BBC One’s Big Painting Challenge inspires Snapchat artists across the country
BBC One’s Big Painting Challenge has inspired people from across the country to make art with Snapchat.
Published: 24 February 2017
Snapchat is bold, colourful and exaggerates the world we see. We live in a fast world where we often miss the beauties of life. Take a minute and capture something that we walk past every day, such as tops of buildings, cloud formations or interesting textures in the urban world.
Produced by BBC Studios, the BBC’s main TV production arm, the show is putting ten contestants through their paces in an intensive six-week artistic boot-camp, and now the public are being encouraged to Snap their mobile creations to @bbc_one or share them using #BigPaintingChallenge on Twitter or Instagram.
Each week a world-leading Snapchat artist is giving tips and setting a challenge on the BBC One Snapchat account. This week, @TristanTales, a San Francisco-based professional Snapchat artist, has challenged followers of the @BBC_One Snapchat account to create art that people can interact with – using an example of balloon popping.
Tristan says: “Snapchat art isn’t about creating a masterpiece – it’s about getting creative with the world around you. It’s fast, fun and easy to do, so there’s no reason not to get involved and start creating your own little works of art.”
Four of the world’s biggest Snapchat artists are setting their own challenges. In addition to @Tristan Tales, @TurbanChino challenged followers to submit an artful selfie, and @mplatco asked artists to create Doctor Who-inspired Snaps. Today, the world’s biggest Snapchat artist, geeohsnap, is taking over the @BBC_One Snapchat account and setting a new challenge for the week.
Diana Ali and Pascal Anson, the art mentors coaching contestants through the six-week Big Painting Challenge on BBC One, believe Snapchat is simply another medium budding artists can use to express their creativity.
Ali believes artists to use it to take note of the world around them: "Snapchat is bold, colourful and exaggerates the world we see. We live in a fast world where we often miss the beauties of life. Take a minute and capture something that we walk past every day, such as tops of buildings, cloud formations or interesting textures in the urban world. Make them into bold and colourful images to help us notice what we miss! Enjoy and look beyond the obvious."
Anson thinks Snapchat offers unique artistic opportunities: "I'd like to see Snapchat used in a unique way to create 21st Century miniatures. Try and figure this out...what is it that you can ONLY do with Snapchat? What’s something that you can't do with traditional methods like pen, pencil, ink and paint? Hint… it's not ANOTHER selfie! ;)"
The BBC is sharing some of the best selfie-portraits, digital doodles and mobile masterpieces in a public gallery.
17-year-old Alex from Leeds shared this portrait of Take That star and Let It Shine judge Gary Barlow, which will now be featured in the gallery:
Alex says: “I enjoy making art on Snapchat after a tiring day at college, it's a fun, creative and stress-relieving activity. Being a massive Take That fan, and also being inspired by Gary Barlow's recent ventures on Let It Shine, I thought he (and his song Greatest Day) would be a great focus for a drawing.”
Other works of Snapchat art that will be featured in the online gallery on the BBC Arts page include:
@mplatco challenged artists to get inspired by Doctor Who
@TurbanChino tasked Snapchat artists to get creative with selfies
Budding artists can find out what the challenges are by following @BBC_One on Snapchat. This is just one example of how the BBC works with many social media providers, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, to engage audiences with its content.
RB
