The 100 Day project is back! I would like to say that I am surprised my last blog post was in from August 2021 and was a wrap up of my 100 Day Project in 2021, but I'm not. Yeah... Anyway!

The 100 Day Project!

I know, I know, I have yet to complete a full 100 days of creating, but by golly I am going to keep trying! I'm still learning what will work for me and even if I am capable of doing something for 100 days without burn out (which is totally fine if I realize it is not for me). It's a delicate balance in finding something that I can do in a short amount of time each day but is something I'm interested in. For example, I'm sure I can do a little doodle every day in pen or pencil, but do I really want to? No.

Last year my goal was to create finished work by giving myself a prompt each week. Despite not actually completing the full prompt list and the full 100 days, I think overall it was a successful attempt. I learned some lessons and created new habits of actually planning before starting the final paintings, etc. Though a prompt each week was a bit much in the end. Perhaps I will return to this model and do a prompt every 2 weeks - we'll see!

So what AM I doing in 2022?

Color mixing and swatching!

I wanted to choose something I could do in as little as 15 minutes and that I could easily take with me on the road if/when I'm traveling including backpacking trips or something that I could easily catch up on if I needed to. I know the whole point of the 100 Day Project is to do something for 100 days, but sometimes life happens! I also knew that I wanted to get better at color matching and color mixing. I tend to use the same colors over and over again, so was hoping doing something with color would push me out of those comfort colors and make me think about new combinations I could use in future paintings. So here we go, an intro to my project and the first 4 days below!

My Supplies:

- A made-by-me Sketchbook! I used Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media paper inside.

- Canon Ivy Mini Printer

- Zink paper (I have Canon brand pictured here, but I also have 4 other brands to test out.

I've found with the mini printer, that some of the colors I like working with just do not come out properly on any of the papers I've tried, so I will also be supplementing with photo prints from my Canon Pixma pro 100 printer to get strong reds and greens for some days.

Art should be fun. Creating should be fun. I found myself temporarily overthinking the whole thing after day 2. I didn't like how the Canon Ivy printer was reproducing certain colors and was starting to stress about how I wanted to get images printed for the color mixing references. I was overthinking which I know is an issue with me and the reason why I don't even start projects or finish them. I think, for me, it stems from wanting to be perfect. It doesn't need to be and I need to remind myself of this - especially with practices such as this. I don't need the PERFECT images to color match. I can and should work with what I have. After all, limitations are the friends of creativity!

Yesterday during my morning walk, I threw on a random episode of Creative Pep Talk titled "If You Only Listen to One Episode of This Show Make It This One". So I did.

And wouldn't you know, the episode was about overthinking! Perfect timing.

You can find that episode here.

So I vowed to keep going, use what I have and keep at it! Who cares if the printed color in the printed images is a bit off from the originals - I will still be practicing the skill of color mixing either way. And so, here are the pages from my first 4 days.

L: Snowy landscape of Utah from my drive from CA to PA in December 2020. R: Late summer flowers from a small park in Pittsburgh at dusk in 2021.

L: A piece of tile Mosaic from the indoor pool at Hearst Castle in 2018.

R: A rainy November day in Rome, Italy in 2019.

I don't know how I feel about the little sketches I have done at the bottom of the swatches. I Might test out doing larger swatches instead for a few days. After all, 5 (as of right now) down and 95 left to go! Plenty of time to experiment.

Follow along on Instagram to see daily (probably) updates on my project and be sure to subscribe to the blog and my newsletter for future announcements and block posts breaking down my project and covering other topics such as my outdoor adventures, my recent palette clean up and creation project, or a dive into my favorite supplies!