Madison, WI — Hands up, pens up, Inktober 2025 has officially ended (about a week ago). Wrapping up the month of October, the month-long drawing challenge has finally concluded. In my second year participating in this challenge, I have worked on my inking skills, which have helped me grow my Instagram account.
What is Inktober?
First off, what is Inktober? Inktober is a global challenge held in October. As the name suggests, it is an inking challenge having participants create drawings and post every day during October. The Inktober challenge is all about self-improvement and consciousness. But why inking? Honestly, you don't have to use ink; you can do it digitally, sketch in pencil first, or use any other medium. Personally, I use ink because it helps me as an artist to stick with what I draw. Ink is final, and there isn't much going back, which helps challenge me as an artist. Inktober is more of an individual challenge and not a competition; view the FAQ.
My Approach for Inktober 2025
First of all, just have fun. I loved last year, being able to have a reason to draw in my sketchbook. However, when it comes to drawing, I use a ballpoint pen to do my sketch, similar to a pencil; I have the precision to make a light framework to help me ink. I then go between using a fine pen and continuing to use my ballpoint pen. I also use a white gel pen for highlights. For my sketchbook, I've been using the SoHo Urban Artist—Brick Grey sketchbook. This allows me to draw highlights and looks fantastic with the combination of white and black ink. Once finished, I scan my drawing and edit it in Adobe Photoshop. Making them consistent for social media and also using generative fill to make the drawing look nice (mostly if I drew too close to the edge).
Inktober Themes
For the theme this year, I actually didn't follow one—that being said, I did have a tendency to draw realistically and do a lot of animals/living creatures. I found myself really honing my realistic drawing style, which was so fun and also surprising. Given the fact that I was given one day for a drawing, none of my drawings took more than 5 hours; most were around the 1-2 hour mark.
Highlights From Inktober
When it comes to my favorite prompts/drawings, my favorites were:
Weave, view on instagram
Deer, view on Instagram
Ornate, view on Instagram
Arctic, view on Instagram
Firefly, view on Instagram
Rowdy, view on Instagram
Puzzling, view on Instagram
Lesson, view on Instagram
Social Media Highlights From Inktober 2025
As my Instagram wrap suggests, "You crushed it in October!" I got 7.6k views on my reels and posts, +2244% more compared to September. An increase of 44% in views from non-followers, +1063% from September, and a +3 follower increase compared to September. And my Mustache drawing is the one with the most attention—32 likes, 1 comment, 7 shares, 2 reposts, and 4 saves. Overall, a pretty good year, although I didn't get the same amount of new followers; it was still a good year.
Looking Ahead for Inktober 2026
First things first, I need more supplies. That is the very first thing for next year—mental note, I need to buy a new sketchbook ahead of time and pens. But most importantly, schedule posts and do them ahead of time. Something that probably hurt my engagement this year is that I ended up posting my drawings at 12 am, which hurt my engagement. So doing them ahead and posting ahead of time would help me both sleep on time and also plan for days I missed (as I did miss a couple of days). But all in all, I keep enjoying this challenge.
Conclusion
Inktober has helped me grow as an artist and reminds me why I love to draw—pushing me daily to embrace every pen stroke and thrive in my creativity. Inktober helps artists grow, whether you do it all 31 days or once a week, and I enjoy the process, and I can't wait for next year!