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Drawing Ideas
The best way to hone your artistic skill is to practice it, but what happens when you run out of ideas? What do I draw? What should I paint?
It Began with #InkTober
You’ve probably heard of #inktober. This hashtag started popping on Twitter back in 2009 alongside posts of ink sketches people had made, and later also on Instagram. It’s an online challenge started by Jake Parker where each day of October, you’re supposed to create an ink drawing, and post it online with the hashtag #inktober. The subject matter used to be the artist’s choice, but since 2016, there are official prompt lists.
For interest’s sake, here’s a video with an overview on the history of #inktober and details of the two #inktober dramas, including court case verdict…
Art Challenges for Every Month of the Year
That’s where it all started, but that’s not where it ends. There’s now art challenge ideas for every month of the year. Most of these challenges have art prompts with a different idea for each day of the month (and the prompts usually change every year).
Most social prompts encourage you to do one creation per day, but in reality, most people don’t have time for that, so don’t feel obliged. You are more than welcome to do 1 every other day, 1 every week, 1 for the whole month, or just choose any of the prompts you like and do them in your own time.
Unless you’re getting paid, art should never become a point of stress.
List of Current Social Media Art Challenges
I try to keep this list current, so check back monthly or join my Discord for monthly announcements.
Here’s a list of all the challenges I know about. Where possible, I’ve posted a link to the official art prompt list for every day of that month for the current year. There are some unofficial and self prompts that artists publish as well, so if you don’t like the official prompt list, look around for alternatives, though keep in mind that some challenges have prizes associated with them, so you will need to follow the rules in order to qualify.
January Art Challenges
- #TheJanuaryChallenge, est 2013 – Do something creative.
Official art prompts here - #Creatuanary, est 2017 – Invent a new creature.
Official art prompts here - #ArtJournalJanuary, est circa 2018 – Create art from one thing in your life that inspires you each day.
Official (optional) art prompts here - #doodlewashjanuary, est 2020 – Draw/do a watercolour painting each day.
Official art prompts here
Febraury Art Challenges
- #Faebruary, est 2018 – Draw, sculpt or paint a Faerie.
- #MonthOfLove, est 2018 – Do a weekly art piece around the subject of love
Official art prompts here
March Art Challenges
- #MarchofRobots, est 2014 – Draw, sculpt or paint a robot.
Official art prompts here - #MagicalMarch, est 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint a magical girl
- #MonsterMarch, est 2018 – Draw, sculpt or paint a monster
April Art Challenges
- #PleinAirpril, est 2017 – Do a plein air (outdoor) study every day of the month.
Official Art prompts here
May Art Challenges
- #Mermay, est. 2015 – Draw, sculpt or paint a mermaid / mer-person
Official art prompts here - #MaySketchaDay, est 2017 – Do one sketch of your choice everyday of the month.
June Art Challenges
- #Kaijune, est 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint a kaiju (big monster)
- #Junicorn, est. 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint a unicorn
- #JuneBug, est. 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint an insect
- #JuneStudyJam, est 2020 – Hosted by Noah Bradley. Do an art study every day of the month. Sometimes there is an official prompt list. In 2022, there was free sign up on Gumroad where reference was provided.
July Art Challenges
- #Julycanthropy, est 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint a werewolf
August Art Challenges
- #Smaugust, est 2016- Draw, sculpt or paint a dragon
- #Pawgust, est 2017 – Draw, sculpt or paint anything with paws
- #Doggust, 2018 – Draw, sculpt or paint dogs
September Art Challenges
- #Sketchtember, est 2015 – Sketch (not finished/polished drawings) something everyday
October Art Challenges
- #Inktober, est. 2009
Do an ink drawing every day
Official art prompts here - #MonthOfFear, est. 2014
Do a weekly art piece around the subject of fear
Official art prompts here - #Drawlloween, est. 2015
Draw something for Halloween
Official art prompts here - #Swaptober, est. 2016
Draw/Paint your fave hero/villian as a different gender
I don’t think there is a prompt list, but you can read more here - #Drawtober, est. 2017
Do 6 horror related drawings
Official art prompts here - #Witchober, est. 2017
Do 16 witch related drawings/paintings
Official art prompts here - #Monstober, est. 2017
Do 31 monster related drawings/paintings
Official art prompts here - #Birdtober, est 2017
Do a daily painting/drawing of a bird.
Official art prompts here - #Catober, est. 2018
Do 16 cat related drawings/paintings
Official art prompts here - #Gobtober, est. 2019
Do 31 goblin related drawings/paintings
Official art prompts here - #HuionHauntober, est. 2020
Do do 31 Halloween related digital paintings or drawings
Official art prompts here - #CuteGirltober, est. 2020
Do do 31 girly cartoon drawings
Official art prompts here
November Art Challenges
- #NaNoDrawMo, est 2009 – This is a spinoff of NaNoWriMo which seemed to originate on Flickr. Apparently stands for ‘National November Draw More’ and the instructions are simply to create 50 drawings this month. I have not found an official prompt list.
- #Dinovember, est 2012 – This started as an elf on the shelf type challenge where everyday parents would arrange their kids toy dinosaurs into funny situations as if they had come alive, and then post the photos on social media.
See more info
Some also use it as an art challenge to draw/paint/model 1 specific Dino per day, though there are only unofficial prompt lists. - #Huevember, est 2014 – Do 1 painting/coloured drawing each day of the month using 1 specific hue as the main colour of the piece. Some people use this as an opportunity to colour their ink sketches they did for inktober.
Get the colour of the day here - #Slowvember, est 2016 – Create one polished portfolio piece
See more info
December Art Challenges
- #Drawcember, est 2014 – Draw something daily
- #Decemburtonartchallenge, est 2016 – draw, sculpt or paint something in the typical style of Tim Burton
- #Decembird, est 2016 – Draw, sculpt or paint a bird
- #Dinocember, est 2018 – Draw, sculpt or paint a dinosaur
Other Art Community Challenges and Competitions
DeviantArt Challenges
DeviantArt routinely runs art challenges which you’ll find out about if you’re on their mailing list. Most are just for fun and will simply net you a badge for your profile. I’ve seen people post scribbles with the challenge hash tag just to get the badge for participating. That’s a bit sad. Occasionally they also host competitions where you can win something, but win or not, it’ll give you an idea of what to create.
https://www.deviantart.com/join/
ArtStation Contests
ArtStation’s contests are a lot more serious. Often the judges are industry professionals, even from AAA game studios. The prizes are definitely worth competing for, but the competition is stiff.
https://www.artstation.com/contests
Corel Competitions
Corel often run small competitions where they give away brush packs as prizes. Be sure to read their terms and conditions, because even if you don’t win, they still have rights over your artwork. I’d suggest signing up for the Corel Discovery newsletter to be kept informed of competitions.
https://learn.corel.com/contest/
ProkoChallenge
If you’ve not heard of it, Proko.com is an absolute goldmine for art lessons, both free and paid. Stan Prokopenko hosts a #ProkoChallenge regularly for a wide range of art disciplines. One time, it will be anatomy, another time book illustration, another time character design, etc. Prizes are pretty decent. The last one I saw had a Wacom One as the first prize. Probably a good idea to sign up for the newsletter.
https://www.proko.com/
Other Art Prompts
- ArtPrompts.org provides random prompts. You can choose between character, creature, environment, object, and situation.
- SketchDaily – a SubReddit with a daily drawing theme.
- Daily SpitPaint – a Facebook group which posts daily topics, and the goal is to paint said topic within 30 mins with no reference.
- CD Challenge – Monthly character design prompt
Create an Art Series
Another source of inspiration is your own work. Look at something you’ve created that you’re proud of and consider making a series out of it. One benefit is that sets apparently sell better than single works of art. I remember reading that tip from a print on demand service that sells art prints. Their data showed that sets of 8 sold best.
For a successful set, you will want to keep the artwork style consistent, but the subject matter, orientation hues, etc, could potentially be quite different, and hopefully that will inspire you to put stylus to tablet.
I hope you’ve found this post helpful, and please don’t hesitate to hit up the comments if you know of some art challenge or competition that should be listed here, or other ways you find inspiration.