Technical & Creative
The Art Challenges Workshop

As artists, it is often our greatest woe that we are not better than we currently are. When haven't we looked at our work and gone, "I wish I could have done it better..." or looked at someone else's work and said, "I wish I could do something like that."

We know that the best way to improve is practice and study, but sometimes it's difficult to find time (or make time) to do so. And critique is a wonderful tool towards improving - even as painful as it can be to ask for help (or receive it) sometimes.

This workshop is designed to give you completely optional challenges each month and hopefully attract artists of all skill levels to learn from and to learn with. Each month will feature one "technical" challenge, geared towards improving a certain skill set and one "creative" challenge, designed to inspire you to create. You are free to do one challenge, the other, or combine both into the same piece (if possible). You are welcome to ask for critique or simply share your final piece if you're not ready for critique just yet.

I hope you'll find the workshop useful and interesting and I will do my best to participate as often as I can myself.

Rules and Guidelines:

These will hopefully allow for us all to get along quite well together. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in-thread or by PM. I'll do my best to explain. :yes:

Posting Rules:
0) Follow Menewsha site rules and TOS.
1) Keep in mind the Art Post Rules.

Pay particular attention to the following -

• Post only your own artwork.
• Do not trace or eyeball/sight-copy someone else's work.
• Credit where necessary.
• No flaming.
• PG-13 content, please!

Critique and Feedback Guidelines:
0) Please use the form provided for your piece. This keeps things tidy and means your piece is less likely to get lost in the shuffle of chatter.

1) Only ask for help if you truly mean you want it.

I've seen a lot of artists say critique was accepted, and then get offended at actually getting it - and the person giving the critique was not at all out of line in the way they gave it! None of that, please. If you just want to hear "nice work!" then do not mark your work as "critique accepted".

2) When asking for critique, try to separate yourself from your work, please.

It is not an automatic attack if someone sees a flaw in your artwork. Even many flaws. Most critiquing is done purely from the wish to see you improve. You do not necessarily have to act on someone's feedback and change things. And there's certainly no need to feel defensive about it.
If you are still "in love" with the piece, I honestly ask you not to post it and allow critique. It is much more difficult to accept critique when done on a piece you're still very happy with. Give it a "honeymoon" period, please.

3) When giving critique, please be courteous and clear.

I'm not saying you have to "coddle" people and give them cookies and milk and apologize every other word. Try to soften your bluntness and never attack the artist. There is a distinct difference between, "The way you draw hands sucks." and "You will definitely need to work on hands. Fingers need joints to work. I suggest taking the 100 hands challenge." The first is rude and not entirely clear on what needs improving; the second is blunt, but offers an indication of what direction the artist can go in to improve.

4) This sounds awful but please - try never to say a piece is perfect and doesn't need anything done to it.

Nine times out of ten, it's simply empty flattery. Flattery rarely helps people improve and empty flattery actually actively hurts (either because people think there is nothing to improve and never learn to see the flaws - or because the artist realizes it's empty flattery and feels insulted, disappointed or frustrated with the lack of help).

Submission Form:
Please use this form when sharing art pieces so that everyone is clear on what's going on. :)

Image: Inline or linked image to be viewed.
Challenge: Which challenge are you attempting?
Stage: Is it a final piece? A work-in-progress (WIP)?
Critique Welcome?: Yes or no. If you want critique of a particular kind or want the person or people critiquing to ignore something, please say so. Unless you specifically say otherwise, it is assumed that "redlines" or "bluelines" are welcome. If you don't wish for people to do that, please ask them not to.

[b][u]Image[/u][/b]:
[b][u]Challenge[/u][/b]:
[b][u]Stage[/u][/b]:
[b][u]Critique Welcome?[/u][/b]:

This Month's Challenges

These are the challenges for the months of May and June together (as the month is in progress already. >_>). You are free to accept them and work on them both - or work on only one... Or combine them into the same piece (if possible).

You do not have to apologize for not being able to a challenge because of being busy... I'm busy too. D: Do them when you can. :3 I hope they're interesting! And I hope if you don't have time to try them yourself that you consider sticking around the thread and offering feedback and critique to the other artists. :)

The challenges will likely vary in complexity and difficulty. You are welcome to suggest your own challenges in-thread at any time. I'll keep a list of them off-site. I reserve the right to tweak them, though. :ninja:

Technical Challenge:

This month, I challenge you to draw a single character/person displaying at least ten distinct facial expressions. (For a more difficult challenge - go full-body and include the expression with their entire bodies!) They should all look like the same character/person. You may do this in any style, including photo-realism. Please package them together with multiple expressions per image and try to remember to label them.

Here are fifteen expressions you might wish to use. But don't feel restrained to only the ones I list:
Happy, Gleeful, Irritated, Angry, Sad, Anguished, Sleepy, Surprised, Horrified, Grossed-Out, Blushing, Excited, Flirting, Sneaky/Sly, Sneering.

You may also find this "25 Essential Expressions" sheet by Deviantartist napalmnacey useful for this challenge.

The Grimace Project is another online tool that allows you to customize expressions on a simple default face to help you with conveying the expression you're after.

Technical challenges are designed to push you to do things that improve your skills. Sometimes the challenges are easier than others - that largely depends on the artist's own skills. Someone who is good at characters may not be so good on background elements. Sometimes a particular media (like watercolor or pixels) may be asked for.

Creative Challenge:

For this challenge, I ask for you to create or invoke the "Spirit of Bamboo".
It's up to you how you interpret this challenge. Is it a literal spirit? A ghostly fairy? Or will you draw a field of bamboo? Or a person holding a stick of bamboo?

Creative challenges are designed to inspire. You are free to take them wherever your creativity wishes them to go. Enjoy!

Challenges Archive

This is an archive of all previous challenges from The Technical and Creative Workshop. You are welcome and encouraged to try them again or to try them for the first time if you missed them. :)

The archive is currently empty, as we've only just begun!

Running Challenges

These Challenges are considered on-going because they take a lot more time than one often has in a month. Feel free to suggest more of these. :)

1) The 100 Hands Challenge
Draw 100 hands. Very simple. >_> At least 50 of these should be drawn from real life. The other 50 of which you can draw in your own personal style, though I strongly recommend that if you don't normally draw from life that you do all 100 of them from life. Number each hand in the order you drew it so you can track your progress.

Why: This is the body part most artists have the most problem with. Hands are hard! Anyone who says different has probably spent a lot of time mastering them - or doesn't care to do so. But avoiding drawing them isn't going to help you. Drawing them realistically allows you to really see how they are constructed and allows for no shortcuts.

Examples: CK's hand studies - If you look at them by number, you can see how I improved from my first hand to the one I drew last.


2) The 100 Feet Challenge
It is exactly the same as the 100 hands challenge, only with feet (which are about the second-most common problem spot for artists). I haven't taken that one yet. >_>;

Terms

These are some terms that you may not be familiar with but will probably be used frequently here. I'll sort them by alphabetical order. If you have any questions about what we mean when we say something, please feel free to ask for an explanation! Commonly confused terms will be explained here.

---

Blueline - Term for when another artist sketches over the artwork of someone else in order to show a suggestion of how to improve the artwork.
In some artistic circles, it is used only to show corrections or suggestions to outer-shapes (ie: how clothing hangs, how hair moves, how a muscle group is shaped; etc) - however, how each artist works is different and they may use a different color than blue.

CG - Short for "computer generated" or "computer graphics". Used to refer to pieces that have been colored in the computer, either by mouse or by tablet.

Flat Colors - Generally meant to say that the artwork has no highlights or shadows added to the colors yet. The colors are "flat" and have been given no "depth" yet.

GIMP - A free art program.

IP - Short for "in-progress". This is to refer to a piece that is still being worked on, for example, "This is an IP - I'm not done with the hair yet."

OC - Probably short for "OpenCanvas", an art program.

PS - Probably short for "Photoshop", an art program.

Redline - Like "blueline" - it is a term used for when an artist sketches over the work of another in order to show corrections or suggestions for improvement for the work.
In some artistic circles, it is used only to show corrections or suggestions to under-shapes (ie: how a body works under clothes, the shape of the skull under hair or a hat, the skeletal structure of a person; etc) - however, how each artist works is different and they may use a different color than red.

SAI - An art program.

WIP - Short for "work in progress". This may refer to any stage of the process, from sketch to nearly finished.

Showcase

This is where I will display pieces of artwork produced from the challenges if I feel they deserve special recognition.

Win Free Contribution Items!

Yep - you read that correctly, though there's a catch. This is something I will be doing personally, out of my own pocket unless someone out there wants to donate to this project.

People who participate in this Workshop will earn points. I'm not going to tell you who earned points or how many. You either trust me to be honest, or you don't, frankly. XD And since I don't make much money as I don't have a regular job, I can't afford to be super-generous, to be honest. XD; Not at the moment, anyway.

Here are some things that will earn you points:

• Simple participation in the art challenges.
  Just sharing your finished piece will earn you points.
• Outstanding participation in the art challenges.
  Not only did you participate, but you took the challenge seriously and really pushed yourself to your limits - and succeeded.
• Thoughtful critique and feedback given to other artists.
  That's right - you don't have to participate in a single challenge and still earn points towards free CIs.
• Completing any of the "Running Challenges".
  The completion of challenges like 100 hands and 100 feet show true dedication to improving your art.
• Keeping the thread alive.
  I'm not asking for people to bump. Don't do that. But being on-topic in this thread, sharing artwork and commenting on/critiquing others' posted artwork is very much appreciated.

Generally, the free CIs earned will be the current month's CIs - but if I'm running short during a particular month or maybe know a regular, contributing, hard-working, improving member of the Workshop is Questing for a particular CI and I happen to have an extra I'm willing to part with - I will.

Reserved 1

Reserved 2

Reserved 3

Reserved 4

Reserved 5

Reserved 6

Here are your challenges for this month!

Technical:
This month, I challenge you to draw a single character/person displaying at least ten distinct facial expressions. (For a more difficult challenge - go full-body and include the expression with their entire bodies!) They should all look like the same character/person. You may do this in any style, including photo-realism. Please package them together with multiple expressions per image and try to remember to label them.

Here are fifteen expressions you might wish to use. But don't feel restrained to only the ones I list:
Happy, Gleeful, Irritated, Angry, Sad, Anguished, Sleepy, Surprised, Horrified, Grossed-Out, Blushing, Excited, Flirting, Sneaky/Sly, Sneering.

You may also find this "25 Essential Expressions" sheet by Deviantartist napalmnacey useful for this challenge.

The Grimace Project is another online tool that allows you to customize expressions on a simple default face to help you with conveying the expression you're after.

Creative:
For this challenge, I ask for you to create or invoke the "Spirit of Bamboo".
It's up to you how you interpret this challenge. Is it a literal spirit? A ghostly fairy? Or will you draw a field of bamboo? Or a person holding a stick of bamboo?



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Please feel free to post, ask questions, and make suggestions for future challenges. :)

i will definitely try this out once i get around to it :D

Oh this is interesting CK ^^

I think i'll come here and give a helping hand :ninja:

Will be excited to see what you produce! :3 I'm going to make time to do at least one of the two challenges myself. :3

EDIT: And yay - Tre. :3

This sounds like it'll be really helpful, as well as a lot of fun. :D
I'm definately in~

Finally, something to help me during my drawing slump. I'm looking forward to participating and seeing what other's produce.

Awesomesauce. XD I'm really glad to have you guys on-board!

Feel free to suggest future challenges for either the technical or creative challenges. :3

OMG this is a great idea!

Thanks colorful set. :) I can't take complete credit for this, exactly. I have seen similar challenge threads on other sites (not avatar sites, but I haven't looked) and ran one for about two years on LiveJournal with a friend. :)

So I have had experience doing this before, too. ;3

OMG
XB
Then I might copy you and incorporate this on my art forum.
;D

::laughs:: I don't mind. XD The more people are assisted in drawing/challenged to improve and learn new things the better, right? :3 More pretties for me to see. :3

Just as long as you don't copy my exact posts, it's cool. XD