For Inktober 2017, an Artist Illustrates the Many Faces of Fear

An artist who has taken up the Inktober challenge has illustrated various phobias.

Arachnophobia, a fear of spiders (L); Necrophobia, a fear of death/dead bodies (R).

(Photo Courtesy: Shawn Coss Instagram)

In October each year, hundreds of thousands of artists participate in the Inktober challenge and attempt to make at least one ink drawing per day. The Inktober challenge was devised by artist Jake Parker in 2009, who hit upon the idea to draw every day of the month to improve his art and also to discipline himself.

Parker then took it online, and the rest is history.

For the 2017 version of the challenge, an artist called Shawn Coss has illustrated several phobias, one for each day. Coss has previously themed his Inktober drawings around mental health issues, among other things.

We’ve picked some of Coss’s creations for you.

Spiders inspire fear – or if not that, reactions ranging from outright disgust to mild aversion – in most of us. Coss commenced this year’s challenge with an illustration of arachnophobia.

His illustration for claustrophobia captures the essence of what being claustrophobic is like.

Among the other phobias, Coss has put up on his Instagram account are nyctophobia (fear of the night), ophidiophobia (fear of snakes).

While most of us are familiar with (or know enough Greek/Latin, thanks to high school science) what arachnophobia and necrophobia are, Coss has illustrated some very unusual fears.

Cherophobia, or aversion to happiness, makes for a rather bizarre case.

The official Inktober Instagram account curates art drawn as part of the challenge and hashtagged as #Inktober.