Every October, the company JP Creative launches a call to artists everywhere to create a new piece of art every day. This year, the call reached the National Art Honor Society at FHC. NAHS handed out 70 sketchbooks at the beginning of the month, at the end, three winners were crowned.

Senior Samantha Brennan had never participated in a contest like this one before. Brennan struggled to find unique ideas for each day’s Inktober prompt.

“It’s 31 different prompts. And to get them all done by the end of the month seem really challenging. But then we had fall break at the same time. So there’s both good and bad,” Brennan said. “You’re just given a word and have to come up with your own idea. You can find inspiration through it. But it’s just always wondering if you’re being original and hoping that you can get it to look right.”

The two other winners of the contest, junior Nathaniel Lanterman and freshman Audrey Beahan, also found certain difficulties in trying to produce a drawing for each day of the week. Beahan’s main struggle was time management and found herself waiting until she had the perfect idea, leaving little time for completion.

“I had to find the motivation to put aside what I was doing and make time in my schedule to draw every day. It helps because I was already in a habit of doing that, because I do try to sketch something every day. But I did complete a drawing. So it took a lot longer. So it was hard to find the motivation and the time to do it,” Beahan said.

Creating an idea based on the prompt and then executing it on time was a struggle for Lanterman as well. He always attempted to make something outside of the obvious for the prompt.

“Keeping up with the deadline [was hard] and finding ways to interpret the prompt and new ways because I don’t want to do like generic drawings, like just a clock. I want to make it something unique and make something different,” Lanterman said.

Brennan however, did not struggle with the deadline aspect of the challenge until fall break when other assignments seemed to catch up with her.

“I procrastinated because of fall break because I just used it as a time to work on other projects that I had, but then I managed to get them all done within the last week,” Brennan said. “Honestly [I was] surprised [when I won] because I just did it for fun. I just wanted to try doing something new every day. But it was nice. I’ve never really want a competition before.”

All three of the winners create art outside of the competition. Beahan pushes herself to sketch everyday and Brennan is in multiple art classes throughout the day, including AP Studio Art, where students are required to make 12 pieces a semester. This challenge provided her the opportunity to try something new.

          “I try to I’m in a few art classes and AP studio art. So drawing is a big thing for me,” Brennan said. “Usually, whenever I’m just drawing on my own, it’s just constant same thing. What this did was give me new ideas.”