Natalie Fowler Tackles Inktober

Art+by+Natalie+Fowler

Art by Natalie Fowler

Putting the pen on the paper, drawing the concept to the right level of detail, and showcasing pieces of art that came from the heart is one of the biggest challenges for Junior Natalie Fowler.

“I produce original [artwork], so it’s fun seeing some of my ideas fully realized on a page and it’s just a fun little exercise I do as a cool down,” Fowler said.

In order to increase her skill in creating fast and well thought out pieces, she participates in an annual event known as Inktober.

“I’ve done Inktober the past two years, but I gave up halfway through because I didn’t have time,” said Fowler. “But this year, I’m actually going to force myself to actually finish all of my pieces.”

Inktober is an artistic challenge that people across the nation participate in. Artists create their own prompt lists or follow the official one. This list can be found online along with all the ones created by the other artists. #inktober is all that needs be searched to find some of the artworks and the lists.

“Since they’re just vague prompts, everybody ends up being different,” Fowler said. “It’s just a fun thing to do.”

The different prompts allow for a huge diversity among the different inks done by each person.

“Since there are multiple prompt lists, you pick one that you want to do, I know a lot of really popular ones are witches,” Fowler said. “So each day you would design a different witch.”

Art by Natalie Fowler

In order to participate in the Inktober challenge, people can follow a list for each day and then ‘ink’ them, or draw them on paper and solidify them in different types of ink.

“I don’t put things up every day,” Fowler said. “More importantly I don’t ink things every day. So it’s more of a challenge for me because I’m kind of lazy.”

Fowler states that although it is a fun challenge it is a very hard thing to complete.

“I’m not planning on going to an art college,” Fowler said. “This is just sort of like a hobby that I do. I’ve done it all my life. I’m probably gonna go to school for a science, so [art] is the other side of the coin.”

This event is directed towards the individual and although they aren’t competing for a prize, it is a level of self-satisfaction that the participants receive for completing it.

“It’s just for myself because I just want to challenge myself to do this every day,” Fowler said. “I have time to do it, and I just don’t. It’s hard to make an art piece. Especially if you’re like me, and you just don’t like some of the things that you produce. This kind of challenge forces you to just work through that.”