I’m no rookie to epic creative challenges.
In 2014, I launched a WordPress blog by announcing to the ether that I was participating in a 30-day challenge. I named my blog 10000hourlsleft after the number of hours purportedly necessary to hone a skill. By blogging each day, I became part of a community that not only made me feel seen, but also kept me accountable.
Then there was the time I participated in NaNoWriMo (‘National’ Novel Writing Month) and clocked in at just over the 50,000-word goal for the month. I was buoyed by the camaraderie of a global writing community and the satisfaction of completing a large chunk of my first draft.
In early 2020, I joined the 100-day Project, an annual creative challenge complete with hashtag and thousands of participants from around the world. My project—a daily post with opening lines for a novel—turned out to be a welcome respite from riding the early waves of the pandemic.
Later that year, a couple of days into lockdown 2.0, I set out to create and share a photo and a poem daily until the end of lockdown (a then unknown date). In deliberately seeking out and recording my observations, I uncovered the magic within my 5 km radius and captured 65 consecutive days of ‘poetry in the ordinary’ in what were ‘unprecedented’ times.
Key to sustaining these creative endeavours was having a clear starting point each day, sometimes planned weeks in advance. In this issue, I’ve reviewed a book that provided the starting point for my most recently completed challenge.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have already moved on to a new challenge—this time with a literary bent—but more on that in the next issue.
Review: 100 Days of Drawing by Jennifer Orkin Lewis
One of the paradoxes of creativity is that it flourishes best within boundaries—parameters that provide points of departure for the imagination. These may be writing prompts, visual cues for ekphrastic poems or, in the case of Jennifer Orkin Lewis’s 100 Days of Drawing, themes, colours, tools and drawing surfaces as prompts. Lewis refers to 100-day projects as the ‘Goldilocks of goals’—a time span neither too long nor too short, but just right to enable practise and experimentation without overwhelm or intimidation.
When I decided on visual art as my focus for the 2022 edition of the 100-day project, I sought out Lewis’ book for daily prompts and a chance to learn new techniques. For the complete experience, and entry into the discoverable online community, I took up Lewis’s suggestion to post drawings to Instagram using the hashtag #100DaysOfDrawingBook. It was nice to receive an encouraging ‘Here’s to creativity!’ from Lewis (@augustwren) on my project launch post.
Once book purchase is out of the way, there is a low barrier of entry to completing each day’s drawing. The book doubles as a sketchbook. It opens flat and the pages are heavy enough to withstand a novice’s heavy-handed watercolour strokes. For many of the prompts, coloured pencils suffice (I borrowed my child’s), but for some, particularly those on black pages, gel pens are necessary for drawings to show on the page, so a visit to my local stationery shop was inevitable.
Lewis warns against using permanent markers as they bleed through the page. She recommends water-based markers, which I was not familiar with, giving me the excuse to splash out on a set while seeking out those gel markers. If budget permits, I recommend this investment. Therein lies my only (minor) criticism of the book—while there are many great tips on technique throughout, such as use of coloured backgrounds to bring black pen drawings to life, there is a lack of guidance on using a blending palette, mist spray or blending pen to explore all that is possible with water-based markers. However, once I was aware of my ignorance, it was easy to find tutorials online.
Throughout the book, Lewis expertly tightens and loosens the boundaries in her daily prompts—they vary from prescriptive, already-drawn images requiring colour to blank pages that allow greater creative freedom. Her gentle teaching approach encourages playfulness, experimentation, and discovery as she gradually builds on concepts each day.
By dutifully showing up each day, I have awoken dormant muscles, discovered new ones, and pushed past perfectionist tendencies. It gives me great satisfaction to flick through pages that include anthropomorphised objects, portraits of book club friends, a single leaf of rainbow chard, the anatomy of a butterfly, and various self portraits
100 Days of Drawing is a treasure for anyone looking to learn new techniques, be pushed outside of creative comfort zones, have fun, or all of the above. Before you know it, you’ll have developed a daily drawing habit thanks to this ‘Goldilocks of goals’.
The best part of a daily creative practice is the quietening of one’s inner critic, which allows for greater freedom to create without censorship or a compulsion to refine as you go.
I challenge you to incorporate a daily creative practice in whatever way may be sustainable for you. If your daily practice is writing, remember—no editing during your first draft! Editing comes later, and when it’s time I am here to help!