Inktober
Inktober is a drawing event: one prompt word a day, for the 31 days of October, every year. FoundryInk runs it as a calendar studio where you draw or upload a piece for each day, mark it live, and it joins a public showcase other readers browse. You can follow the official list or pick a sub-genre like Gobtober or Spooktober, and anything you sell from your Inktober, prints and originals, has no platform fee. This page covers the studio, the lists, going live, and selling.
1What Inktober is here
Inktober gives you one prompt word per day through October. On FoundryInk it is a studio shaped like a calendar: each day has its prompt, you draw it or upload what you already made, and you mark the finished piece live so readers can see it. A whole year of Inktober is one body of work you build a day at a time, and the pieces you mark live appear in a public Inktober showcase on Browse.
2Open the Inktober studio
In your studio there is an Inktober tab. During October it is there even if you have folded the Galleries area away, so you can always reach the current event; outside October you can still open it by its link. The Welcome screen also shows an Inktober tile in October that jumps straight to today's prompt. Opening the tab writes nothing; nothing is created until you actually draw or upload a day.
3Pick your list
There is more than one prompt list. Traditional is the official Inktober list, and it is the default. You can switch to a sub-genre instead: Gobtober, Spooktober, Birdtober, Blacktober, Drawtober, Ghostober, Witchtober, Mab's Drawlloween Club, and more. Each list has its own 31 words, so picking one changes the prompts on the calendar. The studio opens on the list you used last, or Traditional the first time.
4The calendar
The studio shows October as a month grid. Each day cell carries the day number, its prompt word, and, once you have drawn it, your artwork and a badge: Today, Draft, or Live. Click any day to open it. Days you have already passed stay open, so you can catch up whenever you like; the only days you cannot open yet are the future days of a year that is still running.
5Draw or upload a day
Opening a day opens a window for that prompt. Draw it takes you into the Creator Canvas to make the piece from scratch (it reads Keep drawing once art exists). Upload art adds a file you already made. There is a Film me drawing toggle that records a time-lapse of your canvas work for that day. Draw or upload as many days as you want in one sitting.
6Make a day live
A drawn day stays private until you mark it live. The day window has a Make it live toggle (it reads Live once on). Marking a day live is what puts that piece into your public Inktober gallery for the year, where readers can see it. Until a day is live it is a Draft, visible only to you.
7Where readers find it
Live Inktober pieces show up on Browse in two ways. Under the Art lens there is an Inktober refine that filters to Inktober work. There is also a dedicated Inktober showcase on Browse that runs each year from October 1st to November 7th (with a teaser from late September), where the newest live days show first and each piece carries its list as a chip. A piece reaches both the moment you mark its day live.
8Sell it with no platform fee
FoundryInk waives its own cut on Inktober work. If you sell an Inktober piece as a print or as the original, the platform takes no fee. The waiver attaches to the Inktober piece itself, so it applies to the day's art you entered, not to anything else you might drop in the same gallery.
9How a day is stored
Inktober is not a separate kind of asset. A year of Inktober is one sketchbook asset in your studio, and each day is a page of it; each day you mark live becomes an image in that year's public gallery. That is why you get the page grid, the Creator Canvas, time-lapse, and print options for it: it is ordinary FoundryInk work, organised by a calendar. Links in the studio open the sketchbook and the gallery directly.
10A few honest edges
Three things to know. Your today is read from your own device clock, so an artist in any timezone gets their own correct day. Catching up on earlier days is always allowed. And the list of sub-genres is curated by FoundryInk staff, so a brand-new sub-genre's word list for a given year may not be filled in yet, in which case those days read Your choice until it is.
Questions creators actually ask
No. Days you have already passed stay open, so you can catch up whenever you like, and the studio never penalises a late day. The only days you cannot open are the future days of a year that is still in progress. Your today comes from your own device clock, so timezones are handled for you.
Traditional is the official Inktober list and the default. You can switch to a sub-genre such as Gobtober, Spooktober, Birdtober, Blacktober, Drawtober, Ghostober, Witchtober, or Mab's Drawlloween Club, each with its own 31 prompts. Some sub-genre lists for a given year are still being filled in and show Your choice for a day until they are set.
It makes that day's piece public by putting it into your year's Inktober gallery, where readers see it on Browse. Until you mark a day live it is a private draft. You can draw days ahead privately and mark them live on your own schedule.
Two places on Browse: the Inktober refine under the Art lens, and a seasonal Inktober showcase that runs from October 1st to November 7th, where the newest live days show first. A piece appears in both the moment you mark its day live.
The platform waives its own cut on Inktober prints and originals. It is free of the platform fee, not free of real costs: a print still collects the print run and shipping, and an original you ship yourself has no platform fee at all. The waiver attaches to the Inktober piece you entered, not to a whole gallery.
No. A year of Inktober is one sketchbook asset, each day is a page of it, and each live day is an image in that year's gallery. So the normal page grid, Creator Canvas, time-lapse, publishing, and print options all apply. The studio is just a calendar-shaped way to build and release it.
FoundryInk staff curate the sub-genres and their word lists. You pick from the lists that exist; you do not create a sub-genre yourself. If a year's list for a sub-genre is not filled in, its days read Your choice until staff add the words.
One prompt a day
Open the tab, pick a list, draw the day, mark it live. Through October you build a finished sketchbook, land in the Browse showcase, and sell prints and originals with no platform fee. The hardest part is the first day, so open today's prompt and draw it.
Where next?