Inktober is the better-known challenge. It was initiated by illustrator Jake Parker as a way to motivate him to increase his inking skills. The challenge is simple: artists create ink-based work (pencil under-drawing is permitted), and post it to their social media accounts and blogs with the hashtag #inktober. Parker posts the best of the work on the Inktober Facebook, Tmblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterestaccounts. The challenge encourages artists to post a new work daily, but many are only able to commit to every other day, or weekly posts. As Parker wrote, “INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.”

Drawolleen is a similar challenge with a different focus. Artist Brian Soria was inspired by Thing A Week, an exercise by musician Jonathon Coulter in which he posted weekly compositions to “keep his creative juices flowing.” Soria retooled the exercise to challenge himself to draw a monster every day during the month of October. He extended the challenge to the illustration community, with a calendar of daily themes such as “Day of the Dummy,” “Vampire Venesday,” and “Urban Legends.” Artists can contribute work in any medium, and post their images with #Drawlloween or #Drawlloween2015. Last year, Soria launched #fontober, a similar challenge for creepy hand-drawn lettering. Sadly the challenge didn’t get traction, and hasn’t issued this year.