. But also- if you want to go paint something else for that day of the month, do it!

My main takeaway with all of my bullet points is that for me, I prefer to think of challenges as a chance to play and come up with some new ideas. Especially now, with how social media growth can be harder to get, and with so many drawing hashtags, there’s less immediate payoff for doing a challenge vs just drawing what you’d like to draw. Just something to think about!

I ended up doing a gif for science experiment because that’s what I was vibing with!

Also, if you’re thinking of doing any of the ink based challenges… May I recommend reading my fountain pen drawing posts?

This week’s substack is friend

Geoffrey Golden

! He has been creating narrative video games and branching stories RIGHT HERE ON SUBSTACK. So cool. Absolutely recommended.

I was so lucky to be able to contribute a piece to the One Home calendar (organized by Elaine Chen), available for preorder now!

This piece has 12 amazing animals, and the proceeds from the calendar all go to a variety of amazing wildlife organizations (including the Marmot Recovery!)

Please consider preordering- the calendar is stunning and you can even make prints from it after the year is done!

ok love u bye