Category: Online Challenges

Create an image incorporating distortion as the essential visual strategy. What is distortion? Morphing, blurring, stretching. You play with it.

Rules as ever:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

I’m going to take a bit of a break for August and only update every two weeks (the Fortnighly Challenge?). So you have until August 15 for this one. Send submissions to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com with your title or I’ll make one up!

For this Challenge, you will need a fortune cookie (real, virtual, dreamt). Make an image triggered by your fortune. But, wait there’s more: Many fortune cookies’ fortunes have a feature on the back “Learn One Chinese Word.” An extra challenge is to somehow reference that word in the drawing. (If you’re looking for some inspiration, start here.)

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of your piece. Deadline for this Challenge is August 1.

Some energetic souls here at Rocky Neck Art Colony are looking to put together a Colony cookbook. We’re gathering recipes, and we need art too. Focusing on ingredients is easier than, say, painting a salad, so take your favorites as inspiration—eggs, apples, walnuts, even broccoli, maybe a whole pie —and paint/draw/photograph at will.

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of the piece. Deadline for Ingredients is July 26 (extended — I’ll be away the 20th to the 23rd and won’t be able to post your pictures on those dates).

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Sure, it’s easy to draw a model or a tree, something static. Want a real challenge? Pick a moving target. I happen to be partial to chickens, but birds, waves, dogs, people at the beach: anything’s fair game. You’ll be training your eye to get the essentials — fast.

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of the piece. Deadline for Fast Sketch is July 11.

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Phew — glad that Mineral Challenge is over (though if you have a piece to submit, you still can). This week’s Challenge is way more fun: Create a self-portrait that does NOT include your face.

The rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with my own. Deadline for Faceless Self-Portrait is July 4 (July 4th?? Already??).

Figures it would be Number 13: Mineral?? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a mineral is “a naturally occurring homogeneous solid with a definite chemical compositionand a highly ordered atomic arrangement; it is usually formed by inorganic processes.”

Got that? Me neither.

You can Google “mineral images”— get out the paint box!

If you played along with Animal and Vegetable, this Mineral should be part of that series—or not. Try your best!

• Color (black & white if you think you can!)
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with my own. Deadline for Mineral is June 28.

Following last week’s Animal Challenge, this week it’s Vegetable’s turn. You did establish a theme for all your images, right (remember, next week it’s the trio’s conclusion with Mineral)? Yeah, I didn’t either. That shouldn’t stop you, though.

Simple rules:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with one of my own! Deadline for Vegetable is June 21.

This week it’s Animal. Guess the next two weeks’ Challenges: yep, Vegetable, Mineral. The point is to choose a theme to connect your three responses over the coming weeks. Ready to get started?

***Still time to sign up for the online Portrait Workshop given by the juror of our new RNACExhibitions website inaugural show. Only $100 for all four classes for RNAC members Details here. ***

Simple rules:

• Color of black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Deadline for Animals is June 13.

Wow: We made it to 10 Challenges!

This week we tackle Isolated Color. Adding a second color to a monotone image creates immediate and often dramatic focus. Have fun using this simple visual strategy.

Simple rules:

• Monotones except for that isolated color
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your images to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com. Include a title. Deadline is June 6.

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We’ve reached Number 9 (“number 9, number 9” for those who remember the White Album). This week, explore colors that are side-by-side on the color wheel (see chart below).

These colors are considered analogous, and create calmer energy than complements. Use analogous colors for this week’s Art Challenge.

• Colors that are analogous
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible

Send your images to RNACworkshops@gmail.com. Include a title unless you want me to make one up for you. Deadline is May 30.