Vol 5. Rising to the Hashtag Challenge
The Substack formerly known as The Paint Wasters' Club. In this post, some thoughts on hashtag challenges for artists, a sketchbook prompt, and a YouTube recommendation.
PSA: My virtual studio sale is going on now with a small selection of original watercolors on access. Substack readers get first dibs. Use password “secret.”
In second grade, the art teacher noted on my report card that I didn’t follow directions. Clearly, the comment stung because I’m 44 years old and I still remember it.
I don’t know what I did to prompt this criticism, but I do know that I was already taking after-school art lessons at that time. I suspect that during our once-weekly elementary school art classes I was doing things I learned in my after-school classes and therefore not doing what my school teacher wanted, or, and I hate to admit this, telling her she was wrong because she was advising things that didn’t fit with what Miss Pat taught me. My parents were not concerned about her comment and were only supportive of me, their budding artist, still, I took that feedback very seriously, and I’d like Mrs. Carver to know that in the years since second grade, I have become the Best Direction Follower Ever.
In fact, I have become problematically, dogmatically concerned with following directions and doing things the right way. I have no idea how I went from being a seven-year-old who did her own thing and directions be damned to being an adult who clings to directions like a lifeline, but there you have it. Maybe it has to do with being a people pleaser?
Following directions has some upsides. I have a reputation for being a good cook. My secret: I can follow a recipe! I mean, I can really follow a recipe. I don’t take creative license in the kitchen. I don’t improvise. I weigh and measure, I set timers, and I use a thermometer to check temperatures. I am as precise as a chemist. I taught myself Photoshop by following YouTube tutorials. This week I followed the directions for hand-sewing a hem with entirely adequate results. Give me clear directions and there’s nothing I can’t do!
Okay, I can’t dunk a basketball no matter how good your directions are. But within my physical limitations, I am damn good at taking instruction.
My love of directions probably explains my interest in hashtag art challenges, which basically boil down to art prompts with rules and deadlines. I’m also a huge fan of deadlines—I think they are the key to productivity—so I am a perfect candidate for hashtag challenges.
Except for one small problem: I can’t seem to get excited about them. I’ve tried jumping into various challenges: #PaintYourStyle, where the hosts give you a photo reference and then you paint it in your own style and share it within the week; #Landscapeartclub, where the hosts give you several references of a location and then you paint it and share it within a week; #FloralOctober (or whatever month it was. I don’t remember, I only know I only last two days), where you paint a different flower every day. These all sound like a great idea until it’s time to post my work on Instagram.
You see, I have a tortured relationship with Instagram. That’s a post for another day, but for today I’ll leave it at this: I do not feel any genuine sense of community on Instagram. I use it. I share stuff. I get sad when the stuff I share appears to be seen by only 2 or 3 of my few hundred followers. And then I share some more stuff and hope it’ll go better.
The idea behind hashtag challenges is that they help you engage with a community, but I find the platform isn’t good at facilitating that engagement. Even if you follow a hashtag, you might not see many of the other people’s posts. Even if you follow the hosts or other participants, you only see their stuff when the algorithm decides to show it to you. And let’s face it, I like faster feedback than that. I want to post something and get responses right away, and I want to see what others are doing, too!
Which is possibly why the only hashtag challenge I’ve been able to complete successfully is the #20for20ArtChallenge. This is a challenge hosted several times a year by Kelly Anne Powers, creator of the excellent Learn to Paint Podcast. The idea is to set aside 20 minutes a day for 20 days to focus on painting or some related part of your art practice to build a consistent art habit. What’s brilliant about it is that the Learn to Paint Podcast community in the Facebook group is super engaged. It’s a hashtag challenge, which is sort of an Instagram thing, but for me Facebook is the reason it’s fun!
For me, the groups function of Facebook is the best thing about social media. Before I became part of a few thoughtful and supportive Facebook groups, it was just a place where I kept in touch with distant relatives who otherwise might become long lost. Now it’s a place where I find my art people, and specific challenges like #20for20 are a great way to connect with others.
They are also a great way to do some deliberate practice. (ICYMI, I talked about the importance of deliberate practice back in Volume 3)
For instance, in the spring, I used the #20for20artchallenge to get out of my sketchbook and make finished paintings. I wrote about my experience in depth in an interview for the Learn to Paint Podcast blog, which you can read here.
On September 20, I finished my second #20for20artchallenge. The second time around I had a very different approach: I was working in a sketchbook of pre-painted pages and exploring some mixed media. My deliberate practice in this case was that I was trying a brand new technique for 20 days.
I had been interested in the idea of pre-painting—or toning—sketchbook pages for a while. Basically, you add thin layers of color and texture to your pages in a random, unplanned way with no idea of what you’ll eventually put on those pages. Then, when you sit down to paint or go out sketching, you figure out how to incorporate the color and texture on the page with your subject matter, or how to make your subject matter work with the page.
I chose this for my twenty-day challenge because one of my goals with my art practice right now is to find ways to be more expressive. It turns out that being the Best Direction Follower Ever is limiting for an artist. I’ve spent the past two years learning watercolor techniques and improving my drawing skills, and I’ve done that by being a great direction follower. Now, as I enter year 3 of my watercolor practice, I’m ready to shake off some of those directions from other artists and find my own style.
I knew that having toned paper would force me to make choices I otherwise would not make—for instance deviating from “realistic” colors and instead of using colors that work with shades I had already used to tone the paper, or manipulating the placement of items away from their “real” orientation to better work with the background of the toned page.
In my next post, I’ll share some of the tips and tricks I’ve figured out for working with pre-toned paper. Stay tuned! But for now, have you participated in hashtag challenges? How did you like them? Tell me in the comments!
This Week’s Sketchbook Prompt
This week’s sketchbook prompt is all about being expressive and the directions are quite simple: Paint your subject using the “wrong” colors. Instead of painting things the color they are in life, paint them to reflect the mood you want to create. Forget the “rules” about color and see what happens. (Does anyone else remember the Harry Chapin song “Flowers Are Red”?)
Three ways you might want to choose your colors:
Monochrome — Use different values of a single color
Complementary — Use only two complementary colors, maybe allowing one to be dominant with just pops of the other.
Analogous — Use three colors that are near one another on the color wheel. In my example below, I used magenta and blue and a muted green. They aren’t quite analogous but they are close.
The reference photo for my Gloucester painting was rather bland. I took it on a gray, low-contrast day. What I most loved in the reference was actually the seagulls swooping around that fishing boat. Even though I know they are just gulls, they have look whimsical in live view on my iPhone. For that reason, I decided to go with magenta as my dominant color, because it’s a magical sort of color.
Have fun with this one! And use the comments to let me know how it goes!
YouTube Recommendation
If you are interested in playing with toned paper, check out Ohn Mar Win’s YouTube challenge. I definitely watched a lot of her videos as I was thinking about how best to use this technique! Win also has many excellent Skillshare classes.
Here’s a referral link you can use to try Skillshare for one month for free!
Studio Sale
And last thing for today, early access to my annual studio sale is now underway for Substack readers. Use code “secret” to check it out at this link.
Lovely, interesting post. I share many of your feelings about IG and FB.