Practice makes progress, so it's good to make a habit out of practice. However, it's not easy to keep such a habit when there are so many important things to do every day: work, family, friends, chores... And even if you manage to finally find some time for yourself, you may stare blankly at a sheet of paper, having no idea how to spend this precious time the most efficiently.
This is where the idea of daily art challenges can help. It's pretty simple: you get a clearly defined task to do every day for a specified amount of time. It reduces thinking to a minimum to give you more space for the actual creating.
Besides this, challenges provide extra motivation—you can post your work under a specific hashtag, making your followers your witnesses, and receive encouraging comments from other participants. And every finished challenge gives you an amazing feeling of accomplishment!
In this article, I compiled a list of daily challenges you can try over the year. Why not add them to your New Year resolutions list?
January
30 Day Challenge: January Prompts
Do you like hand lettering? You'll love this challenge then! You can use the author's Instagram as a source of inspiration. Post your works every day under the hashtag #DNDChallenge.
A Year of Color: January Challenge Prompts
Same author, a different premise: here you're supposed to create something in a specific color from the prompts list every day. Perfect to discover all the colors you might have never used before! Use the tag #DNDyearofcolor.
The Difference Between Typography & Hand Lettering: Typography in 60 Seconds
New Course: Hand Lettering for Beginners
How to Create Floral Typography With Ink
February
Faerie February
It's not a very popular challenge yet, but it's certainly very inspiring. After all, faeries come in all shapes and colors! The prompt list is full of ideas that immediately awaken a vision in your mind. What would a galaxy fairy look like? Or a winter one? Only one way to find out: draw them and post your works under #faeriefeb, #faeriefebruary, and #feabruary.
March
March of Robots
Draw a robot or a scene including a robot every day and post it under the tag #marchofrobots. All techniques are allowed, but it's best to choose something simple that will allow you to stick with the challenge for the whole of March.
Making of Robot Earth 3009 Typographic Illustration
How to Create a Sci-Fi, Robot Photo Manipulation in Adobe Photoshop
How to Create Bender From Futurama With the New Puppet Warp Tool in Adobe Illustrator
April
Adventure April
A fun challenge with a very inspiring prompt list. This one is perfect for fantasy artists, especially for character designers. Each prompt awakens a vision in your mind—so just take any tool, draw what you see, and post under the tag #AdventureApril.
April Art Challenge
This challenge's prompt list is general enough to be used for any kind of art. You can draw it, you can sculpt it, but you can also use this list for a unique typography challenge! The hashtag for it is #aprilartchallenge.
April Colors
This is a really nice challenge for painters, putting the focus on using colors in your work. It's a good opportunity to experiment with shades/compositions that you've avoided or ignored for some reason. And this stepping out of the comfort zone can be very educational! Use the hashtags #aprilcolorschallenge and #faunwoodcolors.
May
MerMay
This extremely popular challenge was created by former Disney animator Tom Bancroft. Your job is simple: just draw a mermaid every day! There are also multiple prompt lists you can find on the Internet, if you need some help in sparking your imagination. Use the hashtag #mermay.
How to Draw & Paint a Beautiful Mermaid in Adobe Photoshop
How to Create a Watercolor Mermaid Illustration in Adobe Illustrator
How to Create a Mermaid in Adobe Photoshop
Create an Ariel-Inspired Mermaid Painting in Adobe Photoshop
May Sketch a Day
This is a great challenge for beginners, and a nice warm-up before all the other challenges. It can be hard to produce a drawing every day, but a sketch? You can doodle it during a short break! So sketch whatever you wish for 31 days and post under the tag #maysketchaday.
How to Learn to Draw: Stage One, Manual Skills
Quick Tip: Create Dynamic Poses Using Gesture Drawing
100 Easy Drawing Tutorials for Beginners and Beyond!
How to Draw Cartoon Mouths
June
Junicorn
Like every fantasy creature, unicorns can come in many forms. Can you imagine 30 of them? If so, this challenge is for you! Draw a unicorn every day for the whole of June and post under the tag #junicorn.
How to Draw a Unicorn Step by Step
How to Create a Unicorn Illustration in Adobe Illustrator
How to Draw & Paint a Starry Unicorn Portrait in Adobe Photoshop
Create a Rainbow Vomiting, Kawaii Unicorn in Adobe Illustrator
Kaijune
Kaiju is a term for giant monsters that you may know from Japanese movies about strange creatures attacking cities. Let your imagination go wild and create 30 depictions of beasts destroying the world! The hashtag is #kaijune.
New Course: How to Create Monster Art in Adobe Photoshop
Create an Epic Godzilla-Inspired Movie Poster in Adobe Photoshop
July
World Watercolor Month
This one was created to raise awareness of the importance of art and creativity, as well as to help children in need of art supplies through the Dreaming Zebra Foundation. Join the artists all around the world and paint a watercolor painting every day. Post under the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth.
How to Create Unique Paint Effects With Watercolour and Gouache
How to Stretch Paper for Watercolour and Gouache and Avoid My Mistakes!
Introduction to Traditional Media: Watercolour
August
Smaugust
If you love drawing dragons, here's a perfect excuse to draw them every day for a whole month! It's inspired by the name of the dragon in the Hobbit, Smaug, but you're free to draw any dragon you wish. Use the hashtag #smaugust.
How to Draw a Dragon Step by Step
How to Create a Cute Baby Dragon Photo Manipulation in Adobe Photoshop
How to Draw Scales
September
Sketchtember
If you find the other drawing challenges a little bit intimidating and too time-consuming, try this one. Produce a sketch every day, using the prompt list to save time. Every doodle counts! The hashtag is #sketchtember.
October
Inktober
This challenge was created by artist Jake Parker with a goal of improving his inking skills. It was warmly welcomed by the artistic community, and now millions of artists follow this challenge every year. It grew so popular that even digital artists started to join it! Use the prompt list (or not) and post a fresh ink drawing every day under the tag #inktober.
How to Shade in a Vintage Style
How to Draw an Octopus Step by Step
How to Draw Different Kinds of Texture With Ink and Nib
Drawlloween
If you love Halloween, you can start celebrating it right on 1 October by following this challenge. The prompt list is full of crazy, spooky ideas that will surely inspire your imagination! The hashtag for this challenge is #drawlloween.
Create Zombie Dragon Concept Art: Design and Sketch
How to Draw a Spider Web Step by Step
How to Draw a Spider, Step by Step
November
DrawDinovember (Dinovember)
If you want to bring your childhood love of dinosaurs back to life, use this challenge for an excuse to draw a dinosaur every day. Use a prompt list, or simply draw your favorite dinosaurs. The tags are #drawdinovember and #dinovember (not to be confused with the original Dinovember).
Huevember
This is a perfect challenge for all artists and designers alike: post something created in a single hue every day, according to the prompt list. This isn't only a chance to explore all hues in your work, but also a unique opportunity to create a rainbow out of your artworks! You can use a consistent theme, or create something new every day. Use the tag #huevember for this.
The 5 Problems With Fundamental Color Theory
Color Fundamentals: Shading
How to Create a Portrait With One Colour in Adobe Illustrator
December
Drawcember
Originally created by an artist who missed Inktober, Drawcember is a universal challenge where you can draw anything you like. Be careful, though—December is a busy month, and it can be a challenge in itself to make it through! The hashtag is #drawcember.
Other Challenges
If you don't like the idea of waiting for a specific month to follow a challenge, there are also other challenges that run all year long.
Daily UI
Finally, something for UI designers! Join the mailing list to receive a prompt every day for 100 days, with a chance to win something after reaching the milestones. Post your works under the hashtag #dailyui.
Daily Logo Challenge
If you're a logo designer, here's a challenge for you: get a new prompt every day for 50 days, and build a portfolio in the meantime! Use the hashtag #dailylogochallenge.
Sharpen.design Generator
If you want to take a challenge on your own terms, use this generator of prompts for as many days as you wish. Doesn't "Design a jacket patch for a monthly vodka subscription box" sound fun and inspiring? With this generator, you'll never run out of ideas! It's not really an official challenge, but you can use the tags #sharpendesign and #madewithsharpen for this.
30-Day Draw-What-You-See Drawing Challenge
There's no better way to understand the basics of drawing objects than by actually drawing them from real life. Even if you want to draw dragons, it's necessary to learn how to draw a light bulb first. So use this prompt list to cover a lot of basic forms without thinking—you'll see yourself getting better over these 30 days!
r/SketchDaily
If you need a fresh drawing idea every day, and you like sharing your work and talking about the works of others, you can use this subreddit—with prompts as posts and artworks posted as comments.
Conclusion
While some of these challenges may seem intimidating, keep in mind that the main goal is to develop a habit of creating. So if you managed to create something every day for a period of time, you already succeeded—even if your works are not outstanding.
Remember that although some of these challenges are monthly themed, you don't have to wait for a specific month to follow them. Sure, it's nice to work alongside a whole community following the same challenge, but if you want to try something right now, you don't have to wait—nobody is stopping you from using the #inktober tag in February!
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