In 2017, I completed a 365 day project in which I endeavored to become ambidextrous by drawing a cat every day with my left hand (I am right handed). The progress I made from Day 1 - Day 365 was fascinating. A few months later, having sampled the power of goal oriented daily projects, I decided the time was right to engage with the annual #the100dayproject that is by now ubiquitous on Instagram. The purpose of the challenge is to commit to a personal creative directive of any kind for 100 days. Coming off of my 365 day Lefty Kitty Project, I thought, "100 days? What a piece of cake." Perhaps if I'd chosen 100 days of drawing cats, it would indeed have been a piece of cake. However, I did not, and it was not. Here is the task I engineered for myself:
"Create imagery using a limited number of strokes and/or shapes prescribed by the day of the week (Monday = 1, Sunday = 7) The process repeats every Monday for 100 days. My goal is to become comfortable working quickly and boldly and to force myself out of my obsessively detail oriented style. Consider these posts 'gesture drawings' of objects."
Every day I chose an object from inside my apartment that I felt could be rendered in the day's prescribed number of strokes. I chose traditional media (watercolor) because, as a primarily digital artist, I wanted to face the discomfort of making a decisive stroke without the security of an "undo" command. Day 1 fell on a Tuesday which, according to my self-prescribed directive, meant 2 strokes were my allotment. I chose a spoon. As soon as I sat down and put brush to paper, I realized I'd stepped into a mind-bending challenge. I became fascinated by the way I could manipulate my brush bristles and paint texture to capture my subject in different ways. How a watery application to one side of my brush and a dry application to the other could achieve a dimensional look in one stroke. How I could separate the bristles by design or cleverly rotate my brush to achieve more lines or shapes than one stroke would otherwise permit. I studied traditional watercolor for many years and never until this project did I grasp the full potential of my brushes. Every day was a revelation.
Day 4: cup and saucer, 5 strokes/shapes.
At the project's end, I had amassed a collection of work I was truly proud of. I also had a new appreciation for the careful and deliberate consideration that is belied by the effortless appearance of this type of work. My best efforts were revealed in what I omitted from my object, not what I details I managed to shoehorn in through brushstroke trickery. More often than not, I found myself thinking 7 strokes were too many for any object I sat down to paint, a revelation that would have stupefied me prior to starting this project. I think the greatest lesson I learned from this project was the value of economy in my artwork. I believe the limiting parameters I imposed in this project made it the most instructive personal project I have ever taken on and I will always be guided by the lessons it taught me.
All 100 days of this project can be seen on my Instagram account @hennypennypress