How To Plan For (And Complete) A Drawing Challenge (Patreon)

I recently challenged myself to post to Instagram every day for 30 days, and 26 of those posts were new illustrations. I talk a little bit about the results in my last newsletter but today I want to share how I plan for a drawing challenge and stay on track.

Of course you don’t need a ‘challenge’ to draw regularly or maintain a drawing habit, but sometimes it helps to have a challenge to help keep us motivated and focused on an end outcome.

There are a few things you’ll probably want to think about if you’re setting yourself up for a drawing challenge:

Duration & frequency

Themes & prompts

Outcomes

🎨Duration & Frequency🎨

There are lots of formats and durations for challenges, and you can really just make up whatever works for you. Try to be realistic about how much time you have to commit to a challenge when deciding how often you’ll draw, because although you want it to be challenging you also want to make sure it’s achievable!

Some common formats are:

Drawing everyday for 30 days

Drawing everyday for 100 days

Drawing every weekday (take the weekends off)

Drawing 3 times a week (on certain days)

Drawing on the same day each week

🌷Themes & Prompts🌷

You can choose to have a theme for your challenge, or you could just draw whatever you feel like each day.

If you’re someone who likes to feel prepared then you might find it helpful to write out some prompts for your challenge before you get started so that you aren’t stuck looking for drawing ideas on the day. Personally, I prefer to see what I feel like drawing on the day and also how much time I have available for drawing, but if I’m participating in a challenge that already has prompts then I’ll do those!

There are lots of challenges already out there (especially on Instagram) that you can join. Most of them have a theme or a list of prompts that everyone can draw, and those are fun because you don’t have to come up with your own drawing ideas everyday, plus you get to see what everyone else created for that same prompt.

✨Outcomes✨

It’s really important before you start an art challenge that you know what it is you’d like to get out of it. Even if you’re trying to grow on social media I really recommend having some outcomes that don’t rely on likes or the algorithm and are within your control, because that way you’ll get something out of it either way (we all know we can’t control social media algorithms).

Get clear on what it is you’d like to achieve and set up your challenge around that. You might want to get better at drawing plants so you could set that as the theme of your challenge, or you might want to improve your character designs so you could aim to draw a character every Wednesday for your challenge.

If you know what outcomes you want to get out of your challenge then at the end of it (or during) you can look back and see how far you’ve come toward that goal.

So, now you’ve designed yourself a challenge or have decided to join in on one that’s being hosted on social media. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably start out really motivated, then start to lose motivation when other responsibilities come up in life.

To increase your chances of staying on track and completing your challenge, here are a few things to try:

Make It A Priority

To make sure that you have time each day for your art challenge, make it a priority. Consider it to be a non-negotiable along with the other things that you need to do each day, even if you’re just setting aside 15 minutes after your morning coffee. You might need to tell the people you live with that you need a bit of time to focus on your art so that you can avoid distractions, or you could even get them to join in if that makes it easier!

Make Space (Literally)

As part of making your art a priority, set up a space where you can create your art that doesn’t require a lot of fuss each time you want to draw. If you don’t have the space to have a designated art setup, then make sure all of your supplies are really easy to access and pull out when you need them. Even if you’re just wanting to draw on your iPad from the couch, make sure that it’s charged and somewhere you can see it to remind you to get creative!

Collect Inspiration

Since you already have an idea of the prompts or theme for your challenge, start collecting inspiration for drawing ideas. You could start sketching out ideas on scrap bits of paper (when it’s on scrap paper there’s a lot less pressure for them to be good!), or making Pinterest boards of inspiration. Having some inspiration on hand makes things easier when you aren’t sure what to draw and can give you the boost you need to spark ideas.

Re-use Old Ideas

On days when you’re really not feeling inspired or are low on time, don’t be afraid to re-use old ideas. You can redraw something you’ve done in the past and see how your style has changed, or just re-use similar characters or compositions to save some creative energy. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of recycling!

Progress Over Perfection

If you’re going to be drawing regularly, then it’s likely that you’ll really like some of the things that you draw and really not like some of the others, but don’t let your inner critic talk you out of stopping your progress! Art isn’t about being perfect, and we all have so much to learn so try and focus on making progress and embracing the learning journey rather than creating art that’s amazing every time.

I’d love to know if you’ve completed an art challenge or are thinking of starting one soon - let us know in the comments!