THIS MONTH’S ART CHALLENGE DETAILS

Next Monthly Art Challenge | Anime Art Academy

All submitted artworks will be featured on the Student Art page, in our email newsletter (100,000+ subscribers), and across our social media — including our Facebook page with over 300,000 followers. Your work will also be seen by manga industry professionals in Japan.

⭐ Paid course students: Your submission will be shared individually with manga editors at Japanese publishing houses. Don't miss this chance to get your art in front of real industry eyes.

Details

This Month's Theme

Summer Festival (Natsu Matsuri)

Every anime with a summer arc eventually finds its way to the festival. The lanterns strung between stalls, the smell of grilled skewers and takoyaki, a taiko drum keeping time somewhere in the crowd, fireworks cracking open the sky right when two characters finally say what they've been holding back all episode. It's one of those settings that shows up again and again because it just works — a whole world in one night.

But don't let "natsu matsuri" box you in. You don't need to research Japanese festival details to enter this one. Draw the summer festival where you live — a street fair, a carnival, a night market, whatever summer looks like in your part of the world. Or skip the festival entirely and draw one small moment of summer: shaved ice melting too fast, someone half-asleep on the train home, sparklers in a parking lot at 11pm. The feeling is what matters — one warm night, and the people in it.

Wherever you set it, this is where character design gets to have fun. A character who normally lives in armor or a school uniform, suddenly in a yukata — or a summer dress, or whatever their version of dressing up is — that they clearly don't wear often and can't stop adjusting. The one who wins three goldfish and instantly regrets having nowhere to put them. A quiet character lit up orange and red by a firework reflection, saying more with that one expression than three panels of dialogue could. Think about what your character does at a festival when nobody's watching them do it.

For this month's challenge, draw your character — OC, fave, anyone — enjoying a summer night. Yukata or not, fireworks or food stalls or just two people sitting on a curb after the crowd thins out, the scene is yours to build. All skill levels are welcome, so don't hold back.

Deadline

September 10th, 2026

How to Submit

You can submit your artwork in one of the following ways:

When submitting, please include:

  • Your artwork (JPG or PNG file)
  • Your name
  • Title of your artwork (optional)

Your name (and title, if provided) will be displayed along with your image here on the Student Art page.

Guidelines

  • Format: JPG or PNG
  • Maximum width: 1500px
  • Keep it family-friendly (PG-13) – no NSFW content
  • Must be original work only – No AI-generated images
  • Fan art is welcome if it fits the theme
  • Do not submit direct copies of anime/manga scenes (no tracing or panel reproductions)
  • All skill levels are welcome – from beginners to pros!
  • One submission per participant