There are so many daily challenges around you could chuck a stick and hit a handful.  Challenges which last a week, a month, 100 days or a year are abound, you just need a fleeting glance at Instagram and the Interwebs to find the one for you.

The first daily challenge I found and did for 2 or 3 years was Fat Mum Slim‘s Photo-A-Day challenge which is still going strong and I would like to say that it was one of the first daily prompt based challenges.  Take a photo a day using prompts suggested by the blog and post them to Instagram. Simples.

I started to see more of these challenges as I started to do them, I am sure they have always been around, it is just I wasn’t looking. Isn’t it always the way, you see what you are looking for.

Challenges for hand lettering, painting, sketching, taking photos, taking photos of only one colour, sketching with a specific material, art journaling, they are all out there and I have done lots of them including ‘do what you want’ challenges like The 100 Day Project.

I have found that with help of ‘daily challenges’ I have managed to fit in some creativity every day, usually a piece of art of some description which makes me very happy because I have always thought that I didn’t have the time and why bother anyway. I can now affirm that bothering to make art or take a photo or whatever you decide to do every day is well worth it because you improve and create your own style just by doing it. Coming back day after day, even with prompts from other people, you will always bring a little bit of yourself and end up with new techniques, new experiences a gorgeous style and if you are lucky some new friends and be part of a creative online community.

Some challenges I have completed are –

Creative Bug draw a day.  This is a monthly challenge which I have not done every month but I have completed some of them and they are very fun, great prompts with a mini video to accompany each day.  Each month is driven by a different artist and every month there is something to learn.

Tinkersketch is a prompt driven monthly sketch/paint/collage challenge hosted by the fabulous Tinkerlab blog. I have completed some months and started some for this challenge! In February I finished a Tinkersketch month in an altered book which was a really interesting way for me to work through the month following the prompts in my book. The Tinkersketch challenge is usually three or four months of the year and I recommend keeping an eye on their blog to see when the next one is.

Get Messy is an art journaling community and they work in seasons of prompts which are revealed each week for a ‘season’ of six weeks. Get Messians are encouraged to complete at least one art journal page per week and share with the community.  This commitment is enough for me to work on pages each week in my art journal. I only joined Get Messy in January of this year and I had never previously worked in an art journal and I love the learning process and the creativity along the way.

One of my favorite daily challenges has to be The 100 day Project which I completed last year when I did 100 Mandalas.  This year I looked forward to the project again and I altered 100 vintage playing cards.  What I love about this project is the sheer body of work by the end of the 100 days.

August Break is a photo challenge hosted by Susannah Conway and it is a nice creative challenge for the summer.

A new one I am going to try in October is INKtober which has been running for a few years and I have seen it before but I have never been confident enough with drawing to join in previously.  This year I am ready to give it a go!  There are  official prompts for INKtober and this year Jar of Salt has also provided some prompts which will help with the days of indecision.

Do you partake in any daily challenges?  Any to recommend?

Happy Friday x