2. Characteristics
• Challenge or prompt
• Forces art creation
• Time-based
• Theme-based
• Art-based
• Viewer-requested
• Sharing the results
• Flexible/Vague
• Inspires artist and creates community
Noah Scalin’s Skull-A-Day Skulls
3. Deep Roots (Pioneers)
• Exquisite Corpse
• Surrealists in early-mid 1900s
• “The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine”
• Mail Art
• Mailed in an envelope
• Interaction, exchange, and collaboration around the world
• The Graceful Envelope – 1995 onward
• Less prominent in digital age
6. Recent Roots (Pioneers)
• PostSecret
• Mail Art
• Started in 2005
• Handmade postcards with secrets
• Postsecret.com as well as books and galleries
• Noah Scalin
• Skull-A-Day
• Really brought movement to the mainstream
7. Why Did It Grow?
• Art is less formal
• Internet and social media easy to share and access art
• Digital art faster, more readily-available tools
• Social media spread challenges and results
• Higher demand and competition
• Artists need inspiration to fulfill high expectations
• Rise of depression rates lack of motivation
8. Noah Scalin
• Skull-A-Day
• 2007
• Submissions from fans
• 365: A Daily Creativity Journal
• Original in 2010, updated in 2016
• Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your
Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work, & in Your Studio
• 2011
• Make Something 365 Blog
9. Jake Parker
• Inktober
• 2009
• Ink drawing each day of October
• Improve comfort with ink
• Daily optional prompts
• Share using #inktober2017 and #inktober
• Thousands of artists
12. Art Assignment
• PBS online show on YouTube
• Started in 2014
• Educates about modern artists
• Artist gives “assignment”
• Ex. Jamal Cyrus “Brain Sounds”
• Ex. Molly Springfield “Copy a Copy a Copy”
• Viewers share their work with #theartassignment
13. The Sketchbook Project
• Team of four in Brooklyn since 2009
• Writing and drawing challenges
• Pen Pal Painting Exchange
• Reminiscent of Mail Art
• Theme “Self Portrait”
• The Sketchbook Project sends you someone else’s
• Display work at Brooklyn Art Library and online
• Atlas: https://www.sketchbookproject.com/library/13472
14. Other Notable Examples
• 100 Themes Challenge
• http://challenge.lambdadelta.pl/
• 365 Days in the Life of a Journal
• Focus on finding your own work
• NaNoWriMo
• NaNoDrawMo; NaNoMangO
• Huevember
• Color Palette Challenges
16. Sources
• “About.” Skull-A-Day. http://skulladay.blogspot.com/p/about.html.
• “About.” The Art Assignment. http://www.theartassignment.com/about.
• “About.” The Sketchbook Project. Art House Projects, https://www.sketchbookproject.com/about.
• “Cadavre Exquis.” MoMA. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/max-ernst-levade-the-fugitive.
• “Challenges.” Another Kind of Artist’s Block. Wordpress, https://anotherkindofartistsblock.wordpress.com/challenges/.
• “Challenges.” The Sketchbook Project. Art House Projects, https://www.sketchbookproject.com/challenges.
• Kordic, Angie. “How Did Mail Art Develop Into a Global Art Movement?” WideWalls. Web.
• McClendon, Robyn. “365 Days In The Life Of A Journal – Introduction.” Your Creativity Coach. Wordpress, 19 February 2015. Web.
• “PE: Painting With A Limited Colour Palette.” DeviantArt. 14 July, 2015, http://riemea.deviantart.com/journal/PE-Painting-With-A-Limited-
Colour-Palette-512919278.
• “PostSecret.” Wikipedia. 26 February 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostSecret.
• Scalin, Noah. Make Something 365 & Get Unstuck. Blogspot, http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/.
• Stein, Jeannine. “Studio Saturdays: Art Challenges.” Artists Network. F+W, 26 November 2016. Web.
• “The Inktober Initiative.” Jake Parker. 2016, http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober.
• Theme chooser - #100ThemesChallenge. Web. http://challenge.lambdadelta.pl/.