Art Dare Prompt
Choose a drawing from art history and create a mastercopy of that drawing using traditional drawing media. The artwork you choose has to have been created before 1950, and can be any genre you want! Anything from a Peanuts comic to a Piranesi drawing is totally fine.
We recommend choosing a drawing that is very different from how you usually paint so you can expand on your drawing vocabulary.
Art media
Use traditional drawing media. Try to use the same medium used in the original artwork. Example: use pen to make a mastercopy of a pen drawing by Albrecht Dürer. We know not everyone has all the same supplies, so just do your best to get as close as you can.
Goals
The accuracy of your mastercopy isn’t your goal, in fact, your mastercopy might look really crummy, which is fine! Your goal is to get into the artist’s head by analyzing, breaking down, and understanding the artist’s drawing technique.
As long as you learn from this experience, you’re doing it “right!” The final product does not matter; it’s the experience that will be important. Your mastercopy might look super wonky, but who cares! Having perfectly precise replica of the mastercopy is not the point of this prompt.
If you see a single line in the drawing that was visibly done in 1 mark, try to replicate that experience. Drawing a single line with 20 short lines, in order to maintain accuracy isn’t the purpose of this assignment. Throw out any desire to create a perfect copy!
I doubt any of us are capable of replicating a Rembrandt drawing and have it EVER measuring up to what he made, so why bothering even trying???
Image Resources
You can choose any drawing! If you don’t know where to start, this folder has images of drawings we recommend.
You can also search for images on these site: Google Arts & Culture, Artsy, The Met, The Getty, Smarthistory
Inspiration
This video is a hands on demo that provides tips for how to get started with a mastercopy, as well as a discussion that provides insight into the value doing a mastercopy can have to advance and strengthen your drawing skills. Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster.
Get started!
In the Art Prof Discord Server, we have an #art-dares channel where you can post your WIP (work in progress), and get feedback & support during the month!
Submit
- Post on Instagram, tag us @art.prof with #artprofdare.
- Post on Tik Tok, tag us @artprof with #artprofdare.
Please know that by doing this, you are automatically granting us permission to repost your art dare artworks on our Instagram account!
Submissions close on Sunday, October 31 @ 11:59pm EST
We prefer submissions via Instagram, but you can also use the upload form. Please do not use the upload form if you submit via Instagram.
Prizes
We award prizes and honorable mentions.
To be eligible for a prize, your artwork must be an original artwork created specifically for this Art Dare, and follow all guidelines.
Art Dare winner
Choose from a portfolio critique, an artist website critique, or an artist Instagram critique, or 5 months free in our Discord Voice channel.
Artists in the US can also choose to receive both Prof Lieu’s book + Cat Huang’s middle school comic, “The Comic Journal of Cathy Rox.”
Honorable Mention
Artists in the US can choose either Prof Lieu’s book, or Cat Huang’s middle school comic, “The Comic Journal of Cathy Rox.”
International artists will receive 3 months free in our Discord Voice channel.
