Zinktober 2024- Start preparing!

ZNN’s annual art challenge is back! Based on the ever-popular Inktober challenge, the rules are simple: Draw characters from the world of Zootopia in a scenario that involves the single-word prompt, one per day for the entire month of October, using only lineart and inking. Call it Zebra Appreciation Month, because it’s black and white all the way (and maybe just a touch of gray). While Inktober tries to get you to start and finish a piece in a single day, we’re relaxing that time crunch, and letting you see the prompts early so you can plan (and even get a head start on) your art well over a month in advance.

Something else different this year is that we’re incorporating a theme in our word selection! It should be fairly obvious, but the olympics just ended, and in a spirit of athletic fervor, we went with words that could be related to various sporting events. HOWEVER- we have tried our best to ensure that each one has at least one or two alternative meanings, so don’t feel restricted to drawing characters playing sports. Medal could be a military accomplishment, Relay could be involved in electronics, and even Kayak could be… um… an ad for a travel agency? Admittedly some have more possible interpretations than others, but we feel like this will make for a fun change in pace (no pun intended).

As always, the challenge starts the first of October, where we will begin collecting art for each individual day. If you are still on Twitter, or another social media platform that uses hashtags, use #Zinktober and #Zinktober2024 so we can easily find it. Otherwise, you can send your submissions directly to me at [email protected], or post a link to it in the ZNN Community Discord Server! We want you to make and share your art, even if social media platforms are currently making that difficult or risky in the AI arms race.

Afterwards, we will do several compilation posts, showing off everyone’s submissions over the course of the month of November. Any level of skill and talent is allowed, from a person who’s never picked up a pen or works in MS Paint, to seasoned animators from Disney itself- all are welcome! We can’t wait to see what you come up with, and remember, especially here…

Try Everything!

-Andy Lagopus