Doodle Time in October!

If you weren't aware, there's this odd thing that happens to artists around this time of year where they get all hyper and twitchy and want to hurry up and start already before October 1st even arrives.  Some artists follow one list, other artists deviate to another list, some create their own lists.

You don't understand me yet, do you?

(That's okay, I'm trying to deviate to a lower section of the writing area so I can say the thing without being an obnoxious birch tree and possibly get chopped if the wind blows wrong....)

#INKTOBER2025

(Hahaha, technically it isn't even hashtaggable here, but there you go.  There will be links later to follow INKTOBER this year through other various places, but we're just talking pre-INKTOBER here today.)

I've heard about it.  I've thought about it.  I laughed at myself for thinking I could ever possibly do it and just brushed it off as something I cannot possibly do within the timeframe permitted.

I tried doing a Hazbin Hotel / Helluva Boss list last year and didn't even finish the first one.  Pfft.  I don't do well with lists and I definitely don't do well with drawing things within a specified timeframe with a deadline attached.  (Yes, I know, there's no deadline - time is imaginary, thoughts are philosophical, and writing philosophical thoughts is considered work.)

Take two.  I'm going to be diving into the INKTOBER shtuff this year, and I will start on October 1st, 2025 rather than try to get ahead of the game and try finishing a few pieces early.

Here's the thing:  Apparently there's a divide in the art community that I was unaware of until just the other day when an art friend mentioned something about something and something-something.  ANYWAY I actually did a little digging to see if I needed to rethink my thoughts and find a different list or stick to what I was already going to be doing - I made a checklist and tested pens and made sure my paper was perfect and EVERYTHING, so I definitely didn't want to be in with the wrong crowd and use the wrong list.  I don't like doing things wrong.  I don't like doing things that rub me the wrong way, either.

INKTOBER was a "thing" started by Jake Parker in 2009, a sort of challenge to draw something every day during October.

Fast-forward to November 2017: INKTOBER trademark registration application was submitted through J. P. CREATIVE LLC -- you can review the information in full on this website by searching (general search) "inktober" or you can be more specific and search for (Registration Number) 5573543

I'm giving you the specific number due to the fact that the same company filled out a trademark application for INKTOBER again in 2023 -- the first is trademark/service mark, the second is merely trademark (Registration Number: 7868716 ) and appears to be strictly for the (Jake's website) Pictionary Sketchbook x Inktober game by (game link) Mattel Creations.

...and this is why I do the research myself.  Everything wants to keep pointing to 2019 for the trademark of INKTOBER -- and it was not in 2019, but it began in November 2017 and was official in October 2018.  I have handed you the truth.  I have given you the numbers to punch in on an OFFICIAL government website with the OFFICIAL paperwork ...but no one else does that, do they?  If I knew exactly how to hand you the direct link to the pages, I would - and I'm sure you know I would do it in a heartbeat, if you've been paying attention to how I do things around here.  ANYWAY!

Fast-forward to 2020: Alphonso Dunn accuses Jake Parker of plagiarism. There was apparently a YouTube video that Alphonso created showing similarities between his book and Jake's (before it was available).  The YouTube video does not exist on Alphonso's YouTube page (I would have watched it).

Today.  Right now.  This morning (because "right now" is a little too immediate, I need to tone it down just a smidge), I did get a chance to watch a YouTube video by Explore Art with Studio Hannah which did actually shine some light on the controversy.  Sort of.  Because I don't have a copy of Alphonso's Pen and Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide (2015), nor do I have a copy of Jake's Inktober All Year Long: Your Indispensable Guide to Drawing with Ink (2020) [good luck finding a copy], I cannot compare them.

But I can compare what I have seen with every OTHER artwork for beginners book I have ever seen, read, glanced at, shuffled through, drooled over, and so on.

I'm doing INKTOBER, guys.

There are a LOT of other lists to use, but you can find them pretty easily.

Want to know what pens I'm going to be using?  I'll talk about that some other time. ;)

Have fun, and make your own choices wisely!

-- Mathie Tremas.

Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay