10 lessons I learned doing art challenges on Instagram

I’ve recently participated in two Instagram challenges – in actual fact, one of them is still going and I have less than 20 days left to go! So, I thought I’d share 10 lessons I’ve learned from doing these art challenges.

I started out with the 100 day project #the100dayproject, which is the one that is still going. This project happens every year and is a global art project. Basically you commit to doing something creative for 100 days, along with sharing on Instagram daily.

To quote myself, my committment was:

‘to build myself a creative habit by doing art every day, finding my creative self along the way, and also learning some skills that are useful for instagram like reels and videos (scary stuff!)’

The other challenge was a month long one, which had a bit of a different focus. This was April for artists #aprilforartists, run by fail like an artist, in which you were given a prompt every day during April. Some of them were about learning to talk about yourself and your art, and some were learning new skills (like reels, live videos and so on – useful I thought at the time! lol). Others were about sharing your art work.

So, there was a period of time where I was posting at least twice daily, which was an interesting experience!

I’m proud to say that I posted every day in the April for artists challenge, and to date, I’ve posted every day in the 100 day project as well (being this close to 100, I can’t see that changing!)

So, what have I learnt in my so far 82 days of participating in challenges????

10 things I learned doing art challenges

Let’s start with the easy stuff!

1. It’s fun, it’s really good fun (especially at the beginning when it’s all shiny and new haha). Not only do you get to do something creative, but you get to share it with the world. You also work out how you want to do that in a way that fits with your personality, your values and your ability.
   
2. You get to ‘meet’ other artists (at least virtually). I have met some awesome people through both challenges that I have really connected with. As most of us become a bit isolated when we are creating, it’s a great chance to make connections and have others to interact with, bounce ideas off of and learn as well!
   
3. You get to support other artists and receive support yourself. I took the opportunity to check out as many other people’s work as I could, through searching the hashtags associated with the challenges. I got to see so much that I wouldn’t normally have the chance to see. I like to go and comment on others work when I think it’s awesome, answer their questions when they ask and just generally see what’s going on in the art world. So many other artists supported me through the challenges, by providing good feedback and constructive feedback, answering my questions and asking me questions as well. I have to say that I thought being on social media might be a bit traumatic, with others criticising and judging. However, within the artistic community, that wasn’t the case at all, and I never saw a bad word said, in all of my posts, and all the posts that I looked at.
   
4. It’s such a good way to keep getting inspiration. If you have a block, a challenge that has daily prompts is definitely going to help you find something to do each day. Along with that, just looking at all the different things that people were doing in the 100 day challenge gave me so many ideas that I can’t see myself running out of inspiration until at least 2030 (hehe). And people weren’t only posting art, there was also photography, crafts, illustration, cartoons, food and a whole host of other things that really surprised me! People’s thoughts were also really inspiring, and made me look at a lot of things in totally different ways, ways I’d never considered before. I’m one of those geeks that likes to read all the information that someone posts with their picture – I think it’s the stories that I love!
   Below you can see a couple of finished paintings in styles that were new to me.
   
5. A daily creative habit. This doesn’t mean that it’s always doing art. It can be watching a youtube video, taking a class, documenting things I’d like to paint, learning how to document my processes and updating my website (finally! lol). It’s getting into the mindset of art. It’s prioritising what is most important to you. In my case, that is firstly, exercise, and secondly my art practice and developing business (outside of relationships, which, of course, come first!)
   
6. It’s hard work to create every day. When you are committed to a challenge, you feel more obligated to show up every day (well, I did, anyway). But …. LIFE! So, probably if I wasn’t doing the challenges, I may have not shown up every single day. I think there have been maybe 4 or 5 days, when life just got the better of me, and I didn’t have time to actually create. As it was a challenge, I ended up showing previous work and things like that. But it is hard sometimes, and I think that applies whether you are doing a challenge, or running a business, or working or looking after your family – sometimes, something just has to give. AND, that’s ok!!
   
7. Build rest into your week. Following on from no. 6, I read a book by Beth Pickens, called Make Your Art No Matter What, where she postulated that artists should make sure they build in time out every week. I’ve now decided that once the 100 day project is over, I’ll be building in 1 or 2 days off a week. It’s just like a job – we all have weekends when we’re working (or certain days when we don’t work). We need this time, so we don’t burn out. When you burn out, you can’t be the same creative force as when you are refreshed, and your work will suffer. So, if you’re not doing this already – have a good think about it (and go and read Beth’s book!)
   
8. A challenge won’t necessarily build your client list. The challenges are really, really good for connecting with likeminded people eg other artists. But, unless an art collector knows about the challenges and is specifically looking for something to buy through a challenge, it won’t help you to get buyers. This is not really a downside, more something to be aware of, and something I had to learn and realise. You need to separate the two sides – your connection with other artists and the support that provides you, and finding your collectors, your tribe of patrons and supporters, the people that will buy what you are making and creating. The challenge is great for you to get used to putting yourself and your work out there; for practising things on people who are going to understand and to get to understand yourself and the market. But it won’t necessarily help you sell any art.
   
9. It can help you to start to create the stories around yourself and your art. Stories are important in getting people to connect with you. We all love stories, whether we realise it or not. The story of you, how you came to be how you are, the creator and artist, is really vital to your success. If you can’t tell it, people won’t get to know you, they won’t be able to tell if they can trust you, and they won’t know if you’re one of ‘their’ people. It also helps you to be able to tell the stories around your artwork, your processes, your reason for doing what you do. In particular for me the April for artists challenge really helped with that – some of the prompts were things like what is your inspiration?; where did you start?; what is your background?; what are your aspirations? Some of those things I had never considered before, but I also realised that people are really interested in those things, rather than in just solely looking at a picture of your art work.
   
10. It improves your work. Simply by doing art every day, you HAVE to improve. It’s impossible not to. I’m really looking forward to going back over everything after the 100 days is up, and looking at my development. I’ve deliberately not done it yet – I want to wait to the very end, just so I can see without any preconceived ideas. But, I already feel like there is improvement. If nothing else, it’s about my confidence levels. I’m not afraid to show my work. I’m not afraid to say that something hasn’t worked. I’m not afraid to try and rework something. I’m not afraid to try something completely new if it inspires me. All of those are improvements from my pre-challenge days! That’s gotta be good, right?

So, what’s the upshot of that?

I say, if you’ve never done it, give it a go. If you don’t want to commit to something long like the 100 day project, find another small challenge. I’ve seen some that are only a few days or a week long. Most are probably about a month long. One thing’s for sure, it can’t hurt you – it can only help you!

Best of luck, and let me know if you have done or choose to do a challenge and let me know the hashtag, so I can go check it out! Most of all, let me know what YOU learn from doing art challenges!

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