McKnackus I wrote:
I mentioned this over Skype but I really think the theme this year should be character interaction, whether the character is interacting with another character or with their environment. I feel like a lot of us (myself being the worst offender) tend to draw just standing character references or characters in a white void doing nothing in particular. It could be single panel or multi-panel, still or animated, just as long as it has some character interaction going on.
As far as this is concerned, I'm not a fan, if only because there could be days when people wouldn't want to do that, but they would feel bad being the odd one out. It's an improvement exercise, to be sure, but some people may need to learn about other details before jumping into something like that.
I mean, by all means if you want to keep to a personal theme, go ahead. I think it would work better if people who enter this little shindig have a basic understanding of what they really want out of it beyond just fostering a habit. If someone wanted to work on simply faces or landscapes, that's their prerogative.
McKnackus I wrote:
Alternatively, we could use the themes for a different event. You mention wanting to keep the momentum going and drawing throughout the year as a habit, and I think the only way we can manage that through a forum is through regular drawing events. There's plenty of ways to do it: art competitions, collaborations, challenges, assignments, etc. should probably be happening on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Daily Draw can be our big event every year and the other events can be managed the remaining months.
An art challenge/contest would be a pretty cool thing to do. I remember lurking a forum that did this and I believe their method was a bi-weekly contest based on the theme of the winner's choosing that they would judge. So if I won the very first contest, I could base the next theme on Metroid and I would pick the winner. Then they can pick a theme and be the only judge, and so on. We could run the risk of a few repeat winners, but considering how tight-knit our group tends to be, it wouldn't be too bad.
Of course, that's just one idea. As far as challenges...Just looking up weekly art challenges, I found
this blog about it. They have a list of things from "Make art based on a memorable smell" to "make a character based around diamonds". It could also be more personal stuff like "Redraw something you drew a while ago...that you disliked". It could also revolve around other things, like color palettes and problem-solving and drawing someone enjoying food.