The popular event created by Jake Parker is going strong since 2009 and has inspired many artists, newcomers and professionals alike, to challenge themselves and to improve their skills and develop positive drawing habits. The goal of the event is to draw an artwork using only ink every day in the month of october, hence the name. Jake releases an "official" prompt list for every day for you to get started, but you can draw whatever else you like as long as you draw :)

It is a great event to get back into drawing and refine your skills with a medium you may have not had much experience with. I joined Inktober in 2018 and try to follow along as much as I can, admitedly sometimes less successful then at other times.

I settled to use one sketchbook for each year and fortunately, I used the same brand and size since the begining (DALER ROWNEY Simply SKETCH Soft white, A6, 100 g/m^2). The simple, black A6-sized sketchbook looks great and fits easily in any backpack if I am on the go. After six years I finally decided to customize all of them with the Inktober logo. Instead of tideously drawing the same logo again and again, I made a stencil, which can be used to spray the logo on with spraypaint (or airbrush) or to use it as a trace-guide to draw it with ink or gel pens.

The stencil was designed for european paper sizes A6 (148 x 105 mm), A5 (210 x 148 mm) and A4 (297 x 210). The total size of the A6 print is 110 x 60 mm, A5 print is 155 x 84.6 mm and A4 print is 218.5 x 119.2 mm. The length of the logo itself is 80 mm for A6, 112.8 mm for A5 and 159 mm for A4.

After some testing a total thickness of 0.6 mm proved the best with enough flexibility but less possible gaps between infill and walls. Despite that, both versions print very fast (e.g. 10 min for A6 and 23 min for A5 sizes). The stencil is printed upside-down to get the nice texture from the build plate. It is quite sturdy and can be reused almost indefinitely.

After spray painting you may get some mist around some of the letters, which is quite normal for stencils. I was successfull to minimize that by putting some slim double-sided sticky tape at the bottom of the stencil to prevent the looser parts from sticking out too much. In any case I am very happy with the result and hope that you will be aswell!

If you encounter any issues or if you have any suggestions please let me know and I will gladly help you out!

Check out Inktober! A big thanks goes to Jake Parker for creating such an awesome event!
Inktober homepage: https://inktober.com/
Inktober on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inktober/
Inktober on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/inktober
Inktober on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/10156135167739359

Have fun drawing and happy printing!

Print settings:
Printed with BambuLab P1S

0.4 mm nozzle
0.2mm layer height (= 3 layers for a total of 0.6mm thickness)
Top/bottom shell layers: at least 2
Walls: 2
Wall generator: Arachne
Filament: eSUN PLA+ White or eSUN PLA+ Black @ 220°C nozzle, 55°C bed, 0.98 flow rate, 0.020 K
no supports, no brim

print times (BBL P1S, 0.4 mm):

• A6 size: 10 min (16 min with prepare time), 4.4 g
• A5 size: 17 min (23 min with prepare time), 8.7 g
• A4 size: 30 min (36 min with prepare time), 17.26 g