It was a few days before the first of October. I was searching ideas for my new blog article to come. It was about Inktober, and I wanted something fresh and original, but nothing was coming. I looked at the white page on my laptop, I sighed, move the mouse on the desktop and launch the pilot of Game of Thrones. Yes, I am a procrastinator, I confess. I was bored. I was tired. I felt asleep.

Somewhere in the Westeros Kingdom. The trees are still green, the sun shines warm, but Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, look at the landscape suspiciously. He breathes deeply. He can feel something strange in the air.

“Winter is coming,” he mumbles.

“You are wrong my lord: Inktober is coming.”

Eddard Stark turns on his right. A man is standing there. He is holding a sketchbook in his left hand, a pen in the other. On the paper, he can see the sketch of a strange pirate.

On the paper, he can see a sketch of a strange pirate. ©Jake Parker

“Inktober is coming? What are you talking about?”

“It’s ending September, your Highness and all the brave illustrators are bracing themselves. They are warming their pencils, brushes and markers for the playful month to come.”

“Pencils? Brushes? Markers? None of the tools can help us versus the White Walkers.”

“True, my lord, but they give you great powers when you use them on white papers…” The mysterious man smiles. Eddard looked at him again. He has never seen anyone dressed like this, it is so . . . eccentric.

“Who the hell are you? And what is this Inktober you’re talking about?”

“My name is Jake Parker, a humble illustrator.” The man bows down. « I created Inktober nine years ago, a worldwide art challenge where artists do a different ink drawing every single day of October. That’s thirty-one drawings in thirty-one days! A creative, tough challenge! Will you try it this year my lord? It’s not a game of thrones, it’s a game of tones.” Jake put some strange flat rectangle box out of his pocket and point it to Eddard. Watch this video on my smartphone, it will be easier to understand.

Eddard Stark stares at Jake and moves slowly his hand toward his sword.

“What dark magic is this…”

“You look a little confused, Ned. Is it OK for you if I called you Ned? Cool. I showed you a video from 2017 and the prompt list is wrong! Here is the prompt list for 2018. ”

Inktober 2018 Official Prompt List

“As it said in the video, you can do Inktober without using the prompt list, Ned. It’s all about freedom, you know, your creativity is king. I mean you are king too, but. . . Wait! We will talk about it later, here they are! Come with me Ned, we have important people to meet.” Jake points his finger to the west. Eddard looks in same direction: he sees four silhouettes. “Let me introduce you Maria Dimova, Valerie Bastille, Dimitris Pantazis, Konstantin Vavilov”.

“They can help us for the threats to come?”



“Relax Ned, Inktober is a nice event, there are no threats at all, bro. Have a look at their drawings. Aren’t they wonderful?



© Maria Dimova, Dimitris Pantazis, Konstantin Vavilov ,Valerie Bastille

Have a sit Ned, take the time to enjoy this moment. You have all the time that you need to draw now. You don’t remember, do you? It’s OK. We talk about it later, take it off your head now. Ned, let’s meet our first guest: Maria Dimova . You may like her, she’s really good at drawing witches…”

I wake up suddenly.

The video on the desktop is over…

But there’s some text in my word processor:

the dream I just woke up from is already typed!



“Inktober is coming, Nimentrix!”

Jake Parker and Ned Stark are sitting on my couch, drinking a beer!



And I wake up.

For real, this time.

And it’s late.

And I have no more time to finish this article. . .



You will meet Maria Dimova soon, I promise you. She will talk about Inktober, her material, her projects.



In the meantime, here is a great place to meet other Inktober illustrators and fans: the Inktober 2018 group on Facebook. If you speak French, you have a look at Inktober France group, too. You can watch beautiful gems from previous Inktober on my Pinterest.

You want to discover more artists?

Watch my Youtube serie « Inktober Memories » dedicated to great artists from Inktober. If you liked the videos, subscribe to my channel.

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