5 Reasons You Should Try An #ArtChallenge
Have you ever considered joining an Instagram art challenge, but have yet to follow through? Perhaps you’ve seen people posting this month about #inktober, and been curious to learn more about what it entails. Keep in mind that this is just one example and there are many other similar events throughout the year specifically geared towards artists (#candypaintchallenge, #100daychallenge, #30dayartquarantine, etc). For me, these are reminders of the good that social media can do and what exciting things can happen when artists come together online.
Usually, how it works is that someone or a group of people will act as the host(s) and they think of the prompts for the challenge. For the duration of the month (or however long the event is set for), participating artists will create a new piece that is based on the word, phrase, or reference photo assigned to each day or week. Then, any artist who is taking part simply has to post the finished artwork(s) they made on their feeds with the hashtag for the challenge so that the hosts and other participants can see everyone’s contributions. Beyond doing something different and fun, joining a challenge can actually benefit your career in a number of ways. Here’s how:
1. Exposure
In many cases, the challenges are started by an influencer, institution, or by several accounts working together. This is an excellent opportunity and way to share your work with them. Not only is there a high probability of it being seen by the hosts, but your art can also be discovered by other participants as well as followers of the hosts or the other artists who have joined the challenge. Some artists who lead challenges even end up reposting their favorites, giving others more visibility. You never know who might land on your profile and what connections you could make!
2. Consistency
Especially if you’ve been feeling like you’re in a creative rut, you may find it useful to stick to a routine of making something new every day or week for a short time. It’s not easy, hence calling it a challenge, but it can help build or rebuild habits that will continue to serve you after it ends. It’s a test of discipline in many ways, asking you to carve out time that you weren’t using for art before or redirecting time during your normal studio hours. But since it’s up to you to keep motivated enough to stick to it, when you do reach the end there’s an incredible sense of accomplishment!
Although the challenges tend to abide by established guidelines, there are generally only a few and the majority of these events are self-directed. If you miss a day, start late, or have to end it before the appointed time, there’s no ‘Art Police’ who will come after you for it. You know yourself best. Feel free to adjust the parameters if it’s not working out for whatever reason or to leave it for now and try again later on. It shouldn’t stress you out or feel like a chore.
3. Content
This is an easy one! Since you’ll be making work frequently, it will give you lots to share with your audience. You will have many new in-progress and finished pieces to post as long as you stay consistent with documentation.
OR you can forgo creating new art for content and do a challenge like Andy J. Pizza’s #peptober instead. Creating takes work and doing it every day, even if for a short period of time, can be exhausting. So, this is a way to do a creative challenge without overwhelming yourself with the pressure of producing new work. Examples of his prompts are ‘ask your audience a question’ or ‘share a personal tipping point piece that changed your work forever.’ Hint - you’ll still get a lot of the same benefits even though this challenge focuses more on reflection and writing!
4. Experimentation
For those whose regular practice is labor-intensive or simply takes time, joining a challenge gives you a chance to create in another medium and work more quickly. Try making small paintings, ink sketches, or digital art, depending which one you choose to take part in. Along the same lines, you can also consider picking a challenge with prompts that differ from your typical subject matter. This type of experimenting could boost your creative thinking and ultimately result in inspiration for new work. Sometimes it’s also good to take on something new to give yourself a break and time away from your usual work. This way, you can come back to it with fresh eyes and excitement.
5. Community
As I alluded to above, one of the most positive aspects of art challenges is that it fosters a sense of community between artists. People cheer each other on and get excited about seeing their contributions. It’s one of the things that truly makes social media feel social again.
So, are you convinced about doing a challenge? Let me know if you end up trying it out! :)
Cheers,
Alicia
I’ve been working on something new behind the scenes, which I”ll have details about in my forthcoming article! Stay tuned. In the meantime, I’m always happy to hear feedback from you as well as ideas for career topics to cover. Find more of my writing at www.aliciapuig.com and stay updated with what’s new at the gallery at www.pxpcontemporary.com (FYI - our deadline for new artist submissions is coming up at the end of the year).
