The Alphabet Challenge | Hindsight

Over the course of 2017 and January 2018, one of the reoccurring things on my blog was the Alphabet Challenge. By now all twenty six entries are available for viewing on the blog and links have been provided on my page for the 'Alphabet Challenge', at least this is the case at the time of posting. Now I'm going to go talk about my experience in one of the biggest art challenges I have accomplished, coming second to my Santa and Elle series.

Who was the easiest or most difficult of the entries?

My easiest entries definitely came early on in the challenge. B wasn't time consuming to creat and resulted in a beautiful piece of some triplets. Given the style back then is outdated and they would look very different now, they still had a great turnout. But the easiest one has to be C, which not only was a quick creation but turned out to be so accurate! I had the right inks and everything, there was no price equipment put to the rest for the creation of that particular entry.

Will you ever do this challenge again?

Not likely, at least not so soon. I won't attempt it again in 2018 and I certainly don't intend to recreate all twenty six entries. If I ever do the challenge again, it will be a long way away. You wouldn't want to see nothing but the Alphabet a Challenge on my blog would you?

What did you learn during this challenge?

I can't really say there's anything I learned in this challenge alone, for I have learnt from creating all of my art in general. But over time I've noticed a number of my poses becoming more dynamic and an improvement to my anatomy.

Who is your favourite entry?

Picking a favourite is not easy. Not only are there twenty six entries to chose from but they are my own work and I've got the task of preferring one to the other. I don't have a specific favourite but I do have some highlights throughout the challenge. There were some very accurate looking entries like C and F, I and O. I can chose a group of entries that I would consider my best work and that consists of L, W, X and Y. Given how the majority of these are not only one after another but have a load of sketches prior to their creation, I suppose it speaks volumes that you should sketch before you create.

How were you inspired to do this challenge?

There are numerous people who have started or completed the Alphabet Challenge and that's why I wanted to do this for myself. I had the intent on focusing on characters that received less attention from the other artists. I should mention that one particular artist had me hyped for this challenge and at the time is still going her take on the latter letters, so thank you DrawingWiffWaffles!

Will there be a replacement for the Alphabet Challenge in the blog's schedule?

I gave the Alphabet Challenge it's own spot on In the schedule, otherwise you would receive a quarter less of my content. While doing the challenge never created a problem for me, I have experience burnout since starting the blog and I don't want to add to the schedule in future. It's a fair bit of work to actually have two art works a week to show so with the exception of special occasions I don't want more than two pieces a week to take up the schedule.

There are rarely any sketches behind any entries up until W, why is this the case?

Back when I started this blog, I rarely sketched prior to composing an art piece, this is not an ideal habit. I would only sketch for something if I considered it important or difficult. Once I moved on to my second sketchbook which was around late October, I discovered that it's pages were not to the quality I had hoped. This meant things had a greater chance of bleeding through or pages buckling. As a result I could have artwork on only one side of each page, which left me with half a sketchbook destined to be empty. But I have made the most of that by improving on the habit of sketching before creating. The entry W coincided with this and as of then you'll see more sketchy work behind each art piece.

What were your thoughts prior to starting this challenge?

I was quite eager to attempt this challenge. I was actually thinking of doing this prior to starting the blog, but when I had decided to set up the blog it made sense to use it as a means for presenting the Alphabet Challenge. I started by listing who I would attempt back in December, the majority of them were decided there and then.

Final Thoughts

This challenge was enjoyable to create and it saw me drawing character I have either never drawn before or could improve on being able to draw. And to this point is also a show of how my work has evolved since the beginning of Droey's Draws. I think this was the best way to get the ship sailing, for now I am frequently creating content for the blog and keeping to a schedule, these I have learnt to manage in my time. In fact only one entry missed it's intended deadline and that was G!

I highly recommend that if you are an artist, experienced or beginning that you attempt this challenge. You can do it at whatever pace you want, scheduled or not. The only rules is that you draw characters that fit with the twenty six letters. Thank you everyone who has stayed with me throughout this challenge, I hope you have liked the artworks created over the past year. They have laid the paving stones for future artworks here at Droey's Draws.