The First Week of #The100DayProject
My second attempt at a 100 Day project
Hello there!
So if you’ve been following along on Notes this week you probably already know that I’m giving the 100 Day Project a go this year!
If you don’t know what that is, Lindsay Jean Thomson has a Substack called #The100DayProject that explains it all!
Basically it's a challenge of 100 Days of creativity however you would like! Its not limited to painting, or drawing, it can literally be anything creative, or whatever you want to be consistent in.
The Last Attempt at the 100 Day Project
I tried it a few years ago, self initiated, and made it to the 70-ish day mark I believe, but it was wonderful. The main reason I stopped was the art was extremely helping my shop, and I created what went on to be my Best Seller. So all in all even though I didn’t finish it, it was successful in my eyes, and I made so much art.
Giving it Another Go
Now, this time my main reasoning for wanting to do it is to just prioritize art daily. Even though I am indeed an artist, and run my shop and make products weekly. Ironically I don’t create art that often. I get caught up in the admin work and so on.
SO my main motivation for doing #The100DayProject is to give art more time. So I’m going at it in a very relaxed way.
Just a sketchbook spread a day. Or just a page, but most importantly time in my sketchbook. If it shifts to an idea I want to explore on my iPad, or a panel that will work great.
Last year was my first year truly working in a sketchbook fairly regularly and it was amazing for my art practice, so I think just making sure I’m working in it daily is a great start. Often time it leads to more too, which is always nice.😊
Now Its Recap Time for Week 1
Surprisingly the week started well!
It wasn’t until about Day 6 that I was struggling a bit. And I truly believe it had to do with the weather. We finally got some much needed rain, but it meant it was grey and blah, and I am powered by sunshine and blue skies. 😂
Now I did post daily on Notes so you can go see them all there, but I’ll share just a few of my faves, or ones I possibly learned from.
I feel like the overall theme of the week was really just experimenting.
For my first properly filled out sketchbook last year I did a lot of sketching/drawing. Usually with some sort of pen.
However going into this sketchbook I’ve wanted to use more color and I’ve slowly been doing that this year, and this week I got a bit crazy!
Day 1 I played with gouache paint I had left over in my Sta-Wet because it was not my color but I didn’t want the paint to go unused because that would be wasteful!😂
So you see that above. This lil venture into paint was a big deal though, and showed up again later in the week!
Day 2 I played with some acrylic paint markers and a mix of neocolors and I think a pencil! I’ve been want to get better at Palm Trees so I played with different types.
Day 3 I wrote about here! It was a different page for me in many ways and I don’t love it, but equally I don’t hate it. So you never know what will come from that! 🙂
Day 4 I already shared a photo of! It was inspired by Melissa Lakey fun lil squares she posted earlier in the week!
Now Day 5 was interesting! As I already mentioned I’ve never really used paint in my sketchbook. Like, as in I intentionally squirted the paint out FOR my sketchbook kind of way…. BUT something came over me and I wanted to try painting in my sketchbook.
I wanted to paint a scene based on a previous sketch from my previous sketchbook. I kinda just didn’t overthink it and went for it.
I was once again racing against loosing natural light so I kinda did it all pretty fast, but I think that helped. Like it didn’t allow for me to overthink it and just play. No real expectations but just painting an idea.
Now I did grab the wrong sky color, and I don’t love all of the greens but ultimately I love what I learned from it. I also mixed in a lil bit of pencil and neocolors, so I truly feel like I learned a lot from this!
So excited to see where this leads!
Day 6 I didn’t love, like at all, which I already talked about so moving on! 😁
Day 7 was fun! The light was so good, and I kinda had a vision of what I wanted to do so soon as I got a chance I got to playing! It was pretty much a made up scene inspired by tree placement I saw on a surf cam!
I used pencils for pretty much everything except for the sky. The Sky was a neocolor, and then the lil white on the waves was my acrylic marker because that was the only white that would work on top of the pencil.
So there is a look at the first 7 Days! So happy I’ve stayed so consistent and have been trying new things!
Are you participating in The 100 Day Project? I would LOVE to hear how it’s going, what you are doing, or what you’ve learned good or bad! :)
100 Day Projects I’m Enjoying Following
I literally loveeeee getting on Substack right now. My feed is filled with lovely art by so many great artists doing The 100 Day Project so here are a few I’m enjoying!
LOVING Ine Beerten Daily Leaves! They have all been so lovely and her use of texture is just wonderful! I love seeing the inspiration photo too!
Even though I myself am not one to illustrate flowers I do enjoy others and Emma Webb does such a good job! Plus I love that she does both ink and gouache!
Really enjoying Michelle Reeves Daily updates! She’s so talented and is sooo good at capturing the right lighting + perspective.
Have you been keep up with anyones regularly?
Well I hope you are having a lovely Sunday evening if that’s when you are seeing this. I know a lot is going on in the world, and it can be hard to stay motivated and not go in a complete doom spiral. SO I hope this post helped give a few moments of escapism!
Sea Ya Next Week, and Daily in Notes!
~Sarah