A lot of young artists join already existing challenges or create them for themselves in order to improve their skills in a given field. Daily challenges became very popular already few years ago.
I decided this year to get back to traditional drawing and improve few skills, one of which is a character design. I thought that the best way to do this is to challenge myself. I gave myself 30 days, each day I'm drawing a different character. It's not just a great way to practice skills, but it also helps with finding my own style. I post the drawings each day on Instagram.
Anyone can be part of a drawing/painting challenge, if you're lacking ideas, there are multiple lists of daily challenges on Pinterest or you can join already existing challenge, like Inktober (see below).
Challenges worth laying eye on:
Inktober Probably one of the most popular challenges. Each day of october artists all over the world are drawing using an ink. Every year a new list of topics for each day is posted by the Inktober founder - Jake Parker, in case someone needs an inspiration.
Franuary Fran Meneses is a young illustrator, who is a creator of planners, graphic novels, stickers and in general - just lovely illustrations. She's making each January a different challenge for herself. This January she's drawing on T-Shirts! She posts the results of Franuary on her Twitter and Instagram profile.
The Sketchbook Project A challenge organized by Brooklyn Art Library. Anyone can take part, entry fee is 30 US dollars. You get a brand new sketchbook sent by the organizers, which you fill in and then send back to the largest collection of sketchbooks. Once it's catalogued by the library, you can keep a track of it!