12 Days of Sketchmas (Sketchmas for short) is a short art jam that takes place during the holiday period. The goal is to produce some form of art during the 12 days of Christmas between the 25th December and the 5th of January. Think of it like an early New Year’s Resolution for budding and established artists to bring some momentum into the new year with their art.
How it works
The goal is to create a piece of art in any medium for each day of the holiday period and then share it. You can choose to share it via tweet, Instagram, give it to someone who will appreciate the gift, stick it on a T-shirt for sale, anything you want but just share it. The jam gets a little more challenging each day as it follows a little thematically from the classic Christmas song 12 Days of Christmas.
There are 3 ways you could tackle this jam. The first and simplest is to create a new piece of art each day. On the first day create a drawing with 1 subject, on the second 2 subjects, all the way to 12 subjects on the last day. If you want you can treat this as a way of practising things from the previous day(s), by the end of it you will have practised the first day12 times and should be pretty good at drawing it.
The second and perhaps hardest way is to create 1 doodle on day 1, 2 doodles on day 2, all the way to 12 doodles on day 12.
The final way is to create one large art piece and add a new prompt-related subject to it as they are revealed. This may be difficult with non digital media but with good planning or a strong sense of abstract expression you can work through the chaos.
What is a subject??
It’s entirely up to you. You could draw a present on day 1, an orange on day 2, a party on day 3 etc or you could slowly assemble an ensemble cast of characters throughout the event. It’s entirely up to you.
Prompts
Each day will have a new prompt to help you decide what to draw. You can choose to use these prompts or not, they’re just there to help and to keep the jam somewhat thematic.
It’s Christmas I won’t have time to draw!
Are you sure? Wouldn’t it be nice to sneak off and do some quick art after dinner or do some during family time while everyone’s sitting round watching something on the TV?
What kind of art can I do?
There is no limit imposed to the type of art. You could do a drawing, painting on canvas or even digital art, be it a 3D sculpture, a short animation or a digital painting.
Finally, this is supposed to be a fun jam to keep you doing something you enjoy during the holiday period that might otherwise take a massive backseat or not get done at all. If you’re not doing it professionally you may find you lose all momentum and before you know it you’re out of practise. Try to see how long you can go but don’t feel bad if you have to drop out or can’t think of a subject for a particular day.
Looking forward to seeing all the art!