Create something, learn something, be better at something for 100 days … 100 day project challenge accepted. I am delighted to be able celebrate the completion of the challenge! 100 days done and dusted!

I started this project on January 31, 2021, setting myself the goal of drawing people for 100 days. Totally out of my comfort zone and with no idea of whether I would even complete the project, but I figured any drawing is better than no drawing.

I started with a simple sketch in an art journal … probably the first time I had even thought about using a reference for a drawing. Incredibly obvious now … but hey, I was 100 days less wise 😉

100 day project Day 1

Over the 100 days I experimented with pencil sketches, using coloured pencils, gouache, acrylic paints and eventually digital tools as well. The transition across to digital was actually a happy accident. I had been doing a sketch at a coffee shop and just couldn’t get it to work. Came home, uploaded the sketch to Photoshop to see if I could do something with it and the fun began from there.

100 day project … days 24 and 25

Creating digital drawings from initial hand drawn sketches is such fun. I can have a total “mixed media” moment and incorporate painted backgrounds or even drawings into each piece … oh yep, sky is the limit!

100 day project … days 85 and 91

I also got braver and had more fun with my painted people. It is a totally different approach when I paint instead of draw so that was fun.

100 day project … days 84 and 99

Another benefit of the project was the push it gave me to explore drawing in ways I hadn’t before. The timing of the project aligned beautifully with a life model drawing class that was being offered at BIA. And so, without no experience in drawing with charcoal and ink and absolutely no experience at all working with a model, I started the class. Wow. once again I was out of my comfort zone and once again I was all the better for the experience.

100 day project … days 86 and 100

It took me about 2 more weeks longer than the actually 100 days to get the 100 days of drawing and painting complete (life just gets in the way sometimes) but I am so pleased to have stuck with the project. It was great fun and I think 100 days of deliberate practice has gone a long way towards making me more confident in drawing and painting people!