Short entrance: I took part in my first #drawthisinyourstyle challenge. 🙂
What I think about it: If you want to improve but miss the essential drive to do it on your own, taking a challenge can help. Accepting a challenge is motivating and doing it within a community or social media gives you a powerful dose of discipline. Especially when your community is caring and reminding you about the duties you put upon yourself. You do not have to be scared about the outcome, as well. The communities feedback and critique is gentle because you are all in the same boat. A boat indeed: It feels wobbly for everyone because a challenge is not something that favours your comfort (at first anyway).
So… who is taking part and what are you up against? Beginners and Pros, minimalists and extravagant, digital and non-digital. Different skills and skill levels, different ideas and interpretations. You see artworks from drafts to masterpieces. Non the same. To me, that is what it is all about: diversity. We have different perspectives and show that to each other to share our views on that given topic. The community taking part in a challenge is (luckily) very encouraging and constructive with their critiques. It gives compliments most of the time probably because a different interpretation always has a surprising and enriching effect. We encounter something we have not thought about ourselves, although we worked at the same thing. Wonderful. We do, we watch, we talk, we grow.
So a challenge is like a discussion with a lot of opinions taking part. Every contestant is eager to see other contestants opinions on the matter. Since no one knows beforehand what will happen or what comes up, every contestant stays curious and open-minded. The way I see it, there is a lot of inspiration in this kind of communication. Sadly, not every discussion nowadays is held with such a mutual mindset. Anyway, there is nothing to worry about and a lot to gain by doing challenges. Do it!