What is the 100 day project?

#The100DayProject is a free, global art project. Anyone can participate, and the idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online.

I decided to join the 100 day project again in 2021 for the third year in a row. In the first year (2019), my goal was to draw or paint every day, improve my drawing/painting skills and gain more confidence in posting to Instagram. It was also to stop over analysing my work and be grateful for my creative time.

My skills vastly improved, and in 2020 after drawing/creating for another 100 days, I saw another giant leap in my drawing abilities. In 2020 I chose some quite complex botanical illustrations that took a long time to draw. Also, you might not think so but taking the photos and even posting to Instagram sometimes took more time than you would have thought. So it was a significant commitment to stick to consistently for 100 days.

Getting started

For 2021, I wanted to change it up a bit and simplify it. I decided to stick with florals but draw from live subjects, so I collected flowers and foliage from around my neighbourhood, and I also bought some flowers from local florists. I decided to give myself permission on some days to choose smaller subjects that took less time and be ok with not producing a large piece with an elaborate backstory.

This year I decided I wanted to sell my original drawings once the 100 day project was complete. I ordered some good-quality paper and stocked up on my favourite pens. It’s exciting to get started but also a bit daunting when you are on day 1 of 100.

When I was out on my morning walk, I’d be looking out for something to draw, and I’d just pick it and take it home. Sometimes I’d pick a few things to last me a couple of days. On some days, it was such a treat to go to the florist and pick flowers specifically for drawing.

The drawings I created took somewhere between 1.5 hours and, the final illustration on day 100 (because of its size) took around 12 hours to complete.

Reflections on the 100 day project

• Firstly, having such lovely feedback from my friends and followers throughout the project was encouraging and genuinely heart-warming.
• It’s such a great project to undertake, and for me, the rewards in terms of allocating the time to be creative and seeing the improvement in my skills were terrific.
• It worked really well to have the paper ready, and the decision made to draw from live subjects before I started and gathering subjects for a few days in a row also takes away any pressure to find new subjects every day.
• Next year, before I start, I will have a better set up for photographing my artworks because on some days, I didn’t finish until late in the evening, and it was difficult to get nice consistent lighting.
• I discovered that I just wanted to draw a flower or a leaf, observe it, learn something new, bring something pretty to life on paper in my drawing style, and share it.
• Finding the intricacies of each subject and bringing those finer details out in the smaller subjects became quite joyous.

If you followed along, I hope you enjoyed my 100 day project for 2021. I would love for you to sign up to receive my newsletters and be the first to know when new, exclusive original artworks and prints land in my online shop.