Summer Drawing Challenge 2026

About a month ago, I was standing in line at the grocery store, zoning out. A quick flash of light caught my attention and I looked up at one of the many tv screens that hang above each check-out lane. There was a blurb about summer produce and a cute little watercolor illustration of an asparagus spear. I always think about drawing vegetables and fruit, to maybe hang in our kitchen, but I never get to it. Maybe this time I would. 

Of course I didn’t. 

I’ve been struggling with finding the motivation to make any kind of progress in my art practice lately. Usually I need a deadline to get anything done–an art show, a fundraiser, a commission, etc. How could I trick myself into making something with any sort of consistency? That’s when I thought about the asparagus drawing. Maybe I could start with that. Better yet, maybe I could draw a vegetable every day. 

And that’s when I came up with the idea for the Summer Drawing Challenge. I would make my own prompt list and draw something every single day in the month of July. Mostly summer themed scenes or objects, but also things that I’m just not very good at drawing. I ended up creating the list in about five minutes while I was in my car before the evening shift at the library. With a messy list scribbled on the back of some scratch paper, I had found my motivation; my assignment.

I had so much fun illustrating my very first prompt list–what says summer more than gingham and tomatoes? As I write this, we are 14 days in July and I am still very much on track. I nearly fell off the wagon yesterday because my motivation was incredibly low. But thankfully I pushed through and ended up drawing one of my favorite digital pieces to date. 

That’s it for now. I cannot wait to see how the rest of the month unfolds! I plan on creating a video and a tour of everything once it’s over, so I will keep you posted. 

And if you happen to be reading this in July, then I encourage you to join in on the fun!