Art Challenges to Try

There are hundreds of art challenges on the internet you can try out. They are all exercises that serve to challenge you to try something difficult and step out of your comfort zone. Some may not have a lot of commitment required, but others prove impossible for some people to succeed as they may have outside life factors holding them back or fall into burnout.

However, practice and improvement are not the only benefits that participating in art challenges have. Many of them foster growth and community building. They can encourage engagement and getting to know fellow artists on the platform of your choice. So, even if you may not get improvement out of it, you will meet amazing people and may even form friendships out of it.

Color Palette Challenge

The color palette challenge is where you get a pre-set color palette and make an illustration suitable for the colors. You can make an illustration, a character design, or anything else that suits your fancy. It is a restrictive challenge that encourages you to explore aesthetics, genre, and moods you may not have otherwise.

You can either make the palette yourself or you can source it online. If you’re doing the latter, then it is polite to give the source credit when posting the result of your attempt. A great account to find color palettes is @color-palettes on Tumblr. It is a Tumblr blog dedicated to posting color palettes often submitted by other users of the website. The account also has a pinned post that links to its Tumblr-hosted website that has resources and more challenges you can try out not highlighted in this article.

30-day Challenge

The 30-Day Challenge is where you make a drawing every day for thirty days. There are popular challenges you may have heard of that fall in this category. Inktobe and Mermay are two popular examples of 30-day challenges. Since 30 days is a huge commitment, people have different approaches in how they might accomplish it, and many of them might not successfully finish the challenge.

Some people may start drawing ahead of time or complete multiple prompts in a day. Some people may only do one drawing a week instead, or they could grind it out until they decide to stop early. Any alternative approach is going to be controversial, as they aren’t completely faithful to the rules, but not everybody is capable of seeing the challenge through “properly” due to disability, lifestyle factors, or a myriad of other reasons. But the most important part in participating is improving and having fun, and if doing 30-day challenges properly would hold you back from that, then there is nothing wrong with doing it in a different way.

20 Art Styles Challenge

A classic challenge is drawing a character, or yourself, in twenty different art styles. If you wish to be a commercial artist, then the ability to mimic art styles is a required skill that will put you leagues ahead of much of your competition.

Trying to draw different styles is a great way to experiment with your own, too! You might find elements of someone else’s style that you may like and want to include in your own style. 

Draw This in Your Style

Many artists will upload illustrations and ask you to redraw it in your own style. This is a community-based challenge that is about putting your own spin on a pre-existing illustration. You can change out the character, adjust some details, and experiment with the prompt. You can even try to be faithful and give someone free art of their character!

Not only does it give you a prompt to play around with, redrawing an illustration allows you to participate in community and even meet new people. You will get a string of fellow artists that you can admire the works of and get to know from participating in the same challenge. Plus, everybody loves it when their character gets free art. But do keep in mind that free art is a “give and take” thing, so make sure to participate in these challenges as much as you start them should you ever get enough engagement to start one of your own.

Fanart Challenge

The fanart challenge is another community-based challenge. You upload a chart with six blank spaces and ask for people to suggest what characters you should draw. You then either draw your favorite suggestion or the top-voted one. The challenge allows you to draw new character designs you would have never considered, which can help you practice in trickier character designs you wouldn’t be used to.

The biggest benefit to this challenge is that you may be introduced to new characters and properties that you might fall in love with. After all, people can know some very niche yet interesting stuff you won’t hear of otherwise. Plus, seeing what people want to see more art about allows you to get to know your community better. They all have preferences and favorites that can tell you about what kind of people your art is attracting.

Conclusion

There are many more art challenges you can try than the ones highlighted, however, many challenges you will find will be some variation of the ones listed here. If you’re a more experienced artist, you can try “Draw This Again,” or you can take a crack at time-based challenges. But if you just want a few challenges to start with, then you may find yourself enjoying the ones listed here.