25 art goals for drawing and painting, from a daily sketch to a finished piece
"Get better at drawing" is a wish, and it gives you nothing to do on a Tuesday. Good art goals count drawings, days or finished pieces: 100 hands, 30 faces in 30 days, one sketchbook filled. Here are 25 art goals ideas for drawing and painting at any level.
Art goals for beginners
Beginner goals are about drawing a little every day and not judging the page.
- Draw for 10 minutes a day for 30 days.
- Fill one sketchbook page a day for 2 weeks.
- Draw 100 boxes in perspective.
- Draw the same object from 5 angles.
- Copy 5 drawings by an artist you admire, to study their lines.
Daily drawing challenges
A day-count challenge is the classic art goal, because showing up is most of the craft.
- Do Inktober: one ink drawing a day for the 31 days of October.
- Draw one sketch a day for 100 days.
- Draw 30 faces in 30 days.
- Draw on 20 days out of 30.
- Make 365 small drawings in a year.
Drawing skill goals
Skill goals pick one hard subject and repeat it until it stops being hard.
- Draw 100 hands.
- Do 50 two minute gesture drawings a week for a month.
- Shade the 5 basic forms from white to black.
- Finish one perspective drawing of a whole room.
- Draw a self portrait every month for a year.
Painting and colour goals
Painting goals are about colour and light, and they count finished small studies. Light and composition are also what photography goals train.
- Finish 10 small paintings in 10 weeks.
- Mix a 12 colour wheel from 3 primary colours.
- Paint the same scene at 3 times of day.
- Make 5 paintings with only 3 colours.
- Paint outdoors 10 times.
Finishing and sharing goals
Finishing goals turn practice into things you can hold. A finished piece is to an artist what a finished draft is in writing goals.
- Fill a whole sketchbook, first page to last.
- Finish one large piece a month for 6 months.
- Post one piece a week for 12 weeks.
- Go to a life drawing class 10 times.
- Show your work in one local exhibition.
What is a good art goal?
A good art goal counts what you make, not how good it is. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best. "Draw 100 hands" is specific and hard. "Improve my anatomy" is neither.
Inktober is a well known example. Its rules are short: make a drawing in ink, post it, and repeat, through the 31 days of October. The rules also allow an every other day or a once a week version, which is a useful reminder that the count matters more than the pace.
Write your own the way SMART goals are written: "Fill one sketchbook by 30 June, one page a day." It has a number, a date and a daily job.
How to track art goals
Tick off the day when you put the pencil down. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.
Drawing days are a day count. Drawings and finished pieces are amounts that add up. Most creative challenge ideas are one or the other.
It is hard to see your own drawing improve. A picture that fills up one drawing at a time shows the pile growing, and the first page of the sketchbook shows the rest.
Frequently asked questions
- What are some art goals ideas?
- Draw for 10 minutes a day for 30 days. Draw 100 hands. Do one ink drawing a day through October. Fill a whole sketchbook. Finish one large piece a month for 6 months.
- What are good art goals for beginners?
- Draw for 10 minutes a day for 30 days and fill one sketchbook page each time. Counting pages keeps you drawing on the days the page looks bad.
- What are the rules of Inktober?
- Make a drawing in ink, post it, tag it, and repeat. It runs through the 31 days of October. You can draw every day, every other day or once a week, as long as you stay consistent.