It's the final day of Samsung PENUP Week, and we saved one of the best features for last. Today, we'll be taking a look at PENUP Challenges. These are issued by Samsung twice a month, and they're one of the most social-centric features of PENUP.
But before we dive deeper into the Challenges feature, here's a recap of this week's Samsung app overview series:
- Start drawing and connecting with artists
- Spark your creativity with coloring books
- Learn to draw by watching others do it
- Know your toolset and start drawing
Story continues after the video
Joining Samsung PENUP challenges for a chance to enter the Hall of Fame
PENUP Challenges are biweekly events every PENUP user can partake in. Once every two weeks, Samsung issues a new challenge with a fresh theme and invites PENUP artists to show off their creativity.
Only one challenge is active at a time. As of this writing, the active challenge for September 1st – 15th is “Let's Draw Fox.” Needless to say, participants have to draw a fox, and it's up to them to come up with a concept.
At the end of every challenge, ten winners are picked by PENUP users through popular vote, and their drawings are featured in a YouTube video on the official PENUP channel. Here's the Challenge Review video for the “Let's Draw Fire” challenge, which ended on August 15.
In addition, at the end of every month (so, every two challenges), Samsung picks a PENUP user to add to the Hall of Fame. These PENUP artists are then featured in an interview.
PENUP users can stay up to date with information about challenge winners, Hall of Fame announcements, and interviews through the Notices page.
To access it, open PENUP, go to the “Challenges” tab, tap the menu button at the top, and go to “Notices.”
To participate in biweekly PENUP challenges or view drawings from challengers, access the “Challenges” tab and select the active one at the top of the screen.
Here, you can browse through submissions from other users based on their popularity or date. You can vote on art pieces from other users, follow them, leave comments, and share their creations.
Finally, if you're ready to join your first PENUP Challenge, tap the cup button and select one of the four options: Draft, Post images, Photo Drawing, and Drawing. Then, start drawing and submit your creation whenever you think it's ready, as long as you do it before the Challenge ends.
Now, here is the interesting, or even unusual part, of PENUP Challenges. The app doesn't restrict users to submit art from PENUP exclusively. You could draw something in a different app, upload it to PENUP, and submit it for a Challenge.
In fact, many users seem to do that and don't use PENUP exclusively. In the eyes of new PENUP users who may want to use PENUP exclusively for challenges, this may seem a bit like cheating. After all, there are more powerful drawing apps out there compared to PENUP.
But remember, winners are picked by popular vote, and the PENUP app allows you to submit images from your gallery — not just drawings made with PENUP. None of this is against challenges rules, and some might say that using complementary apps alongside PENUP helps them express their creativity more freely.
Using other apps that have more advanced tools might give you a bit of an edge, but remember that all that matters is to have fun and always try to improve your drawing skills, no matter which tools you use. Your toolset is secondary to your drawing skills and always will be. As long as you're enjoying the process and becoming a better artist, that's a win!
