It’s over.
I completed on piece of art every day for 2015 and i couldn’t be happier with the results. …..the experience is a different story but we’ll get to that in a bit.
I’m so very grateful for all the encouragement and support i’ve received for this project and eternally thankful to all of those that have purchased a drawing as well as appreciating the effort that went into making these one of a kind pieces of art. I took away more from it then i have with most projects so i gained as much as I gave.
For those of you that are interested, the rest will be my thoughts about the ups and downs of taking on this kind of endeavor.
Let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way. First, there was no planning. I thought of this at the last minute and should have laid down some rules to what I was going to do and what tools i would use. I started out as just using pen and ink but as i started to add color, or raise the bar, i couldn’t turn back. I had to keep going and keep the level of quality up. Again planning would have been great because if i had planned for color, i would have picked a faster drying medium. I started with acrylics so allowing for drying time increased my hour project into two hours.
Second biggest complaint is selling them. Wait, let me explain. The entire idea was to sell them so anyone could be an art collector but the monotony of putting on my website started to get to me by the end. I know: crybaby. I’m just being honest that it was a repetitive task that just wore on my nerves.
That’s really about it so I feel good that those two complaints were really the only negatives that I experienced. And I’m not really saying it to complain, but instead to give you something to think about when you find yourself with the drive and resolve to trying out this kind of adventure.
I’ve met so many new people that collected a piece and reached so many new connections, naturally on social media that i really wish i could continue it again. The sad news is that it took up so much of my free time, i didn’t have room to create for more ideas and projects and lost a lot of personal time in my life by dedicating so much space for this project. Staying one day head to ensure a piece, meant no spontaneous evening out with friends or dates and was just a little more stress than fun, at times.
BUT that being sad, there were too many positives to stop. I’m going to continue making a drawing a day but ONLY a drawing. Basically a piece of creativity a day, really. That could mean a drawing, a little bit of lettering, a print, a snow angel. Anything. It’s gotten me onto a good habit of creating something everyday and I don’t want to lose that momentum or connection to people that are interested through social media. Plus ended up letting the drawings follow their own path so I didn’t end up making art just to satisfy the public demand. So because I want everyone to be happy, I’m going take requests and create more pieces for anyone that was hoping I would create more of a certain group but never circled back to creating again. This whole idea was about getting art into people’s hands so I’m still going to do everything I can to do that.
So overall I loved doing this to get to experience the directions and ideas it got me to and all the people I’ve met along the way. It was a good way to get back the spark I lost or re-ignite my pilot light or sharpen my pencils. Choose your own adventure