Examine your reason for doing the project this year – are you doing it to have fun, to work on a skill, or to work towards an outcome? Having a clear why will help keep you focused when the project inevitably gets boring or difficult (working through it is part of the project!).
Lindsay Jean Thompson (creator of #the100dayproject)
For the last couple of years, I’ve watched fellow artists participate in #the100dayproject; a global online challenge to develop a creative project and stick with it for one hundred days in a row.
These types of challenges appeal to me for a number of reasons, in particular, the opportunity to participate in something bigger than me (creating art is often a rather lonely endeavour, especially during a pandemic…).
Having just successfully completed Tara Leaver’s #21daysinmyartworld challenge, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about my ability to commit to a longer project. However, I know myself well enough to appreciate that doing so will require a combination of the following:
- something quick (if it takes more than 10 minutes, there will be days when I don’t get it done)
- something ‘tidy‘ (if I need to mix up colours on my palette and clean a bunch of brushes, there will be days when I can’t be bothered)
- something constrained (if I need to think too much about what to do, there will be days when the pull of Netflix will be stronger)
- something with variety (if it’s too much of the same thing day after day, I’ll likely abandon the project before its complete)
I’d also like the project to incorporate some of my other ‘loves’, like fibre arts, the linear marks of maps and trails and the weather (Canadians love to talk about the weather 😉 ).
Here’s what I’ve come up with.
Borrowing from the ‘temperature’ blankets of knitters, crocheters and quilters, I’ll be making just three marks each day on a primed 20 x 20 inch cradled birch panel. The marks will be colour-coded and represent (1) the day’s temperature, (2) whether it was sunny or overcast and (3) whether there was precipitation or not.
I’ve just about finalized the details on my palette, but need to do a bit more sketchbook play to ensure that I’ve left myself room for both harmony and contrast to emerge.
I’ll be loosely following a ‘log-cabin’ arrangement of marks (spiralling out counter-clockwise from an off-centre starting point) and allowing myself to choose whatever tool feels good to me on a given day. I’m hoping that the substrate is large enough, but giving myself the option to switch up the size of the daily marks will help should I start to run out of room.
Rather than share my progress daily (that would be tedious for ALL of us…), I’m planning on posting my updates weekly, certainly on Instagram, but also, occasionally here and in my Newsletter.
Are you participating in this year’s #the100daychallenge? I’d love to hear why (or why not) and any details of your project that you’d like to share!