October Ink
What it is: Created in 2009 by illustrator Jake Parker, Inktober is a 31-day art challenge that requires artists to create a fresh ink drawing every day, based on one-word prompts. The challenge aims to encourage both professional and amateur artists to venture outside of their artistic comfort zones and create spontaneous, experimental works of art. As more artists have entered the fray, Inktober has evolved into a yearly occasion that has increased yearly. More than 17,000 videos with the term “Inktober” in the title were posted in October.
Why this matters: Inktober is an illustration of a specialized community akin to BookTube and a seasonal endemic tendency on YouTube, akin to “vlogmas.”
Whatever your passion, never undervalue the influence of common interests found in specialized fields; use them to your advantage to become a part of something greater.
THE ART OF NOTICING ✨ #earth #beautiful #shorts #
THE ART OF NOTICING ✨ #earth #beautiful #shorts #
Adding romance to the everyday
What it is: A growing amount of content shows individuals discovering happy moments in their regular lives. Making mundane activities like taking a stroll around the neighborhood or paying the rent into a cinematic main character moment is one way that filmmakers are accomplishing this. In the meantime, “The Art of Noticing” offers viewers a peek into things that seem a little more personal and sensitive and pushes creators to embrace the quieter moments in their everyday lives.
NPCs as the primary characters
What this is: The non-player character, or NPC, is one of the most widely used game design elements that has entered the online vernacular. A video game name for ancillary and helpless characters on screen is “NPC,” or a non-playable character. Over 190 million people have seen videos with the term “an NPC” in the title this year. These videos have sparked several trends, such as how-to videos on moving like one and short films in which actual people try to act like NPCs in public.
Why this matters: Metaphors from video games have permeated society. Similar to how terms from the entertainment industry, such as “the limelight,” “last act,” and “blockbuster,” crept into common speech in the 20th-century video game concepts, such as bugs, nerfs, and level 99 bosses, are now widely used on social media. Regardless of the vertical, don’t be scared to include allusions to gaming in your material since it’s currently ingrained in culture.
The aesthetics of fantasy
What this is: 2023 saw a notable upsurge in interest in fantasy aesthetics, with YouTube Shorts playing a major role in the discovery of new creators and viewers for fairycore, mermaidcore/sirencore, and Renaissance Faire content. The rise of these trends, which can be seen in a variety of verticals, emphasizes how artists and viewers utilize these aesthetics to assess their identities, escape from the real world, and immerse themselves in fantasy fandoms. Over 30 million people have watched videos including “Sirencore,” “Mermaidcore,” or “Fairycore” so far this year.
Why this is important: Aesthetics foster a sense of camaraderie among like-minded people and enable producers to express themselves in creative, exciting ways. These fantasy aesthetics mix with other recently prominent subcultures and aesthetics like as cosplay, cottagecore, and dark academia.
