Why I'm Not Participating in Inktober

It's not just the Alphonso Dunn situation, I promise.

The world is busy. People are always busy. I'm very busy. The last two years, I've completed Inktober- the daily prompt challenge to ink a drawing for the entire month of October. A month of prompts doesn't sound that bad, but when you squish it in with two jobs, a Youtube channel, three dogs, a stinky farmer husband and a draughty big old farmhouse, it's not always a good idea. The fatigue sets in around the 15th of the month, and it's not good. I guess I've been looking for reasons not to do it this year. Especially since I don't draw every day anyway - I simply don't have that many hours in a day.

Last year, for the duration of the challenge, all I kept thinking was 'I should be using this time to film Cavemas videos'. I often drew last thing at night, which was the only place I could squeeze in the time whilst getting relative peace. I often ended up drawing tired, yielding unsatisfactory results. Knowing by that halfway point in 2019 that I wasn't a huge fan of ink, the challenge just didn't hold that much value for me, and I felt my time would have been put to better use elsewhere. In a bid to rescue the last shred of hope for Inktober, (for some weird reason I was still clinging on to the idea of doing it) I asked if my YouTube viewers would like to see some videos covering the subject - the answer was a resounding 'yes', but the videos themselves weren't all that popular. My participation in 2020 was already on a shaky peg.

Fast forward to this year, with the prompt list for Inktober recently released, which I learned also coincided with a book release featuring the Inktober 'brand' - from Jake Parker, the 'founder' of Inktober.

My perception of Jake Parker has always been fairly neutral; He's a talented artist and also seems to have a personable presence and has done well carving a career as an illustrator. He created Inktober in 2009, and there have been a few controversial issues in the last few years that I have taken with a pinch of salt - His comment about digital art and the subsequent backpedalling, his trademarking of 'Inktober' in order to sell merch (which resulted in cease and desist orders being issued to small, independent artists) and most recently, the alleged plagiarism of Alphonso Dunn's pen-and-ink book.

My opinion on these specific topics is of no consequence, but what does matter is how Jake Parker has handled them, and every single action points to him being pretty shady. I don't like people, and I make no secret of that, so I have a very low tolerance of A-holes.

After stating that digital art was okay but he didn't believe it encompassed the spirit of Inktober, he then released a set of digital brushes for Inktober, cashing in on an untapped market. He trademarked Inktober to make money. Now, let's think about this: Inktober was originally set up as a community challenge hashtag. It's been running for a decade. He is literally piggybacking off of ten years worth of work FROM A HASHTAG. We all know hashtags only gain popularity if lots of people use them. The community has done the work so he can line his pockets.

In response to the legal steps regarding people using the Inktober brand, he brushed this off with a lighthearted TWEET and blamed it on his over-excitable lawyer. I hate that Twitter seems to be a viable avenue for official business (Trump, I'm looking at you), and who starts an apology regarding legal action with the word 'gah', anyway?

Lastly, the most recent incident regarding his shiny new book. Alphonso's hour-long video points out striking similarities between Parkers new book and his own not-so-new-book. His video, available on his very popular Youtube channel, is measured, carefully constructed and you can literally see him using every strand of self control while he does it. Regardless of whether plagiarism can be proven, you can tell this man is devastated that someone from his own community has let a book like this get to a publisher without 'noticing' that there are uncomfortably similar aspects. That sort of emotion only comes from someone who has wrung out their soul to create a book. No such thing from Mr Parker, however.

And this, ladies and gents, is the moment I decided I would do nothing in support of Jake Parker ever again. His response, again in a tweet, didn't even address Alphonso directly. In fact, he gave him a telling-off like a five-year-old for exposing his findings publicly and not 'reaching out to him in private'. This is not a genuine, personal response to the situation, and I personally find it disrespectful. (Remember last time with the 'Gah!' tweet?)

The statement itself is wooden, too grammatically astute and clearly written by a lawyer. The Inktober book has been pulled from its 15th September release. For someone who supposedly is all about fostering the art community, and is constantly making money off of what started as a community challenge, all I can conclude is that either greed has gotten to Mr Jake Parker or he's just been a horrible person all along.