As part of my daily art project 2026, “This Sweet Simple Existence”, I am painting one painting a day for an entire year and at the end of every month I will be reflecting on my experience of that month’s daily painting experience.
To say that October just flew by for me is an understatement. It was also the first month in which I finished my paintings way before the end of the month, at least 10 days in advance. Let me explain.
For October, I decided to participate in Inktober, which is a global drawing/painting challenge in which artists create one ink illustration a day for 31 days, following either the official Inktober prompt list or their own prompts. Other mediums can be used along with ink. The idea is to put your creative spin on each of these prompts, some of which can be quite challenging. However, the resulting paintings turn out to be quite creative interpretations of prompts that can be challenging to depict, especially in a limiting medium like ink. The Inktober challenge has grown to quite a large art community over the years with artists all over the world participating and sharing their incredible artwork on social media. I’ve participated in different versions of Inktober over the years, for example, the first time I did it, it was only for half the month, last year I did Birdtober, where I followed a prompt list of just birds, and I used ink and watercolors. This is the first year that I adhered to the rules of Inktober, in that I used only ink and I followed the 2026 official prompt list. I used India ink and I painted on my sketchbook which is 5.5×8”.
I started off the month at an easygoing pace, doing one illustration a day, each one taking me less than an hour, due to the fact that I was just using ink and sometimes acrylic white paint for highlights (essentially they are value studies), and painting in my sketchbook which is a relaxed and safe space for me, not to mention the size was not intimidating. But then a week into the month, I found out that I was going to be starting full time French class and it will go on until mid-December. At first, I panicked slightly. But then with some careful planning and self pep-talk that I was in the home stretch and the year was almost over, I managed to complete October’s paintings ahead of time. This was due to the fact that I planned to do 2 paintings a day so that I finish October’s paintings 10 days in advance, so that I can then I start or at least plan the initial layers of the first 10 days of November’s paintings. I decided to do this for 2 reasons. First of all, I envisioned the theme of November’s paintings to be interior spaces, scenes from inside my home, as an ode to the season of being indoors. For me painting interior spaces and urban landscapes instill the same sense of doubt and trepidation in me as I’m much more familiar with organic shapes and objects like still life. Also, I was going back to painting on canvas with oil and acrylic which are mediums that require some set up and preparation. So I knew that I would need some extra time for them. Secondly, I knew half way through my French course (sometime around November) I would start to get really tired and lose steam, not to mention, I would have French homework to do, but also help my daughter with her homework. So all of that plus everything else that I usually do required careful advance preparation so I thought that since October’s paintings would not require as much time or preparation, I could just get an early start on November’s paintings or at least just do the initial block in.
So I managed to finish October’s paintings, and the process was not only smooth (creating 2 paintings a days so one full spread in my sketchbook) but quite enjoyable. I thought following the often challenging to interpret prompt list and using only ink would be difficult, but 9 months of daily painting have really flexed my creative muscles, and I easily slid into the world of ink illustration. I found myself right at home creating quick expressive ink illustrations of simple and often complicated objects as these illustrations were essentially value studies. So after the initial rough pencil sketch, I simply dove into the illustration, focusing on only the dark and light mases of shapes. Once I simplified the image and broke it down into blocks of darks and light area, it came together quickly. I did not over think or overwork the paintings. If there was an area that I didn’t like and I couldn’t correct with pen marks then I would just let it be. The idea was that I was much more confident and forgiving of my mistakes, allowing them to be part of the story of the painting. This confidence showed through in my paintings as expressive, bold brushstrokes and pen marks. I could definitely see a difference between this year’s attempt at Inktober and last year’s attempt. This year, I stuck only to ink, a notoriously difficult medium to use and correct if a mistake is made. I did not rely on any other medium, as in last year, when I used watercolors. I also followed the official prompt list, and while my illustrations were simple straightforward interpretations of the daily prompts, some of which I based off of reference images, I feel they are much stronger pieces, showing a clear progression in my painting skills, especially given the difficulty of using a medium like ink. And to have completed the paintings ahead of time was an even greater achievement.
Since those paintings were done on my sketchbook, on non-detachable paper, I will not be offering them up for sale.
