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On this week’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking about daily creativity challenges. You know the ones: 365 Project, The 100 Day Project, Opus Daily Practice - there are literally 100s of them out there.

Some of them are 30 days, like the annual Opus Daily Practice challenge which runs every February (Opus Art Supplies is a BC art supply retailer) or Inktober, NanoWriMo (for novel writers) or Huevember. Others are a 100 days, like the well known The 100 Day Project which started on January 31st this year and runs for… you guessed it… 100 days. And some are 365 days like the 365 Photography Project.

The key to these challenges is that you create something every day for the length of the challenge. The 100 Day Project is a little different in that you are strongly encouraged to share you work every day on Instagram - regardless of how you feel about it (that’s actually the hardest part of the challenge!)

You can follow along with these challenges and be part of the community that participates in them or you can simply start your own whenever you like. There’s no right or wrong to how you go about it and they can be a lot of fun and great for improving your skills, your creative eye and help you build a body of work.

The vast majority of creativity challenges grew out of grass roots movements instigated by other artists and creatives and are absolutely free to participate in - although many have additional products available for sale to help you stay on track (like planners, prompt lists etc)

In this episode Melissa shares some of her experiences participating in multiple daily creativity challenges including the 365 project and multiple rounds of The 100 Day Project, what she learned and how much they helped her build her skillset as well as some of her tips for not just finishing the project, but succeeding with it!

If you want to follow along with Melissa as she does this year’s The 100 Day Project, she’ll be posting on her personal Instagram, @mhchipmunk. She’s also documented several of her challenges on her art blog, Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach and you can see her progression over the years:

If you’re taking part in this year’s #The100DayProject then please, drop us a note in the comments. We’d love to follow along!

If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 47 - or you can listen via the players below:

The Benefits of Participating in a Daily Creativity Challenge

Some of the illustrations from Melissa’s 2018 100 Day Project: food illustration with Copic Markers

By posting each day, you’re forced to get past perfectionist tendencies and focus purely on creating
In the same vein, it strongly encourages you to put your work out there, no matter how scary that might be (some days it’s really scary!)
It helps you build a community around your art that’s emotionally connected to you. Showing your process and the behind the scenes is a very powerful way to build connection. By posting daily it’s also likely you’ll grow your social following!
By doing everyday, you build up critical muscle memory and a skillset that makes it easier for you to physically create the visions in your head.
It helps develop your creative eye. You notice lines, shapes, light and colour more
It pushes you to get better - there will be a point where you plateau and need to challenge yourself to do something a little bit harder to keep going.
Not only are you getting better every day but, you are creating a visual or audio record of that improvement over a relatively short period of time and you can see your progress. This builds your skills AND boost your confidence.
You start to develop and refine a style.
You build a body of work - at the end of the project you’ll have 30, 100, 365 pieces of work that can become the basis of a bigger project, the inspiration for something else, or the basis of products you create for sale (many people who participate in Inktober or Huevember sell prints or the originals of their work)

What Can You Create For 100 Days?

Honestly, you can create whatever you like - that’s the whole point! But if you’re worried that this is a challenge just for visual artists, it’s not.

You can draw, paint, take photos, write poetry, compose music, crochet, embroider, make collages, design jewellery, woodwork, sculpt, podcast, make pottery… whatever you like.

The point is to improve your skills and hone your creative eye while getting more comfortable with sharing your work.

Pick A Skill To Develop or A Tool To Get Better At Using

Use the 100 days as an opportunity to develop a new skill. It could be a new painting technique or working on your inking or moving from making bowls to making plates.

Maybe you want to get better using a particular software like Lightroom or Adobe Illustrator so you edit a photo a day or create a vector a day or try 3D animation. Focus on using your macro lens instead of shooting landscapes. Learn how to use your Cricut.

Try a New Medium

It’s a great opportunity to try a new medium. You could go from painting with acrylics to painting with watercolours.

If you’re a jewellery designer perhaps you go from working with metal and stones to doing resin based designs. Try a new type of fabric or yarn, write for a new instrument, instead of poetry try flash fiction - the possibilities are endless.

Tips To Succeed and Finish Your Challenge

100 days is a short time and a long time all at the same time. There are days where it will be a real challenge to get your daily art practice in. But there are ways you can set yourself up to succeed.

Keep it simple and keep it finishable (I made that word up). Don’t over-complicate it.
If you miss a day, don’t panic. Just pick up again the next day. It’s not a big deal. Don’t use missing a day as an excuse to quit!
Consider each day a mini-project. You can always string all the mini projects together at the end to create one big project. If you want to crochet a blanket, make one square per day and sew them all together at the end.
Pick something you can do in under 30 minutes a day - less if even 30 minutes seems like a long time.
If you have to travel a lot for whatever reason (although that shouldn’t be an issue this year!), choose something portable that you can take with you
Pick a theme or a focus. Constraints encourage creativity. It also helps you focus on a skill to get better at.
Try to pick a time of day that’s dedicated to your project. 10 minutes in the morning, or 15 minutes at lunch, etc. It helps you form the habit of creating every day.
Don’t censor yourself and don’t aim for perfection. To get the work out every day, you have to leave perfection behind. Better done than perfect is key here. The focus is on building a skill and improving in small increments. Also, nobody is going to think it’s lousy but you.
Don’t be afraid to go macro - focus in on little details instead of big pictures. Work on facial expressions. Or macro floral photography. I need to work on leaves and foliage.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

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