The Magic of Art Challenges
A Nudge into the Imagination
“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” - Michael John Bobak
Art Challenges
It’s finally October, the weather is cooling and adults kids are already shopping for Halloween costumes. But artists are excited for an entirely different reason…
ART CHALLENGES!
That’s right! October is full of daily drawing prompts encouraging both professional artists and hobbyists to pick up the pencil and draw something.
Personally, I enjoy participating in Inktober and Artober, especially because the prompts are pre-determined allowing me to explore my imagination and create something I find interesting each day.
Disclaimer: Warning, this post is art-heavy! I’m sharing several of my Inktober drawings for the month to accompany my writing. If your email is lagging, please read this on Substack instead. You may continue.
Inktober
Inktober was created by Jake Parker, New York Times Best Selling illustrator. Jake started Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve his own inking skills and to develop positive drawing habits, which has spawn an entire movement worldwide. In short, there’s 31 days and 31 drawings. Pretty simple, right?
Here are the prompts for 2024.
I’ve participated in Inktober for several years, some of which, I actually completed the entire challenge. Importantly, Jake specifically states that making a drawing for each prompt is not mandatory, but rather - try to create something on a consistent basis.
You may have noticed that my drawing on the cover was created using the prompt for Day 11: Snacks. I thought for a brief moment, and started creating a character eating chips.
Artober
Artober is yet another fun daily art challenge, especially because it’s geared towards kidlit. Artober was created by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Similar to Inktober, there’s a single word prompt for each day in October allowing your imagination to run wild. Here are the prompts for 2024.
Benefits of Art Challenges
Art challenges are beneficial in so many ways, namely:
They Can Develop Good Habits
Building good habits can be difficult with so many distractions and life obligations. According to a study performed in 2009 on habit formation, it can take anywhere between 18 and 254 days to build a habit, with an average of about 66 days.
A daily art prompt can help encourage this good habit building by spending just a few minutes each day to draw something. Try setting a timer for 5min and draw. Of course, if you have more time, please feel free to continue - just try not to block a large chunk of time to create art, because undoubtedly - life will get in the way. There’s another bonus for developing a good daily art practice, it’s a huge stress reliever and plays a critical role in our mental and physical health.
Minimal to No Planning Required
Many times, artists tend to get stuck in the “what do I draw” phase. Even between big Projects (e.g., Children’s Picture Book, Graphic Novel, Writing a Manuscript, etc.), it’s important to just draw something for yourself. An Art Challenge can help you from paralysis by analysis when staring at a blank page. The daily prompts have already been created, taking the initial thinking out of the equation.
I suggest reading the prompt a day before and allowing your imagination to develop an image that you find interesting. Then, when you have time to draw, even only 5minutes, try getting that idea out of your head and onto the paper.
The Movement is Worldwide
When you think about it, so many artists across the world are drawing using the same daily art prompts, which is pretty cool. This is one of the benefits of social media when using the hashtags #inkotober and #inktober2024 when posting on your favorite social media platforms.
There’s something about a larger movement that sparks some excitement and fire in wanting to participate in a worldwide challenge. Even better, everyone has their unique take and style on the prompts. It’s not about competing and winning against other artists, but rather - creating a competition with yourself to make art daily, and post if you choose to.
Downsides of Art Challenges
I would be remiss if I didn’t cover a few subjective downsides of art challenges, at least things I’ve experienced personally.
Can Be Stressful
I know what you’re thinking; the first advantage I said earlier dealt with combating stress, and now I’m talking about creating stress. Heck, just writing the word stress in this paragraph is stressing me out!
Allow me to elaborate further. It was a cold and windy October of 2020, I just heard about Inktober for the first time and decided to take part in this simple art challenge.
Like many artists, I started out strong with completing a piece of art each day! Ahh, success felt great! I’m actually doing it and having fun. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to get in my…
Life happened. Work happened. The universe conspired to test my will and rob me from all my free time! Damn you - universe! Why?!
Now, I’m stressing to finish a piece each night. I’m even losing sleep over it. For what reason? Just because I’m not a quitter? Like you, I want to finish what I started, even if it kills me!!! Not really - but you know what I mean, right? This increase in cortisol is the last thing I need when I’m trying to just build a good art habit and have fun. However, the truth is - you see - participating in an art challenge can (in fact) be stressful. Worse of all, this is self-inflicted stress!
And if you are really hard on yourself, and you don’t complete the full challenge, you may think less of yourself for failing, which is pretty silly when you think about it.
It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about making some good ole art!
Provided below is a piece I completed on October 6, 2020 using the prompt, “Rodent”.
Huge Distraction
Just when you make some momentum on your important Projects - you know, ones you are actually getting paid for - October comes around and entices to distract you with all these super cool shiny art challenges. Squirrel!
You know you should be doing one thing, but instead - you decide to make some personal art for the challenge. Do this every day for an entire month, and you just lost 1/12th of annual productivity; ouch!
The key is to do what you can, when you can, and don’t let an art challenge derail your schedule. In other words, ignore the squirrels!
Closing Thoughts
Art challenges like Inktober and Artober can be a blast, and help you develop an awesome daily art practice, which we can agree is good for you. However, holding yourself too accountable can create a lot of stress, especially if you tend to work slow or try to create incredible artwork every day. If you’re not having fun, maybe try a different art challenge. For example, Lee White, an incredible artists and fellow instructor with Jake Parker and Will Terry at School of Visual Storytelling, created #SlowVember, which encourages you to take the entire month of November to create just 1 piece. That’s right, slow down and make the best piece of art you can make in the entire month of November. If a daily art challenge sounds stressful, consider trying SlowVember instead. I love this idea!
The important takeaway is to have fun and get inspired to create artwork you may have never thought to create if not for a daily drawing prompt. Whether you spend 5min or 3hrs on a piece, it’s totally up to you and how much time you have available. My average is about 45min for each piece from sketch to final, except the one below, which only took me 15min to make.
Thanks again for taking time out of your day to read JUST ONE THING! I really appreciate you! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments about art challenges and your own experiences. Are you currently participating in Inktober, Artober, or any other art challenges? Do you enjoy them or find them stressful?
Until next time, keep drawing, keep writing, but most importantly - keep dreaming!
That worm is hilarious, isn’t he?
In case you’re wondering, I’m still undecided if I will complete a drawing for each day, but it’s certainly fun trying!