How I Did Not Participate in a Challenge

For several years in a row, I enjoyed participating in a #30X30directwatercolor challenge. It was created several years ago by two unstoppable artists Uma Kelkar and Marc Taro Holmes. The original rule was that during the month of June, one would create 30 sketches with watercolor but without any help from the line-making tools (pencil, pen, etc.)  I've enjoyed bending the rules to work in gouache and did this challenge for several years in a row concentrating on a solid block of work done in a short period - like an art sprint in the middle of the year! 

In 2017 I did 30 tiny gouaches, in 2018 I did 30 drawings made with 20 brushstrokes or less, in 2019 I did 30 mini gouache paintings, in 2020 I did a bunch of interiors and virtual traveling from photos and livestreams, I was traveling to Ukraine in June 2021 so I skipped that year and the next year the war entered our lives.

This year things did not align for me to do this challenge however I did the next best thing I could: I kept the challenge on my radar:

1. During this June I tried to follow the #30x30directwatercolor hashtag on instagram and check out facebook group to comment on some of the works that others were making. I looked at what goals people were pursuing, and how they were managing to keep the rhythm (as anyone who did even a week-long challenge knows, there are always ups and downs in motivation, quality, and support in any challenges). 

2. Every time I had a little bit of extra time and/ or energy - I tried to do something in the spirit of the challenge - even if it was a tiny thing. 

The way I think about challenges - they are great but sometimes too much of a commitment for a particular person or time of their life. So one can "try it on" while they are happening - as you would try a shirt you might want to buy sometime in the future. It surely is different from doing a whole thirty drawings. But you might get a feel and perhaps even jot down some ideas for how to make it joyful and sustainable when the time comes and you are ready.

Here are some of my June examples - I've shared Jacaranda sketches and poppies before - but adding them here as an example for this particular conversation. 

 

One Week 100 People: 2024

This challenge (#oneweek100people) was organized and curated this year (again) by Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes. The idea is to give your people-sketching skills a little boost. There are no rules apart from what is in the name of this challenge. I did not set any specific rules for myself except to try and sketch people every day during the week and see how many I would end up with - no pressure to get to the number was my thing.

After I started with some passers-by whom I saw in the window on Monday I realized that I lived in the wrong place to find so many subjects and quickly devised a plan: I scanned my weekly plan for things that I planned to do anyway but which had a potential of seeing people and introduced a little extra time to those activities for sketching. Some of it was in person, some or online, some involved attending a lecture, some watching a sport. And I also looked into my options for aligning this with an idea of finding like-minded people - this is how I ended up joining pencils4tea on Thursday and Suhita's substack group on Friday. 

you can see all the results below - however number I got to I am happy to count this as a successful challenge - I drew more people, made a bunch of mistakes and tried to correct some and had fun along the way :) 

One Week 100 People: 2021

This challenge was organized and curated this year (again) by Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes. The idea of this little race is to give your people-sketching skills a boost. 

I think about it as an opportunity to remind myself how much I enjoy sketching people - even when they are not too excited about it :) 

Most of the people I interact with these days I see on the video calls - so I've done some of those:

 

And I did most of my work from the crazy-wonderful collages of Pelle Cass - trying to follow the story that he is weaving through the mash-up of these sporting events. I had a timer every time and did my best to look at the image more than at the paper. I tried find some rhythm in the way I re-shuffled figures for my collage, looking for simplified bodies.

I also found some people to draw from real life:

All in all - I did more than a hundred but I hope to work completely from life next year. Goes without saying that I miss the days when going to a cafe or library or standing on a street and sketching was easy and simple and something I would do in between other things. 

June as a month of mini gouaches

June was the month of 30x30directwatercolor challenge which was hosted this year by Marc Holmes (who created this challenge a couple of years ago) and Uma Kelkar. A whole bunch of people worked through 30 days of June without using lines with the watercolors (visit the FB page!), and I did the same with gouache.

You can view all of these here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/albums/72157709417718421

Things that were helpful:
1. Having a mini gouache kit (se photo below) ready in my pocket most of the time so that even 5 minutes while running errands might give me a change to make a tiny sketch.
2. Not having either pencil or pen in that kit to avoid temptation.
3. Separating painting these little gouaches from all other stuff (after a few days the idea of doing something else in my sketchbook was too inviting)
4. Organizing some time to paint something in a completely different technique or with different materials.
5. Setting my expectations low enough so that even a couple of strawberries would work as a subjects or a very fast and wet in wet sketch of the flowers would still count. Ultra small size paintings (1.5" x 1" literally). Some days are like that and I have to be OK with it in order to survive.

Things I wish I did differently:
1. I think having more people and pets as subjects would be a lot of fun.
2. I think I would enjoy working on larger pieces next time.
3. I think next year I will try and do it with watercolors actually. Gouache allows for corrections through it's opaque nature and it took some edge of the challenge for me.

See how I did this challenge last year:
https://blog.apple-pine.com/2018/07/30x30-direct-watercolor-challenge-at.html
https://blog.apple-pine.com/search?q=30+mini+gouaches

here is my very portable gouache kit: