Taking part in a drawing challenge can sometimes feel like you’re embarking upon an epic journey. One that requires true grit and dedication.
But like any meaningful journey, it’s also filled with triumphs, amazing benefits and moments of pure joy. Which makes taking part in a drawing challenge a wonderful experience as an artist and something I recommend highly.
Whether you’re participating in a group drawing challenge, or decide to create your own, here’s some strategies I’ve learned to help you conquer drawing challenges like a pro!
It’s not the monster you think it is
So you’ve just seen an Instagram post from one of your favourite artists, they’re running a drawing challenge. Yay! Your first reaction is “Yes! I’m in!”. But then feelings of overwhelm start to take over, you doubt how you’ll ever commit, how will you ever find the time, energy, creativity blah, blah blah…
So you quit, before you’ve even started.
Sound familiar?
We tend to overthink things and turn what’s meant to be fun into something monstrous.
Many of us make the mistake of focusing on the overall challenge which can seem mammoth.
Instead try and visualise the enjoyable creative sessions you’ll have, the body of work you’ll produce, and the skills you’ll be improving! Whoohoo!
Focus on one session at a time and ignore the others you still haven’t completed, there’s no good in fretting over those, it’ll only lead to overwhelm.
It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece
There’s a misconception that each drawing you create for the challenge needs to be a thing of beauty.
This is why I think social media can be damaging, it creates a false reality of people posting their best work. Behind all those beautiful art pieces are many ugly ducklings we don’t see.
During the challenge you’ll create mediocre art and some ugly ducklings, and that’s 100% okay! In fact it would be weird if you didn’t.
But in between will be some beauties! And every single piece will contribute to you growing as an artist.
You don’t need to spend hours
If you have five minutes to spare (I’m pretty sure you do!) then you have enough time to participate in a drawing challenge.
You can make as many excuses as you like about not having time (I know I do!), but honestly, you can knock out a drawing in five minutes even if it’s a few incoherent chicken scratches on a page!
In fact, if you’re a perfectionist struggling to loosen up, a five minute drawing challenge would be super beneficial!
In 2018 I was still settling into my fairly new illustration career – I was building a new business from scratch which was all consuming.
At the same time, I was acutely aware that I needed to improve my drawing skills. But like many of us, I made a million excuses why I couldn’t find the time to sit and draw for the sole purpose of improving – back then drawing sessions always had a commercial purpose, for clients or products.
I knew consistent drawing was key to improving, but every time I thought about it, I felt overwhelmed by the commitment.
So I decided to stop whining and dedicate just 5 minutes, three times a week, to create a drawing. I even set a timer. I could draw anything but it had to be 5 minutes or less.
To show myself I meant business, I did this challenge for about 8 months!
In that time, I became more proficient at Procreate and my drawing skills improved immensely. The fast sketching forced me to identify basic shapes in items much quicker and helped me develop a looser style to my art. I’d even go so far as to say that it contributed my my style I have today.
Moral of the story, no more excuses! You have the time.
Don’t set yourself up for failure
As with any new commitment our initial excitement dwindles very quickly, often resulting in us giving up. We’re all super eager at the start, making big sweeping promises to ourselves, certain that our over-ambitious commitment is achievable.
Whatever you think you can commit to, halve it.
That’s not a free ticket, you still need to push yourself!
If you initially thought you could commit to creating one drawing a day, rather commit to one every second day. Or if it was one a week, do three a month.
We all have stories of times we committed to something only to find it was impossible. Which leads to feelings of failure, and eventually turns into quitting.
You need a healthy balance between pushing yourself and committing to something that’s realistically achievable given your work and personal schedules.
Accountability
There are endless studies indicating that if you make your commitment public you tend to stick to it (public can mean friends, or family members). This is mainly due to having a sense of accountability which seems to influence our actions, apparently.
But I’ve noticed that announcing my intentions is not a motivating factor for me. Whether I publicly declare a goal or not, this seems to have no influence on its success.
In fact, I find keeping a challenge private yields better results for me – this could be because I’m the kind of person who doesn’t always like to be “told” what to do and public accountability feels a little too “demanding”. Besides, I’m usually my worst critic, and there’s no getting away from myself! 😊
Although there might be evidence that making a commitment public will help you stick to it, don’t feel it’s an absolute necessity. It might not suite you at all and create added pressure that could have a negative impact and lead to overwhelm!
Incredible benefits
Without a doubt, your drawing skills will improve. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
When taking part in a drawing challenge you’re exercising your commitment to creating more art. You’ll notice your confidence will grow with each session and develop resilience to managing those “bad” sessions. Knowing how to talk yourself out of a feeling crappy about creating bad art is an important skill to have as an artist!
Most challenges have topics or a particular theme. This is a great exercise for creating art within a framework or brief, a much-needed skill when working with clients.
Some of the other happy side effects I’ve experience include exploring:
- New techniques;
- New colour palettes; and
- New subject matter – often drawings created during a challenge have set me off on a new direction in my art.
And finally, you’ll have a new body of work you probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. Some of my challenge-drawings have caught the attention of clients which lead to licensing opportunities. Given the art was created to push myself, I’d say that’s a bonus!
If you haven’t taken on a challenge yet, or you’ve tried but stopped, the chances are you’re overthinking it and placing too much expectation on yourself.
View the challenge as a container that helps you stay within certain boundaries. Set realistic time goals and be open to exploring rather than producing masterpieces.
This is your time to relax, forget about all your other (far more mammoth) life commitments and enjoy the pleasurable pastime of creating for fun!
This is great to hear! I recognize a lot in what you say.
I often had a hard time to draw and use a full canvas or bigger size of paper, which led to not finishing any of my drawings. Now I started to draw on a tiny piece of paper and finished the work to my own suprise 🙂 Now it’s fun again.
Yes Felicia!! It’s so important to understand what works for you as an individual. Staying motivated is more important, and finding ways to do that for yourself is one of the best tools to have as an artist
That’s the first time I’ve heard someone else describe accountability as a detriment. I can be the same way— I don’t like to be told what to do all the time and I want the freedom to follow something new if that’s where it takes me! But I do think I’d benefit from a challenge. Focus is a good thing!
Yes!! Focus is definitely a good thing when it comes to setting an art goal. I find having a theme is a good start, but I always give myself permission to pivot if I want. I think the aim is to create art, and if pivoting means you’ll be creating more art, then I’m all for that! ❤️
Hi Lisa. I loved your post and I was just thinking about start my first drawing challenge. I relate when you mentioned that you need to improve your art style and skills also ‘loose’ your style. I feel the same. I a, usually very thigh and would like to do more simplify versions of my drawings.
The. 5 min challenge looks like something good for my purpose but looks like the link is not correct.
Could you please give me more information about it ?
Thanks for this post.
Nathalia
Hi Nathalia,
You will definitely benefit from a 5 minute drawing challenge if you want to loosen up your style! It really helped me SO much. In addition to the challenge, I use to do drawings with pen, that way I couldn’t “erase” anything – I had to accept what marks I made on paper. It was frustrating at first but eventually it helped me overcome my perfectionism.
The link to the 5 minute challenge I did is to an Instagram channel I created to document my drawings. It was years back but I’ve kept it anyway, it’s good for me to see how far I’ve come You can view my quick sketches here: https://www.instagram.com/5minutedrawing/
I didn’t have any theme for the challenge, I just drew whatever came to mind at the time. Hope you decide to do one too
I agree with accountability not being a driving factor. I hate feeling told what to do. Even though I finished my 100 day project last year, I’m having a hard time this year. I just don’t want to share it with others. I’m really enjoying having this challenge for myself.
I bought your Cute Art Creator and haven’t used it nearly as much as I had hoped. I should use it for my own personal 5 minute challenge.
Congrats on completing your challenge last year! And also taking on another! That’s really fantastic So glad you’ve decided to just enjoy the challenge for yourself, in my opinion, that’s the best way to do a challenge. I often find creating for fun is when the magic really happens, but it can take a while to get in the groove and let the “expectations” go. The Cute Art Creator would be fab brushes to play with in a 5 minute challenge!! Great idea! Keep creating Liz! ❤️
I’m very grateful for this post. I find myself feeling overwhelming pressure when attempting to follow a drawing challenge. All of a sudden I seem to have zero imagination and even less skill in drawing. The anxiety begins to flood my body and zap all of the fun out of drawing just for the sake of drawing (which is why I started this journey in the first place). Thank you for sharing your own experience, Lisa. It reassures me that getting good at drawing is something that takes time, and is done best with consistent, gentle practice- not pressure to perform. It’s hard sometimes not to think that all of the great artists (like you!) were simply great from the get-go.
Hi Amy, I felt exactly the same! As you’ve pointed out, consistent practice makes all the difference. And the best part about getting better is how your confidence grows in your ability. But even years into my art career I still have my bad days and also days of serious doubt! It’s part of the journey I guess Keep going, I promise it get’s easier and you’ll also find better ways to soothe yourself when you start to feel overwhelmed xxx