How Inktober Rose and Fell… And Rose Again

A Brief History of a Global Art Challenge

If you are in the art community, it is almost certain that you have at one point heard of an event called ‘Inktober’. Inktober is a worldwide annual event during October in which artists create drawings based on preset prompts, such as ‘tread’ or ‘eyes’. It has also branched off into different months with different prompts, such as Mermay, Dinocember, and Drawloween. What doesn’t get discussed as much though, is how exactly this mini holiday started, and why it has changed since then. 

Inktober was created in 2009 by Jake Parker to better his own skills within the month by having a list of prompts to take on. As others decided to join him, the concept slowly began to grow and grow to the point in which it was a worldwide event shared by artists of all skills and strengths. 

The seasonal event would then go on to stay primarily peaceful until a decade later. In 2019, Jake Parker copyrighted Inktober, feeling he was responsible for all of the content that was created from it. The copyright took down content artists sold featuring the Inktober logo, which is now reserved for Patrons to use only. The community seemed split on this situation- some saw Parker as protecting property that was rightfully his, while others saw it as holding Inktober hostage as a brand to capitalize on. Regardless of what sides people were choosing, there really wasn’t much change in how many people participated in the event, and things kept running similarly to how they first did.

It wasn’t until August of 2020 that things really got messy. Following the publishing of an official Inktober book, “Inktober All Year Long”, was a claim by artist Alphonso Dunn that it drastically plagiarized a book of his own “Pen & Ink Drawing, A Simple Guide”. He published a Youtube video, “Jake Parker Plagiarized My Book” showing side-by-sides of the two books, and soon after there was a drastic change in Inktober as a holiday. Many artists found themselves siding with Dunn in the debate, and saw it necessary to boycott Jake Parker’s version of Inktober to remove his platform. 

The downfall of Jake Parker’s Inktober was far from the end of Inktober-like festivities, though. In response to it, artists of all kinds saw this as an opportunity to make their own daily challenges: Huevember, Febufairy, and Pleinairpril are a few examples of copyright free drawing challenges that have popped up since. So, while some of the integrity of Inktober has been lost, it came with the benefits of many new diverse and unique drawing holidays that have only expanded since… Not to mention the HoneyDripper’s own annual version of the challenge, Drawtober! 

Further Reading: 

“Edit of Jake Parker Plagiarized My Book” by megalon 2D on Youtube: https://youtu.be/kN7fDU4Cil8

The HoneyDripper is the Savannah College of Art and Design’s juried comics and illustration blog, dedicated to publishing, promoting, and showcasing the finest in student work.​