30SAL Challenge: Art & Fear

#30SAL

Big thanks to everyone who is posting, and giving support to others on social media. As of 11pm Jan 2, there are 163 new art posts on Instagram with the #30SAL and lots of comments. This is fantastic! How many will we have on January 31???

Art & Fear

So… I heard some uncertainty and anxiety about the last challenge. It sounds like I wasn’t clear that the additional pattern challenge was optional, and the basic project was just to draw a rooster. If this caused you any stress, I apologize. I will try to be more clear in future posts. In some of these challenges, I may suggest a basic project, plus an extra challenge for intermediate and advanced artists. If you’re just getting started, let the extra suggestions roll right off, and find something that is enough of a challenge to engage you, but not so much that it causes stress, or worse: stops you from doing the challenge.

If you find that you get anxious about drawing or making artworks, it’s alright. Anxiety is not required, but it is totally normal. “This is stupid.” “I’m stupid.” “I don’t know how to do this.” “I’m not a real artist.” These are some of the voices commonly rattling people’s heads when they sit down to draw. I still get anxious when I think about starting a new project. For me, the hardest part is starting. Once I am into it, I start to enjoy my materials, the curiosity takes over, and the anxiety takes a back seat. But starting does take a combination of carrot and stick…. and then I need a lot of glue. Sometimes the carrot is a material I find delicious. (Not all artists like drawing with cheap pencils on cheap paper! Believe it or not, I can’t stand simple pencils. I thought I wasn’t an artist, and it turned out I just needed to try a different material. Thank goodness for oil paint!) Sometimes that stick is a deadline. To provide the glue, a good art buddy can sometimes do the trick. When I’m alone, I often listen to audiobooks while I work because the dialogue takes the anxious chattery part of my mind and keeps it busy. There are a lot of little tricks that help get us get through the hard bits, but more than anything I find it’s helpful to know that all the fears I have are normal.

If the paragraph above rang any bells for you, you might consider reading Art & Fear by David Bayles. That little book has helped a lot of people have a better understanding of their place in the creative process. It helps me relax and feel more comfortable with my processes. It is my top art book, the art book I recommend above all others. Period. Check it out.

Again, the goal is not a perfect drawing. The goal is 20 minutes of creative time. This seems simple, but sometimes it’s not. So grab a stick, a carrot, and a bottle of glue. We’re in this together!

The Challenge

Today, you have your choice of two options. You can draw your fear, or you can draw the solutions to it. For the solutions, create your version of a stick, a carrot, and a bottle of glue. Represent anything that helps you get through the difficult bits. This can be figurative, or literal. You can draw from your head or from life. You can sculpt, or set up an intentional scene. Materials are totally artist’s choice.

Design

Friday is design day, so here is your extra design challenge: have some part of the objects touch or go off the edge of the paper on at least 3 sides. Touching the edges turns the negative space into a compositional shape, which naturally helps you see better how to improve your compositions. “Lines off the sides” means no objects floating free in the middle of a blank background. The image below by Sir Arthur Wesley Dow is an example of improving your composition by going off the edges.

When you’re finished with your session, post your project with our new shorter tag: #30SAL This will make it so we can find your project online.

If you want to, you can copy and paste these 30 tags to your posts:

#drawingchallenge #drawing #art #illustration #sketch #artchallenge #drawings #artist #draw #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #instaart #drawthisinyourstyle #artwork #drawingoftheday #dailydrawing #inkdrawing #drawingsketch #artoftheday #myart #pencildrawing #drawthisinyourstylechallenge #creativity #creativechallenge #designchallenge #mixedmedia #artistlife #artjournal #seattleartistleague #artfear

Go get ’em!