Artists love challenges. Artists love repetition. Artists love attainable goals.
Ok, maybe all of those statements aren’t true for every artist, but social media would beg to differ!
We’ve all seen countless challenges circulating over the years: #inktober #mermay #faebruary #sketchtember #retryjuly #smaugust
But have you heard of #huevember?
What is Huevember?
Huevember, or #huevember, is a month-long challenge during November in which artists use a limited color palette to make artwork. The colors and subject matter vary per artist, but the basic goal is to try new color combinations. The challenge originated with this post, and went viral on Instagram/tumblr.
Why it’s worth doing:
I’ve done the huevember challenge a few times, and each time I learned so much about color. Since I know I don’t have time for daily art posts (I wish!) I always modify the challenge to something that suits me better.
Here are some examples:
Original Huevember rules. Source.
One of my modified huevember charts. Every three days, a new animal with new colors.
One of my modified huevember charts. Every week a new color palette. My goal was to paint the same landscape scene each week and see how they all compared.
Some of my results from #huevember in past years:
My results from the animal huevember chart.
My results from the modified landscape chart.
What does working with a limited color palette teach you?
You’ll increase your sensitivity to color temperature. Color temperature means how warm or cool a color appears compared to other colors. It’s all relative, so if you change one color in a scene, the other colors will appear warmer or cooler. It’s fascinating! So imagine you only get to use two or three colors in a painting. How do they affect each other? I like to combine complimentary colors and play with their transparency.
So if you are interested in a fun color challenge, I highly recommend trying #huevember! You can modify it to help you pursue your own goals and schedule.