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??
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