The 100 Day Project – Background Information
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’s 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 was quite sketch heavy, however along the way I fell in love with drawing in ink and adding some watercolour so it’s kinda gone that way now.
I decided I’ll do a ’round up post’ once a fortnight for the duration of my #WOTMThe100DayProject to share the creativity I’ve done for that period and I also share how I’m feeling and what I’m noticing in each post.
Here’s the round up posts already published if you haven’t seen them:
and now here we are over 3 months later and I have completed the project! I’ll say more about how I’m feeling now at the end of the post. For now, here’s days 89 to 100.
Day 89

Day 89 – Spring Gardening Time
Day 90

Day 90 – Kasey Koala
Day 91

Day 91 – Cute Cottage
Day 92

Day 92 – Madam Chook & her Chicks
Day 93

Day 93 – Pink Lady
Day 94

Day 94 – Daisies
Day 95

Day 95 – Teacup & Saucer
Day 96

Day 96 – The Outpost Cafe (Canungra, Qld)
On this day ‘The Tennis Player’ and myself went on a bit of a road trip. It was a Monday and a public holiday here in Queensland for the Queen’s Birthday. We just wanted to escape suburbia and see a bit of countryside, without having to travel too far and long. So we drove to Boonah (stopped in at Flavours Cafe for a coffee and look around) and Canungra and went through Beaudesert and Jimboomba (didn’t stop). I bought some delicious apple cupcakes at a bakery at Canungra and we stopped in at Mum’s for coffee and to eat them before heading home. So I arrived home quite late in the day, probably around 5pm’ish and I was tired. It had been a long and very unusually hot October day – 36.6 degrees celcius! I still had to draw/paint something! I decided to do a quick (and very rough!) sketch and paint of where we had lunch at Canungra – The Outpost Cafe – famous for their homemade pies which I can vouch for – delicious!
Day 97

Day 97 – Inside my head
Today was the first day back at Art Mentoring Class with Studio Yellow after a three week break. Today we painted some pages of paper in preparation for future projects. This was a lot of fun! We used acrylic paints and old credit cards. Squirt a couple of colours on (not too much) and spread and mix with a credit card. Scrape firmly so you spread thinly and it dries faster. We were also familiarised with ‘Gesso’. Here’s a Wikipedia explanation of what Gesso is: “Gesso is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it.” We put some Gesso on a couple of pages to use and experiment with later. After this we used one of our credit card painted pages to do a collage depicting our thoughts and feelings. This is what you see pictured above. Whilst collage is not my passion, I quite enjoyed it this time.
Day 98

Day 98 – Benny the Boxer
Day 99

Day 99 – Lighthouse
Day 100

Day 100 – Self Portrait
On this day I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do for the final creation. I went out and got my nails done in the morning and thought it over. I eventually decided to finish with a hard one. I didn’t want to finish with an easy half hearted effort, so I decided to do a self portrait. Portraiture is HARD, and I have very little experience with it! It’s especially hard when you need to get it done in a day or in my case, less than half a day! For this reason, I decided to use a mixture of ink and watercolour to help me achieve a reasonably finished look within the few hours I did this within. I used the photo of myself that I use here on the blog. You can see it here on my ‘About Me’ page. I would like to try this again one day when I have plenty of time to take with it!
How I’m feeling and what I’m noticing?
- I’m feeling relief, tinged with a little sadness. I’m so relieved the pressure to produce and post every day is no longer there. I’m sad because this project showed me what I can do, what I like to do, what I don’t like to do, what I’m good at, and much more, and I will kinda miss it!
- I’m feeling exhausted and in desperate need for some digital detox time. I need time away from the blog and social media. I guess I basically just need a holiday and definitely much more time in nature!
- I’m looking forward to having more time now to think about where to from here with my art, the blog, everything.
- I’m needing to get my focus back on my health – less snacking, more movement, health checks etc.
- I’m proud that I stuck with it and finished the project and proud of what I managed to produce in the process. I truly didn’t know I could do what I’ve been doing!
- I’m touched by the people that followed along so faithfully and encouraged and supported me and said the kindest things! Never underestimate the impact of a kind word. It’s a wonderful thing.
- I’m looking forward to learning more so that I have a clearer vision of the way forward. I’ve researched a little how best I could digitise my work to make prints (only the ones I think are worthy) rather than paying lots of $$$’s to a photographer who specialises in that to do it.
- First though, I really need a break. I’m feeling a little tired and rundown. The world these days is exhausting don’t you agree?
So there you go, WOTM’s The 100 Day Project is all over red rover! Thank you to those who followed along and who were so supportive, encouraging and kind. I’ve had some wonderful comments on my last post of this project and I truly do appreciate them all so much. You can see them here on Facebook and here on Instagram. I think I’ve found my thing and that is very exciting indeed. There’s been a few of you who have expressed that you’ll miss my daily art when it stops. Don’t worry – after a bit of a break I’ll be back creating art and sharing it, just without the self imposed pressure to do so every day. You’ll be seeing more!
Ciao for now,
Linking up with Denyse Whelan for #LifeThisWeek
20 Comments
Well done! I reckon if you take a break, you’ll find you miss it and get back to it. Maybe not as frenetically, but still frequent. Also wanted to say the copy of your head shot is fantastic. The eyes especially. #Lifethisweek
Thanks Lydia! I miss it already but don’t miss the pressure to produce something every day. I did some art today at art class and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the compliment on the self portrait. It was a bit of a rush job but not too bad for being done in such a short time frame!
Huge congrats Min, you’ve done so well to stick with it and you really are very talented, as I’ve said before. I appreciate your reflections on the project and can imagine you need a break. Your portrait on the last day is so good, especially considering you say you did it in half a day, so lovely!! #lifethisweek
Thanks so much Deb. I really do need a break. Not really a break though because I have heaps of other stuff that has been neglected so I could do the art every day … so I’ll be busy catching up on other stuff.
Congratulations, Min, on completing your 100 day project! It’s a huge achievement. Take time out to rest and recharge. Thank you for sharing your beautiful art work with us. #lifethisweek
Thank you Natalie. I appreciate your support and kind words. I will certainly enjoy a bit of a rest and recharge time!
You did amazingly well to complete a project every single day for more than three months – I’m not surprised that you’re a little over it all for now. Taking a break from being online so much is also a good thing – being outdoors now the weather is improving, reading, doing art for fun, socialising – are all very good ways to recalibrate in anticipation of your next project. xx
Thanks Leanne! Now that I’ve stopped I can feel that I’m a bit exhausted and run down so I need to take things easy for a bit whilst trying to catch up on other things. I’ll be back doing art again soon though. I really do need a break from all things online though – I just feel drained by it all at the moment. xo
Enjoy your break, but I for one have loved following along with this project and look forward to seeing what you create next!
Thanks so much Jo. I’m so relieved that some people have enjoyed my art!
i love all your artwork. i am a big fan of ink and watercolour. i think we’ve been to that cafe in canungra. that’s a good drive thru there.
cheers
sherry
Thanks so much Sherry! Yes it was a lovely drive that day. Shame we picked the freaky October heatwave day to do it though! lol
You’ve uncovered a great artistic talent there! Well done. I do a lot of creative things – photography and writing in particular – but I must say I wouldn’t enjoy the constrains of a 100 day project. Great stamina to get through that. What’s next?
Thanks so much Christine. I still have that inner critic to deal with believe it or not. I’ve fluffed around for a long time (many years) trying different things – started the blog, studied photography, go into the crochet, now the art. I’m not sure what’s next. I’d like to make a little something of my art but first … I need a rest from online life a bit. I’m a bit exhausted by it all. Besides, I have lots of health checks to catch up on and things to get done around the house that have been neglected. So once I feel I’m back in control of things and well rested, I will move on to whatever is next!
It’s been huge, and rewarding and tiring and you have questioned yourself…but look at the outcomes and how much you learned about yourself as you went along.
Now the time in between is for reflection…and maybe what’s next but also maybe ‘nothing is next’….
Well-done, Min. You are very hard on yourself and a more objective person (aka me and many others) would say you have quite the gift and go have fun with it!
Thank you for linking up for #LifeThisWeek. Your post is a welcomed contribution to the community. Next week, the optional prompt is Self Care Stories. Instead, for me, I am doing a Wrap Part One of Women of Courage stories. I hope to see you next week too. Denyse.
Thanks so much Denyse. I am certainly needing a rest – not just from art, but from the blog too it seems. I’ve kinda crashed and burned a bit! I’m also using the time to catch up on some heath checks and medical appointments, catching up with friends, and getting some things done around the house that have been neglected. I’m not sure what it is next. All I know is that I don’t do well if I put pressure on myself these days so I will take my time with my reflections and thoughts and plans for what comes next but I would like to make something of my art. xo
Wow. I love all of these. They are amazing!!! THank you so much for sharing but I definitely see where it can be tiring. But you are very talented!!
Thank you so much Kirstin!
Like all of my friends above, I am just in awe. First that you were able to stick with this huge undertaking for 100 days. When I did my 100 Day Project, I worked on it one day then had a day or two off. But completed it in 100 days. This was just an incredible feat!! And your art is absolutely beautiful. That pup is so well done. So realistic, with one of “the tennis player’s’ balls, I see. Love your final work. The tea cup!! I really really really want to try water color again. I just can’t seem to be able to make time for everything I want to do.
Big hugs of congratulations on a job well done. I look forward to seeing where you go from here!! XO
Thanks so much Leslie for your kind words! I don’t know how I did it either but I can have a pretty obsessive and determined mind and I seem to thrive on routine so once I got into the routine of it …. I just did it! Some days I would have a bit of a whinge “don’t have time” “don’t know what to draw” “I’m not in the mood” but I always managed to find time, work out something to draw, and once I got started I was definitely in the mood! In the very beginning there were a few days where I submitted something I’d done prior but for the rest of the project I did something new every single day. I hope you DO try watercolour again. I love it – it’s so lovely to work with. I know how hard it is to make time for everything you want to do – I’m exactly the same and I can wear myself out – like now! I’ve crashed and burned since the project ended so taking a much needed break from everything. Thanks again for your being so kind! xo