So one of the things I realised late last year was that I was spending way too much time on social media/marketing, and not nearly enough time creating art. So in the spirit of a new year, I decided to set an art challenge for myself to complete 25 tropical-inspired nature images.

This was my first ever art challenge, and I initially thought I would get this done in a few weeks. In the end it has taken me a couple of months but it has been such a good exercise, and I’ve learnt quite a few things.

One thing I really wanted to do was push myself to use art materials I wasn’t familiar with, which also pushed me to experiment with different styles.

I found that I would spend a few hours to complete some artworks, whereas other artworks would take me half an hour or less.

My favourite materials are probably watercolour pencils, as I just love drawing realistically and with colour. I created quite a few mixed media pieces too, as I tend to collect art materials based on their colour! For example, I love using blue food colouring as it is such a vivid blue, and also for really bright pink I can’t go past Dylusions Ink Spray in Bubblegum Pink.

It was the first time I have tried to create abstract backgrounds for some of the artworks, and this was pretty fun and something I want to get better at!

I used my own photographs as much as possible for reference images, and discovered that by drawing or painting an image from a holiday etc, it created a much more memorable image than the photo itself. For artworks where I didn’t have a good reference image, I used the fantastic website Unsplash.

So here is my complete set of artworks – looking at this set I realise my style swings between either realism or something more abstract. I definitely have more ideas I want to explore now!

I’d love to know what you think! Has this inspired you to start your own creative challenge??

art art challenge drawing illustration mixed media nature painting tropical