100 Heads Challenge [ART CHALLENGE]
Best art challenge that will definitely improve your drawing skills? 100 Heads Challenge! Learn more about the #100headschallenge and see how other artists dealt with it and the results.
Many of you probably already saw some artists participating in this challenge on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and know the rules – or even better, joined it!
But there are people who are new to this challenge, so I will explain first what’s going on, and why some artists post so many head drawings on their social media pages.
What is 100 Heads Challenge?
The 100 Heads Challenge is an art challenge, where the artist’ goal is to draw 100 different heads in 10 days. That makes it 10 drawings of head per 1 day.
There’s no restriction when it comes to using tools – you can draw the heads with traditional and digital media.
Who started the 100 heads challenge?
The Artist who created this challenge is Ahmed Aldoori – a professional illustrator, known for his YouTube channel (click to visit his channel) where he uploads videos about art with very useful tips, drawing processes, and art podcasts. He’s also an author of other similar challenges, such as #500hands challenge.
He uploaded on YouTube a video about the 100 Heads Challenge. Below you can watch his video where he talks about the challenge and sketches heads.
100 heads chalenge board
To prepare for his challenge, Ahmed Aldoori had to gather 100 different photos of heads. A fellow artist Dani helped him to create a board on Pinterest with all photos, you can check out the board here: 100 heads challenge board
The 100 heads Challenge official hashtag is #meds100challenge – the first hashtag was #100headschallenge, but it was changed by Ahmed Aldoori
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Pieces of Advice on taking the 100 Heads Challenge
Ahmed in his video talks about the 100 heads challenge and gives some advice to artists who feel discouraged if their artworks are not good enough in their opinion.
1. Pay attention to eyes and mouth
When you draw people from different age groups, pay attention to where the mouth and eyes are located – you will notice a pattern on where the nose, mouth, and eyes locations are, depending on the age of the drawn person.
2. Pay attention to contrast
Don’t try to make your head sketches perfect. Along the way, you will start noticing the things. Don’t shade too dark in places when you don’t have to and don’t focus to much on details.
3. Don’t compare yourself to other artists
If you feel discouraged because you think that other artist’s artwork is much better and you don’t make enough progress – stop that.
You don’t know how much time they spent practicing the drawing. It’s best if you compare yourself to your ‘yesterday-self’. Don’t give up, it takes time and sacrifice to achieve goals.
Don’t compare your drawings in the challenge at the beginning. It’s advised to finish the 100 heads challenge, and then compare the last 10 heads with 10 first head drawings and draw conclusions from the practice.
Artists who joined the 100 heads challenge:
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Ps. Check out also other Art Challenges
I like to gather info about art challenges, feel free to check them out. Let me know if there are any other interesting art challenges worth recommending! 🙂
Monthly Art Challenges [ULTIMATE LIST]
Talecember – Worldbuilding Art Challenge
yeah hi hello why are there no old women on this board. you have gnarled old men and not a single woman who looks over 25. that’s. really sh***y my dude.
True
Hi, the person who created the board probably did not do this intentionally. It isn’t “sh***y” of them for making a simple mistake, if you can even call it that. It’s the same thing with people who draw exclusively one gender or thing; art is what you make it. Don’t make it bad for yourself by complaining about something a stranger made.
lol yeah no it’s absolutely s***y even if unintentional. unconscious biases are still biases that need to be addressed and there’s no need to trip of your own * in a rush to defend him
Hi, I would be glad to write a mention or a separate article about an alternative art challenge – dedicated to drawing people in their middle age or elderly. I encourage anyone who thinks that the current Pinterest board isn’t good enough to create his/hers own, and share it with us!
This reply comes across as a bit unprofessional and perhaps even biased (why use his/hers own when their own exists) If you did truly want to address anon’s concerns about the inherent misogyny/ageism of excluding middle age and senior age women I feel this would be a more inclusive and less accusatory wording “We encourage everyone who noticed the lack of inclusion to create more Pinterest boards featuring a wider variety of individuals including middle and elder age women and femmes, please feel to share it with us so we can update this original article with more options”. Then of course telling people to watch their tongues, to me it’s a valid concern to air. If you take umbrage to the S word perhaps ask people to avoid cursing, versus verbiage that leans towards shutting people down.
Hi Anon (June 9, 2022)
Thank you very much for your input!
I’m not a native English speaker and was brought up in a different culture, where people are very direct (where tatemae doesn’t exist). I still communicate on a quite “basic English” level, as simple as possible to omit grammar mistakes – I worry more about my potential grammar mistakes, or using words that have a bit different meaning in English (or which I have no full understanding), rather than sounding impolite.
Your comment is insightful, but you use some words that I’m not so familiar with (that I do understand, but, like, the level is too high for me to use naturally). The language barrier. I try my best and still attend English classes, but honestly, I’m just not able to create such sentences as you proposed without any help of a google translator and grammarly 🙂
Hello. First – this site is partly dedicated to gathering pieces of information about various art challenges. I’m not the creator of these challenges.
Secondly, I’m always happy to see discussions on this blog, but I’m giving a warning to future commentators – mind your tongue.
lol make your own
Thank you for this. I loved this challenge and the references
I don’t like the original Pinterest board personally because most of the faces are so blank and expressionless! I want to reference realistic or even exaggerated facial expressions. Children are great for this- they’re generally not yet overly concerned with how they look to others, and are more likely to express their real emotions in photos. Someone said they pause TV shows to get their reference images- I also think this is a fantastic idea! I’ve decided to take up this challenge in my own way. Definitely not in 10 days, especially since I’m already doing Inktober. I will also just simply draw whatever heads inspire me and in whatever style I feel like at that time. I hate drawing people and I’m hoping this can help!
I would just like to remind and say to everyone (in and outside of this comment section) that art is what you feel and make it- the person who made the 100 Heads Challenge obviously has a preference of what they enjoy making art of (so does everyone else). There is no need to argue over someone’s personal decisions. If their opinion and preference does not comfort you then whatever, alright! Nowhere does it say that you HAVE to do this challenge or go along with the opinions of any other person. And also just because the creator of this challenge’s preference for art is older men or younger women etc. etc. does not make him ageist, biased or anything of that matter. It’s literally just what they feel comfortable making art of. If it makes you uncomfortable maybe you should try drawing those things for a change. Remember to be kind (there isn’t a lot of that here). Have a nice day/night xxx