Design and Art Challenges to Exercise Your Creative Muscles
When you’re sick and tired of routine and looking for something that would help you boost creativity, design and art challenges could be motivating. They are inspiring and fun but also help you stay more productive in times when you can’t leave home to go about your usual activities.
Whether you’d like to have some fun, get inspired, or add more works to your creative portfolio, we’ve created the list of the most interesting design and art challenges of 2020. Get ready to explore them and become more creative and artistic in the process.
Design and art challenges to participate in this season
1. Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine
One of the most popular art challenges during worldwide lockdown is Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine. The task set to its participants is to recreate great artworks with objects found at home. You simply need to choose a masterpiece, take 3 items, and get a little bit creative while rethinking the classic work of art in a contemporary manner.
Since the very beginning of lockdowns, the Instagram account shared over 600 images, and the results are fascinating.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAVPfH6godo/
2. Paint Everyday Like You Mean It
If you already use Skillshare, you definitely know how useful and inspiring their classes could be. With art challenges, there’s no exception. Shannon Gillman Orr, an artist and illustrator, created one with her account. It’s called “Paint Everyday Like You Mean It” and it encourages creatives to start painting at least a couple of minutes on a daily basis. Not only will you enjoy the process but you will also take up painting as a habit.
3. Daily Creative Challenge
Looking to master particular skills with a design challenge? Then these two Daily Creative Challenges on Behance are exactly what you need.
The purpose of this design challenge is to help you build up your skills in Photoshop. Every day you’ll receive a task and learn to use different Photoshop tools. You’ll also be able to join a creative community and get feedback from mentors and industry professionals which is important and productive for your personal work.
Another challenge on Behance is on UI/UX Design. During this time you’ll get nine different tasks that will help you sharpen your skills and give you an opportunity to learn something new. The challenge is held twice a month so if you don’t have time to participate this time, in a while, you’ll definitely get a chance to do so.
4. 100 Days of Pattern
Patterns are everything in art and design. That is why “100 Days of Pattern” is a can’t-miss challenge for creatives. Once you decide to partake, you’ll discover over 15 tasks that will keep you inspired, motivated, and artsy whatever the times are. Drawing, sketching, doodling, painting, and sharing your work – all these things are waiting for you during the “100 Days of Pattern” art challenge.
5. HOMwork
Lauren Hom, a lettering artist, has launched a challenge to help creatives battle their art blocks and stand out online. On her website, you can sign up for a newsletter and receive a task (HOMwork) each Friday. You’ll also get access to free tutorials and guides on lettering and to #HOMwork prompts and their archive as well.
6. 36 Days of Type
Lettering challenges are a lot of fun and we are to share one more. “36 Days of Type” is a design challenge but also a project that invites artists to share their own interpretation of letters and numbers. For each of the 36 days, the participants are asked to create a design and share it on Instagram, using the project’s hashtag #36daysoftype.
There’s also an option for those who don’t want to participate every single day. In this case, you can just design a single letter or number following the “36 Days of Type” calendar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_NrE8ghd_H/
7. Dribbble’s Weekly Warm‑Up
Weekly Warm‑Up is a regular challenge for the Dribbble’s creative community. It’s simple and quick. You get provided with a theme, a format and aesthetic constraints like a color palette to boost your creativity. Then you have a week to exercise your creative muscles and bring a project to life. The tasks are diverse. For instance, this week you have to design a label for a brand of soap.
8. Daily UI
Wondering how to become a better designer in just 100 days? Then try to partake in the “Daily UI” design challenge. You’ll get access to daily tasks, sent from Monday to Friday, and will be able to build up your creative portfolio with a series of new works as a result. What’s even more exciting is that this design challenge is absolutely free.
9. #ToonMe Challenge
#ToonMe is an art challenge held on social media by the artist and illustrator René Córdova. Since the beginning of the year, the challenge took over our feeds and encouraged people to share funny selfies. The idea behind this art challenge is to boost artists’ creativity by asking them to draw a part of their portrait in a particular cartoon technique. Sounds exciting, right?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CASvPxqnEmr/
10. Monthly Challenges by Doodlewash
Doodlewash, a painting and sketching blog, is a popular source of inspiration with challenges for creatives. Every month, it launches a couple of new challenges to help designers, illustrators, and artists practice and finetune their skills. You can review the schedule of art challenges by Doodlewash in advance. This season it includes colorful and on-location sketching, as well as a challenge on watercolor painting.
Participating in these challenges in 2020 is a nice way to spend time when you’re stuck in a creative rut or just want to polish up your skills in design, illustration, or other art-related fields. Some of the design and art challenges on this list are small and fun so that you can take upon yourself a couple of them at the same time.
