12 Fun Monthly Art Challenges for Instagram, Twitter, and More

Improve your drawing skills and become part of the online art community, by entering these challenges based on different prompts and techniques

An important part of growing your art skills is creating a routine. But when you throw in the other responsibilities of life, it can be hard to get motivated or find ideas. That’s where monthly art challenges come in. These hugely popular themes and prompts occur throughout the year via the art community on social media.

Whether you love inventing mythical creatures, or simply want to scrap up on your life drawing with loose sketches, below you’ll find 12 online art challenges to participate in: one for each month of the year! Post to Instagram, Artstation, Twitter, and other platforms, and share your creativity with like-minded people.

1. January: Doodlewash A-Z

For watercolor enthusiasts, there’s no better place to find daily inspiration than the Doodlewash community. At the start of the month, find a prompt list shared on their Instagram page (@doodlewashed) and join in across whichever social media you like, reconnecting with your inner child and exploring quick, fun watercolor sketches.

Challenges also run each month throughout the year with different themed prompt lists, check out the Doodlewash watercolor and sketching challenges page to get an idea of the schedule.

2. February: Our Planet Week

Asia Orlando (@asiaorlando_) is a digital artist, illustrator, and Domestika teacher who founded Our Planet Week. This one-week illustration movement is a response to the many environmental disasters and shifts experienced by our planet over the last few years, recognizing the contribution art can make to changing our culture.

During the challenge week, every artwork posted to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #ourplanetweek plants a new tree with partner One Tree Planted.

3. March: March of Robots

This community drawing challenge is perfect for sci-fi fans, whether you prefer a cartoon style or detailed, technical drawings. Hosted by @DaCosta_Bayley on Instagram, they have also done giveaways for entrants in the past. You can submit traditional or digital drawings, answering fun prompts like “escape” and “orbit”. Learn more on the official March of Robots website.

4. April: 36 Days of Type

This well-known challenge asks designers, graphic artists, and letterers to create representations of each letter of the Latin alphabet A-Z and numbers 0-9, usually during March and April. Based on Instagram, the best submissions are curated on their official account, @36daysoftype. From the highly organized to the experimental, it’s easy to get lost in the endless type inspiration! Learn more on the 36daysoftype website.

5. May: MerMay

This might be the cutest online challenge (in competition with Junicorn below!). A month dedicated to mermaids, the MerMay competition takes place across Instagram, and other social media such as Twitter and Tik Tok just to have fun and support fellow creatives. Each year they have prizes in illustration and animation categories.

6. June: Junicorn

This is a more casual challenge throughout June around various social media platforms, that often has several prompt lists shared on Instagram and DeviantArt by different artists. Just draw a unicorn each day with the hashtag #junicorn, and like, share, and comment on the illustrations of others.

7. June-July: Kaijūne and Kaijūly

Inspired by the iconic kaijū, giant monsters popular in Japanese cinema, the 30-day challenge was created by character designer Riley Phillips, and in recent years many artists have created alternative prompt lists, such as Alan Cortes (@flancortes on Instagram). Originally starting in June, now you can draw a monster a day in July too, as communities have sprung up during both months. Check out the #kaijune hashtag on Instagram to get inspired.

8. August: Smaugust

Named after Smaug, Tolkien’s famous dragon in The Hobbit, this is another great month-long art challenge for fantasy lovers. You’ll see artists getting involved across social media like Instagram and Twitter, DeviantArt, ArtStation, and more. As with Junicorn, there isn’t one official list but many prompts shared by all sorts of creatives.

9. September: Sketchtember

Taking things back to basics, Sketchtember is a popular event that according to their website focuses on the “simple, gestural, unrefined” sketch. It might be the easiest to get started with, as all you need is a pencil and an idea. Starting out with simple ideas might even lead to other challenges, as you already have some artwork ready to work on.

In fact, we think Sketchtember is the perfect precursor to Domestika’s very own art challenge…

10. October: Inktober

Running for over a decade, and one of the biggest challenges on this list, Inktober is an ink-based drawing challenge through the month of October. It's all about letting creativity flow—whether you choose to draw daily, half the month, every other day, or once a week, the aim is to create a consistent drawing habit.

The challenge is open to both traditional and digital ink drawing, as well as other ink-based art like calligraphy, typography, and lettering.

To get involved, draw something based on the daily corresponding list of prompts and share it with the creative community on social media using the hashtag #inktober or #inktober2022. See the full list of Inktober guidelines here and the prompts list for 2022 below:

11. November: Huevember

Follow the color wheel in this challenge, creating artwork using one main color each day. As they progress through the month, many artists create a collage of their work, which produces a spectrum effect. More guidelines are available on the Huevember Tumblr page.

12. December: end-of-year challenges

If you manage to participate in some of these challenges throughout the year, you’ll undoubtedly have created a wide variety of amazing artwork to reflect back on. That’s why we suggest checking out the various end-of-year wrap-up challenges that go viral around December in the art community (also some pop up throughout the year too).

#ArtVArtist is one option, where you post a grid of nine images: your face at the center, and eight artworks around it. Your “Top Nine” posts as a grid is also popular. The trends appear across most social media platforms, so they’re a great way to get your work out there while feeling proud of what you have achieved.

Create an art practice that inspires you with these resources

1. Read these sketchbooking tools and tips to overcome creative block .

2. Build a daily sketching practice with this course by Sorie Kim.

3. Explore hand-lettering in a sketchbook with this course by Adam Hayes.