Inktober began in 2009 thanks to an artist, Jake Parker. He started Inktober as a way of challenging himself to improve his ‘inking skills’ and as a way of ‘developing positive drawing habits’.
Every year a new list of daily prompts or themes for the Inktober challenge in October. For the #Inktober2018 challenge, I decided to draw Big Foot everyday using theprompts.
For the past couple of months, I have been sketching and/or painting in my art journal almost daily. 
I downloaded a free application on my phone called Sktchy.
The first challenge I participated in was the 30 days/30 pages (see earlier post, 30 pages/30 days). These were daily sketches with prompts and tips from one of three artists every day. I learned a lot and got in the habit of daily journaling.
My next challenge was with five artists for five days called ”Five Day Facial.” Each day was a different focus on a facial feature with a different artist. Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Ears and Hair. I have had no formal training in art so this was exciting to me and I learned a lot!
You can now subscribe to Sktchy for $4.95 a month and get daily artists with tips and a photo to draw. People upload their photos on Sktchy as well, to be inspirations. Then, many people draw them and tag the inspiration so you can just swipe right on your drawing and see the referenced photo underneath. You are also encouraged to hashtag the month and day so you can see everyone’s version of the same photo.
Below are some of the photos and sketches I have done over the past month or so. Sometimes there are different challenges, such as “create a story with this photo” or “try minimal lines and no color.”
For my 50th birthday, my daughter took me to Paris! We spent three nights in Paris. We stayed at the Hotel de Notre-dame. It was a lovely place in a great neighborhood. Because my daughter is a flight attendant, we fly standby. That is an adventure in itself!
We visited the many cafes and bistros, eating crepes and drinking cappuccinos. We visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Paris Sewer Museum.
One of the highlights was sitting with my daughter and sketching and painting. I surprised her with her own travel paint kit and an art journal. 
I joined a group of artists from around the world in March 2018 that belong to the group Sktchy (a phone app). I had access to three different artists that took turns giving us tips and daily challenges for 30 days. I rose to the challenge and sketched every day in my art journal. Below are some of the entries.
I have been making books for a couple of years now. I mostly use reused materials, scrapbook, wrapping, and handmade paper. I sew the pages together and then bind them. Here are a couple of samples. I also cover composition books (because some people like to have lined paper). I make the books for fun, but have custom made books to order.
Debbie Caselton 