The 100 Day Project – Days 1 to 18

On 30 June I announced my plan to do a #The100DayProject – starting on 1 July, and explained a bit about what that is. For me, it is a plan to do something (anything) creative for 100 days.

As it turns out, my art group decided to do a 30 day sketching challenge during July, so the beginning of my 100 Day Project is going to be very sketch heavy!

I’ve decided I will do a ’round up post’ once a fortnight for the duration of my #WOTMThe100DayProject to share the creativity I’ve done for that period. I also thought I’d share how I’m feeling and what I’m noticing in each post.

So let’s see what I’ve done so far.  Keep in mind that some days I have more time available to me than others so the quality of the ‘creation’ reflects that!

Day 1

Day 1 – My dog Ava

My dog Ava

Day 2

Had a go at six different Zentangle patterns after watching a YouTube tutorial. I have no experience with Zentangling.

Day 3

Cut a portion of an image from a magazine and drew/painted the rest.

The rest of the image and the hole where I cut the part of the image I glued in my drawing.

Day 4

I drew Audrey Hepburn from an image of her I found on the internet

Day 5

I roughly drew some flowers in watercolour pencils then added some water to turn to paint. Then added some detail with ink.

Day 6

I sketched a wooden toy giraffe

Day 7

A ball of Jute

Day 8

I drew a young Elizabeth Taylor from an image of her found on the internet

Day 9

A quick watercolour painting of some pink flowers

Day 10

Had a go at another couple of Zentangle patterns (and shading)

Day 11

Sketch of my cats (L to R: Axel & Amaya) from a photograph

Left to Right: Axel, Amaya

Day 12

Sketched a pine cone

Day 13

I sketched a floral jug. There was too much detail so I got a bit abstract in parts!

Day 14

I drew little cottage music box that plays Edelweiss, in ink.

Day 15

I sketched a cute Orangutan soft toy

Day 16

I drew a fake plant in an owl pot. I love owls!

Day 17

I drew a little field mouse in ink

Day 18

I drew a Koala in a gum tree in ink

How I’m feeling and what I’m noticing?

I think it’s interesting to take the time to notice how I’m feeling about things as I go along with this project/challenge. So here are my thoughts at this point.

• I thought that Zentangling would be relaxing and ‘zen’ like for me but in actual fact I’m finding that it triggers the perfectionist in me and causes me to become tense. It’s all the lines and spacing and precision that does it. Maybe it’s a wake up call as to how uptight I am or maybe it’s a red flag that this kind of art isn’t for me. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll still keep trying some Zentangling patterns now and then to try and find out.
• I enjoy drawing much more than I knew I would and I’m ok at it too!
• I am loving drawing in ink as it has a whimsical nature to it and it reminds me of all the adventures and stories I read as a child.
• I’d really like to try combining ink drawings with some watercolour paint in the near future
• So far this project is already revealing to me some creative weaknesses and strengths and likes and dislikes and I am forming ideas in my mind of things I’d like to do in the future.
• It can be tough to fit in art each day and as can be seen by the 18 examples above, some days I can produce something that looks pretty good and other days it looks pretty average. It depends on the time that I have and it also depends on my state of mind. If I’m well rested and relaxed and have the time, I produce a much better piece.  If I’m tired and rushed it generally turns out pretty average.
• I’m learning arty lessons all the time too, for example I learned what a ‘tortillon’ is and now couldn’t live without one. Wikipedia describes a tortillon as being “a cylindrical drawing tool, tapered at the end and usually made of rolled paper, used by artists to smudge or blend marks made with charcoal, Conté crayon, pencil or other drawing utensils.”  I have also learned the meaning behind the grading of pencils eg HB 2HB 4HB etc. If you’ve ever wanted to better understand the different pencil grades, check out this great YouTube video by Dan Beardshaw that explains.
• I’m feeling looser (more relaxed and free) and my confidence is starting to build.

Though it’s really hard to always fit doing something creative into every day, the benefits I hoped for are coming much sooner than expected! It’s quite exciting actually as I start to discover things I like doing and am quite good at and I start to form ideas of possible future ventures. Knowing myself though, the main thing I need to be careful of is my own mind going into self sabotage mode.

I’ll be back in 2 weeks with the next round up post of Days 19 – 32 of Write of the Middle’s The 100 Day Project #wotmthe100dayproject  In the meantime if you’d like to see my ‘creations’ as I post them you can see them on either my Instagram or my Facebook.

Ciao for now,

Linking up with Denyse Whelan Blogs for #LifeThisWeek