I find that Internet challenges are a great way to try out new supplies or techniques. For instance, there's a portrait challenge on Instagram @faceportraitclub that's gaining followers. They manage to pick reference photos of people you'd like to draw and they find insightful poses that result in portraits with meaning. I've been practicing small format colored pencil portraits:
Another time I tried Intaglio printing using Tetrapak. More on this technique on my Flickr account: HowToAlbum
Then there's the 2022 version of EDiM ("Every Day in May") that just took off. I'm trying out various pencils on black paper, experimenting with my Caran D'Ache Luminance and Derwent Coloursoft pencils as well as a white gellyroll. You can easily meet this challenge with quick sketches of everyday objects so I'm trying to keep up. Day 5 was "fruit":
