Art Challenges

I’ve done many art challenges in the past. These include popular ones like Inktober and Mermay, as well as smaller, more personal ones like making sketchbook art every day for a month. But you might be wondering, “Why should I do these art challenges? How will they help me?” I’ll explain.

These kinds of art challenges are a great way to try new and different types of art. If you’ve ever done one of them, you’ve probably found yourself making things you would never make otherwise. This is all due to creative constraints, which are limitations placed on your art. Creative constraints are always important. Although it’s good to create freely, constraints force you to use all your creative ability to get around them and work with them.

The last art challenge I tried out was Inktober. You can see all my Inktober drawings on my Instagram: @shreyyya_b. This challenge had a lot of benefits, from increasing my Instagram exposure to refining my sketching techniques. Posting my drawings on social media was important, because it forced me to push myself further and do my best work, and allowed me to get feedback from other artists through sharing my work with a larger audience.

An Inktober drawing I created using the prompt "dune."

My creativity also improved during this time. Inktober is a challenge where you make art based on prompts, so it’s a little less open ended than some other ones. Making art with prompts is a great way to expand your creativity.

Challenges also help you develop your practice. If you’re doing a challenge, there’s likely a time limit placed on it, whether that be one piece a day or one piece a week. Doing something like this will create a habit of drawing more often, which is a well-known tip for improving your art. When I completed Inktober, I found myself drawing much more often in the months after the challenge was over.

Another challenge I tried out was more of a personal one: painting on pennies. I used acrylic paint to create sceneries on 45 pennies, and then framed them. I did this a couple years ago, when I was just getting into painting landscapes. This was one of the most fun art challenges I've ever tried. Not only was it really rewarding to look at the finished product, it taught me new and different techniques for acrylic paint.

Last, but not least, challenges are fun! I enjoyed my time trying out all the challenges I've mentioned, and learned a lot from doing them. They’re a great opportunity to improve your art in a wide variety of ways while having fun at the same time.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this article. Remember, I release new ones every week. Before you go, don't forget to check out my shop!