r/Inktober

I know it's still August but I already ordered a new sketchbook for this year's Inktober. Last year I used regular printer paper taped into an old binder and the ink bled through everything, so I'm trying to be smarter about it this time around.

Thinking about doing a mix of fineliners and a brush pen depending on the day. My hand cramps up badly if I try to do detailed crosshatching every single day for a month, so I'm planning some looser, more gestural pieces mixed in with the tighter ones to save my wrist.

Also trying to figure out if I want to follow the official prompt list or make my own this year. Following someone else's list kept me accountable last time but making my own felt more personal when I tried it two years ago. Might just wait and see what the official list looks like when it drops.

Anyone else already gathering supplies or is it just me being overly excited two months out? Curious what pens people are loyal to for a whole month of daily inking without your hand giving up on you.

For the past three years I did Inktober exclusively with Microns and a couple of brush pens. Clean lines, predictable results, nothing too risky. This year I decided to push myself and use only dip nibs with bottled ink the whole month, and honestly the learning curve was steeper than I expected going in.

The first week was rough. Ink bleeding into the paper, nibs catching on the tooth of my sketchbook pages, blobs showing up at the worst possible moments. I was using a fairly toothy mixed media paper that I thought would be fine, and it was just wrong for the nibs I had. Switching to a smoother bristol around day eight made a noticeable difference almost immediately.

A few things I picked up along the way that might help anyone thinking about making a similar switch:

• Nib flex matters a lot for cross-hatching. A stiff mapping nib gives you more control when you are tired and rushing to finish a prompt at 11pm.
• Diluting ink slightly (maybe 10-15% water) helped with flow consistency without sacrificing darkness too much.
• Wiping the nib on a cloth every few minutes kept the dried ink buildup from causing skips mid-stroke.

The biggest surprise was how much the dip nib changed my actual drawing decisions. Because loading ink takes a second, I started planning lines more deliberately instead of just sketching loosely. Some of my favorite pieces from the month came from that slower, more intentional approach. The texture you get from line weight variation is something I genuinely cannot replicate with a technical pen, and now going back to Microns for detail work feels almost limiting in comparison.

Curious if anyone else made a tool switch specifically for this Inktober and whether it changed how you approached the prompts compositionally.