Inktober is upon us. You can find the list of prompts on inktober.com/rules. #inktober is a hashtag based drawing challenge started by Jake Parker in 2009. The challenge is to draw a picture a day in October based on the prompts issued by the InkTober Corporate.
The 2026 prompts are:
The prompts are
- apple
- relic
- miniature
- cactus
- smack
- ogre
- panic
- stinky
- ram
- mystical
- rescue
- toss
- flimsy
- lady
- hooray
- gangly
- contraption
- flightless
- confused
- lounge
- hero
- beacon
- dapper
- bake
- fracture
- zip
- dumb
- trophy
- tusk
- cookie
- flex
I think that #inktober is a fun challenge as producing prompt based drawings is a good way for artists to prove that they are using their brain #pob to produce their art.
Unfortunately, I have the problem that I really do not like drawing with ink. I love drawing with pencil and colored pencil. I really enjoy painting with acryllic and oil paints.
I do not like drawing with ink.
Since I don't want to create 31 ink drawings, I decided to focus on curation.
I figured that the #creativecoin tribe would be the best coin for this challenge; So, I bought $100 worth of CCC a few years to curate inktober here on HIVE. That money disappeared in the currency collapse.
As for curation, I am embarassed to report that my 117,781 CCC is worth only $7.91. I will receive another 35,000 CCC delegation at the end of the September. So my curation base will start at 150,000 CCC.
NOTE: CCC regenerates at a rate slower than HIVE. The tribe doesn't publish the refresh rate. I believe that I can give six #creativecoin upvotes a day.
HIVE is an incredibly opaque for a platform that claims to be transparent.
I mentioned that InkTober is a good #proofofbrain challenge. I will delegate 50,000 POB and 100,000 VYB to 
My account will give a nice reward to people who include the #POB tag.
Some Inktober images make good memes. Most don't. Inktober images are #fun so I will delegate 8K fun to the challenge. I don't know if I will do the #meme.
My account will spew forth with sweet HE rewards. Unfortunately, the value of these rewards have collapsed.
Other Communities
Last year the ZING community gave extra rewards for the #zingtober event. there might be hive communities that give additional rewards.
My Efforts
My performance on inktober has been abyssmal. Truth be told. I don't like drawing with pen. I prefer pencil, color pencils or paint. I found that it takes me about an hour to complete a drawing.
The truth is that I simply cannot create drawings to compete with AI.
I might try very simple line drawings for inktober this year. I created the outline of an apple that you see on the top of the post. I drew the image with a gel pen, but it was not dark enough; so I strengthened the lines with an Inkzall by Milwaukee tools. The marker bled through the top page and ruined two pages in my drawing page.
I am not sure how I will handle the drawings.
What To Do About Author Rewards?
Hopefully I will get some upvotes for my drawings. My current strategy is to power up 100% of my author rewards and to power down my curation rewards. I guess I will try playing that game on
I plan on being evil and upvoting my drawings with my primary account 
Do you believe that the act of my upvoting posts on the
It takes me a long time to create an image. Knowing that I will receive at least one upvote worth two pennies makes things easier.
Should InkTober be Downvoted?
I get downvotes. The whales never explain why. The downvotes are the reason that I didn't publish the game that I was designing. I think that the whales are okay with inktober.
I don't know.
I can see downvoting users who plagiarize images. Drawing a picture a day might be considered spam.
My AI Efforts
To drive the point home that AI has created an existential problem for graphic artists, I generated ai images for each of the inktober prompts on Nightcafe for the last two years.
The AI images are better than anything I could create. Last year I published my ai images on steemit. I didn't feel good about it; so I will just generate images that I leave on Night Cafe.
Image 1 -- Apple
The first image is an apple. I love drawing apples with pencils and color pencils. The best part about creating an apple image is the texturing of the skin ... which is really difficult to do with cross hatching or pen scribbles.
I asked AI to draw an apple. I then asked AI to draw a picture of a brain to emphasize the #proofofbrain concept. I added to the two images in a collage.
I then asked AI to draw a picture of a pumpkin eating an apple. I will use this as my AI entry.