Art Competitions: How can High Schoolers Make the Most out of their Creative Minds?
Art Competitions and Their Benefits For Students
Participating in art competitions serves as a good starting point for skill development and enhancement among high school students. They're great opportunities to grow your technical abilities, experiment with mediums new to you, and hone your artistic identity.
Some competitions may allow you to get together and meet with fellow contestants on the day of presenting everyone's work. This can foster a face-to-face community and give you a chance to expose yourself to a variety of artistic styles. Studying diverse works from your peers and listening to constructive feedback from experienced judges serve your learning so that you can push your artistic boundaries in your next pieces.
Preparing for art competitions also comes with a meticulous, iterative process. No matter how rote it may seem, it strengthens any artist's fundamental skills like sketching, producing composition, storyboarding, and more. The more ideas you can put on paper, whether or not you scrap them in the end, the quicker you will be able to pin down your vision for your works and create a deeper understanding of your unique artistic voice.
Art competitions, especially competitive ones, offer value for students to build a compelling portfolio for college applications. A portfolio with pieces made in reputable competitions adds a layer of distinction and endeavors in your future career.
Many art competitions are sponsored by organizations, institutions, or foundations that offer monetary awards, scholarships, or educational opportunities for talented individuals. As a high school student, your art that was made for well-known competitions such as these can get you some valuable recognition.
It may be enough to get scholarships, mentorship opportunities, and offers of collaboration from organizations dedicated to exhibiting art. Ultimately, a portfolio including participation in art competitions can become a powerful testament to a student's passion and dedication for advanced studies in any form of the arts.
Types of Art Competitions
Art competitions for high school students are diverse when it comes down to the various artistic disciplines and themes each one caters to.
Some competitions focus on fine arts, such as painting, sketching, and sculpture. These are more often geared toward technical skills that come with traditional mediums. Others focus on contemporary forms of art, like photography, and computerized animation. Digital art is a field that's constantly evolving with new mediums and technology. These contests often look to encourage using newer technologies in creative works. Neither traditional nor digital art is "right," so choose which mediums suit your interests.
Many competitions have participants create art that falls within some themes that are specified in their rules and requirements. They're typically regarding various large-scale issues in society, such as environmental concerns, cultural diversity, and poverty. This practice helps students to step forward, contribute to these broad real-life narratives, and then express their opinions, feelings, and beliefs through their art.
How to Prepare for Art Competitions
Selecting a Competition
Preparing for an art competition begins with choosing the competitions you want to prepare for. This process involves researching various competitions and requirements. Some information to look out for is a specific theme, deadlines, material and medium regulations, and age requirements.
Then, it's important to reflect on whether or not they complement your artistic interests and preferred medium. If you feel like a select competition resonates more with your interests than others, then this competition has become an opportunity to authentically show yourself who you are as a person and as an artist.
At the same time, picking out a competition that follows themes or regulations different from what you're used to can turn out to be a learning experience. Maybe you'll want to get better at using a different medium or begin involving yourself in themes and ideas that you haven't given much thought to before.
The Creation Process
Start by carefully reading and understanding the competition guidelines, paying attention to any specific requirements such as restrictions in dimensions, or themes to follow. As you're planning out your work, check from time to time if your ideas align with those guidelines.
When thinking up ideas, seek as much inspiration as you want. You don't have to go on Google or Pinterest to get ideas. You can draw inspiration from the real world around you, whether it's some item you use in the mundane daily life, or rare sights from that last vacation you went on with your family. Other methods include creating a mood board with editing tools such as Canva and Google Slides, or drawing whatever comes to mind in a sketchbook.
Next, you have to stay organized to put your best efforts into your creation. Break down your process into reasonable tasks. Then, make a timeline for each of these tasks. Keep in mind that, somewhere along the line, you may want to reiterate or revamp parts of your work. It doesn't matter how many times you do this; In fact, have an open mind toward trying out ideas or improvements that pop up along the way. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to finish and submit the final work.
Being Ready for College and a Career
Some people have the misconception that a high school student's list of extracurriculars or achievements should show only "useful" skills, typically STEM skills, because those are in demand in the economy these days. This isn't true; a student should simply show themselves and how their identity connects with their hobbies and the areas they're proficient in.
Anything you put time and effort into will serve you somehow in the future, even if not college. It's up to you if you want to make your art anywhere from a hobby to a full career. So, let your creativity shine, your artistic side grow unbounded, and your dedication shall show too.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
