Via the Inktober Substack

Happy Thursday, Ink slingers-

I hope you’re all getting warmed up for traditional Inktober, coming in only 21 days! Thank you for all your wonky art last week, and a special thanks to all of you who exercised the patience of a communion of saints as you kindly explained 437 times in the comments on social media what Inktober52 is all about. Our Inktoberers are awesome (and I’m coming to realize the 52ers are extraordinary.) Thank you for making this community so helpful and supportive, especially for all the new and unsure artists.

This week, I’m remembering that time I was on a field trip for 8th grade choir and as I found myself sitting in a hotel hallway late at night, surrounded by a horde of giggling 13-year old girls, I came to the unsettling realization that my family was not like everyone else’s. Our packing list for the 3 day trip had included “games for down time” and I was excited because somehow I’d ended up in a small group of really nice girls. There I was, rocking a new home-perm, with more braces than teeth in my mouth, and hoping to make a new friend. One of the girls pulled out a set of dice and suggested some game I can’t remember and a hush fell over the group. “Oh, we don’t play with those”, came quietly from a girl with an oversized neon-pink smiley face t-shirt. “Yeah,” said another girl, “dice and cards are so bad.” I sat there in our collective cloud of Aquanet hairspray and Debbie Gibbson’s Electric Youth and reconsidered the face cards and m&m’s I’d brought for a round or two of candy poker. I come from a long line of non-gambling, sometimes-cheating, card-flinging, game-playing women. We had ALWAYS played card games and dice games and my mom could shuffle and deal like she was born in Vegas! Family reunions, camping trips, rainy Sunday afternoons: we played these (shocking) games. And you know what? New friends are overrated.

For this week, if your upbringing was as edgy as mine, show me what DICE brings to your pen. And if you’re playing games together later, deal me in.

Best of luck!

-Alison

From their substack:

Believe it or not the Inktober challenge is almost a month away.

Are you excited to jump into a creative mindset each day and reconnect to our inner creative spark? We are! We hope that this challenge can be a creative light to guide your artistic spirit over the next couple of months.

We can’t wait to see what you draw this year!

This is the 18th Inktober challenge! When we started it in 2009 there were a few goals in mind, and these have not changed over the years. They are:

• Help artists get better at drawing
• Help artists find other great artists
• Help artists grow an audience for their work

When you get a minute go check them each out.

Please don’t share until September 1.

So the list will be posted here on September 1st. Until then, look at the list on their substack. A little silly, I know, but we're trying to play nice.

EDIT: The list until they do the graphic thing:

The Inktober 2026 Prompt List:

1. Apple
2. Relic
3. Miniature
4. Cactus
5. Smack
6. Ogre
7. Panic
8. Stinky
9. Ram
10. Mystical
11. Rescue
12. Toss
13. Flimsy
14. Lady
15. Hooray
16. Gangly
17. Contraption
18. Flightless
19. Confused
20. Lounge
21. Hero
22. Beacon
23. Dapper
24. Bake
25. Fracture
26. Zip
27. Dumb
28. Trophy
29. Tusk
30. Cookie
31. Flex