Inktober Leadership Help!!!
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Hello, everybody!
So, I go to a small college with a somewhat small creative department, but not small enough to be negligible. I know that between all of the classes currently attending, we have a sizable community of people, but the problem with said community is that there is little to no interaction. So, partially at the behest of a social design assignment, and partially because I'm trying to foster more of a creative community, I've decided to try and help equip/guide people through the rigors of Inktober.
My current plan is to introduce the challenge, generate interest in it, and present some strategies for keeping strong during the course of the month. My question here is how best to lead a community of artists like this. For a student, who is really still trying to grasp how to get work done, juggle classes, other responsibilities and everything else, this challenge is difficult. How can I best support said students who do decide to join the challenge?
Moreover, in what ways can the challenge be paired down? How can the Inktober challenge be taken by someone who might only have an hour, or less, per day to actually sit down and work on their illustrations?
(I should mention that I'll be doing the challenge, and dragging others through it with me, regardless of whether the more community-oriented route works or not, that I've had attempted the Inktober challenge twice before, once alone, and the next with a group of people. (The latter worked phenomenally, for many people in the group))
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No matter what you do, as the person in charge, you need to be consistent.
If you do it solely online, make sure that you post your work every day on whatever platform you're using to coordinate things.
If you're setting up a meat-space meet up weekly (daily if you're badass) then show up early and never ever skip a day. Bring art supplies (scrap paper and cheap pens) for people who 'forget' their supplies.
If you show continuous and unconditional interest and zeal in this thing others will pick up on it and be more likely to stick with it themselves.
As for pairing it down, you could encourage people who don't have time (or who've slipped behind) to do thumbnail or some kind of postcard sized drawings instead of full pieces. Make a template of 4-8 squares on an 8.5 x 11 for people to use. Make sure people know that whole 'finished not perfect thing'.
Good luck! I'm in a bit of cultural/artistic desert of an area myself and I need to get my butt out the door and encourage this type of thing, too.
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Thanks man, this is uber-helpful! I suppose the primary thing I'm worried about is just that between everything going on for folks at college, Inktober will fall by the wayside...
I gues to kinda start finding ways to combat that, what is the more beneficial aspect to doing Inktober in your eyes? Personally, I think it's a phenomenal opportunity to stretch out as a budding illustrator/designer/artist/whatever; to learn the struggle of creative work, and to strategically sneak work in through the cracks in one's schedule, but another perspective, especially that of someone not in the campus culture, will be insanely helpful in, well, hooking people into the challenge
