Tackling a 52-week challenge

In 2024, I have done Inktober for the second time in my life. In 2023, my attempt was not super convincing, and I did not enjoy the month so much. This year, it went way better, and I was sharing every week on different art communities. One of the members of one of these art communities (not super straightforward - sorry), challenged me to continue on to a 52-week challenge. I thought that the idea was nice to keep the dynamic, so I created a whole plan!

First step - Preparation

What does it mean to prepare for a 52-week challenge? I guess it depends for everyone, but for me the goal is to make it as easy as possible on myself. Before starting the challenge, I made my objectives, supplies and references very clear, so that when the time comes to actually create, most of the brain work is done and I can just seat, pick my art supplies and paint.

For this 52-week challenge, I thought about creating paintings of landscapes of significance in my life. I was very lucky and had the opportunity to visit many countries and cities during my life. My idea here was to make 52 paintings of places I have been to. During the art retreat with Jess Karp (which I describe in this post), I received an Etchr Sketchbook - 6i-square format, hot pressed paper - 52 pages. I don’t really like hot pressed paper, but I know that it works well for gouache for me. So I thought: let’s use this sketchbook for this challenge, and make it a “landscape in gouache” challenge. To reduce my brain work even more, I use a stay-wet gouache palette, where I have a limited color choice and that is always ready to be used.

Once this part of the puzzle was solved, I needed to gather all my references. For that, I created a list of all the places I went to, and added a few pictures of each in a folder until I reached 52. No need to say, I had to do some serious digging to find pictures of my early travels! I tried to only put in the folder photographs I found interesting for painting, and have a variety of landscapes / cityscapes / architecture details / open fields, etc. The list is not fixed, and I can always switch pictures if I find a better one. But at least, if my brain is fried, I can go to this folder, pick the next place on my list and start painting.

The organization and the mindset

Since this is a weekly challenge, I try to have it done by Sunday afternoon every week. If I happen to have some spare time during the week, I can always do it before. I also consider the weeks when I have other obligations / when I’m travelling, etc. to anticipate these ones and create the paintings in advance, Better be early than overwhelmed because you’re late!

I also try not to put too much pressure on myself, both regarding the weekly aspect and the “quality” aspect. I tend to take about 1 hour for each of the piece, but I try not to get overboard and if the final result is not super nice, it does not matter! There is no stake in these paintings, I do them for fun, as a learning and growth opportunity, but nothing more! Similarly, if one week, for an unexpected reason, I cannot do my piece, it is not the end of the world!

Staying consistent

For now, the different landscapes have been quite different, and they were all a nice challenge. If one week I felt a bit less motivated, I would choose a type of landscape I am more comfortable with and not necessarily follow the chronological order of my travels. This flexibility helped me push through even when I was not super motivated. 

The second thing that has really helped me (I have done week 010/052 when writing this blog) is to add some variety in my techniques. After 8 weeks of challenge doing some serious gouache pieces, I started to get a bit bored with the plain gouache landscpaes. I decided to allow myself to experiment during the challenge. Even though the base stays gouache, I now put whatever I feel on top, to create different textures and more expressive and loose landscapes! This makes sure the challenge remains fun as a learning opportunity, and not just a boring exercise to do every week.

I also keep myself accountable for the challenge, keeping track of my progress and posting most of my finished painting on Instagram.

What do I get out of it?

I am not done yet with the challenge, and hopefully I can come back in 42 weeks and reflect on this! The idea would be to have a completed and cohesive sketchbook by the end of the challenge. This sketchbook will act as a reminder of all the wonderful places I have been to, and all the inspiration I get from my travels and from the world in general,

Hopefully, I will also learn tons during this year-long challenge, and the sketchbook will be a testimony of the brush mileage accomplished during the year!

Finally, it makes a base for me to stay consistent in my posting on social media (mostly Instagram, but also Shorts on Youtube). And once all the pieces are finished, I hope I can turn some of them into prints / stickers, that I will be able to share with whoever is interested :)