The Annual Inktober Challenge

In the art rooms at Reedsburg Area High School, students are sketching, drawing, and stretching their creative muscles, one daily prompt at a time. All throughout October they have been participating in the "Inktober" challenge, an annual event used at RAHS to help artists build positive drawing habits and step out of their comfort zones.

The global challenge was founded in 2009 by artist Jake Parker, who was looking for a way to improve his own drawing skills. He challenged himself to create one ink drawing every day for the month of October, using a single-word prompt to spark an idea.

Since then, Inktober has exploded into a worldwide event for the art community. Each October, a new official prompt list is released, challenging artists to ponder vague words like "Deer" or "Mustache" and see what they can create.

As participants here at RAHS are learning, Inktober is not a competition. It is a personal challenge meant to enhance interpretation skills and push through creative blocks.

"It really pushes you to think outside the box or get through art blocks for those who just need to draw something,” said Kyo Blake, '26, who works on their renderings in Ms. Margaret Howe’s art room.

That flexibility and creative freedom is exactly why art teacher Margaret Howe embraces the challenge for her students.

“It's nice to give freedom on how students interpret each prompt, and I enjoy seeing what they each come up with," Howe said. "It's about creativity!”