Bad Drawing Prompt Submissions

I feel like this prompt made people self conscious and/or confused. I confused myself with it. As I was getting the submissions together I noticed that the official name of the prompt was "Bad Drawing Contest." I did a sculpture for a drawing contest. 

I also have no way of judging the winners of the contest. It stresses me out beyond belief thinking about how to select a winner.

 So I'll let you all decide in the comments. Who won? I'm disqualified for making a sculpture so you're not allowed to vote for me. 

comment the name of the artist who you think should win!

I have a prize in mind for the winner. 

Anyways, Here are the results. I was very interested in the comments and opinions people wrote about this prompt and their art.

Sheena Mathieson (main picture of this post) said 

"The title is self-evident. This is a great prompt this month cos what is a Bad Drawing? It really depends on the individual's interpretation. The individual who makes the drawing and the individual who looks at the work! My interpretation is to draw freely, not caring about the end result; starting by not looking at the page and then just having fun with what is there, and the materials at hand; black fine liner and coloured pencils."

Follow Sheena at @sheenamathieson

Katrin said:

"What is bad art? First of all, it's art, you don't make. Art you make without any expectations, not taking care about correctness or likes might result in "bad" art, but taking this risk is in my opinion necessary to make good art. "Draw what you see", you said in the video, so here is what I saw in the blobs."

I like that a lot. Bad art is the art you don't make. 

Follow Katrin at @mutmalerei.katrin.uffelmann

Lulu said, "the title is starhead in bloom. i had way too much fun with this prompt :)"

Follow Lulu at @biblicallyaccurateboygirl

DA said

""Why won't you look at me?"  11x17 inches, acrylic paint and markers on canvas board. I wanted to make a piece of art that is so bad, it hurts to look at it. I had to paint this with sunglasses because the neon red base is intensely offensive! By design, there is nowhere in this image for your eye to rest. I threw in some squishy bug shapes for extra ick factor. How long can you stand to look at this image?

I think DA followed the letter of the prompt more than anyone else. Like a fundamentalist. I respect it. 

Follow DA at @doobsolo

Tia said 

“The whole point of these pieces was to say fuck perfectionism” & “is what it is”. I tried my best to let go and did something a little out of my comfort zone. Scribbles included! Fuck the eraser, let go & just do
It!

“Edibles”
This piece is done on 9”x7” canvas (primed with Clear Gesso), acrylic paint, conté, & magazine cut outs (adhered with Heavy Matte Gel)."

Follow Tia at @tia.thistle and @mortes.manor

And then there's my sculpture. again, I'm disqualified, don't vote for me.

But I'd say that the idea for this prompt came from two places. In an old readers digest (I think) there was an article about a bad art contest. I don't remember anything about the article but I remember the idea of a bad art contest. I added that to my long list of potential prompt ideas.

The other place it came from was a kind of throw away line that I threw into a video I made a while back where I said "it's better to make bad art than no art at all." People seemed to really resonate with that line, and I fully stand behind it. One of the big hurdles many of us face when learning a new skill or trying out a new medium or doing anything new for that matter, is that we don't want to mess it up. 

The comedian Bill Burr bakes. I heard an interview of him talking about that one time and he said something about it that has always stuck with me. I'm paraphrasing but the gist of what he saidwas

The main thing that keeps people from baking or doing anything new is the fear of fucking it up. If you can just go in to accepting that your going to fuck it up, knowing that you're going to do it wrong a few times, thats half the battle towards getting good at it.

So that's where the prompt came from. I wasn't expecting anyone to vote for it. I just put it in the poll because I didn't have another option. 

Now vote for your favorite!

Have fun 

goodnight Sweeties