100 days of drawing and learning

Reflecting on the 100 Day Project and sharing some "bad" art

Jun 03, 2024

Hi friends,

I have spent the last 100+ days determined to stick to my plan of drawing 1000 things for the 100 Day Project. Unlike the last couple of times I attempted the 100 Day Project, this time I didn’t give up midway! Though it was tempting to give up when I’d realized I’d missed not one, not two, but three days in a row (more than once), I kept going!

My project this year was to draw 1000 things—ten things a day for 100 days—using only a pen. I chose this project because I have wanted to challenge myself to draw things more simply or stylized, to break away from my need to draw things “correctly,” and make room for more fun and whimsy (and imperfection) in my art. I accomplished this to an extent in working on the art for Mari in the Margins, but that project also helped me realize how much I had to unlearn.

I’m pretty good at drawing things that I see around me. People, pets, bowls of fruit. And wildlife, like this guy:

Ink drawing of a great blue heron wading through reedy water.

I can also draw a decent landscape if I have a mind to:

Ink drawing of pine trees on a rocky hilltop. — caption...

But often when I’ve tried to put these two elements together in an imagined scene, things get a little stiff. Like in this illustration for the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill:

Line drawing of Jack and Jill tumbling down a hill. There is a stone well at the top of the hill.

Now, to be fair to myself, this wasn’t a big project. It was a fairly quick practice illustration I did for a previous 100 Day Project, so maybe I should cut myself some slack. But to me, the characters in this scene seem like they were positioned just so on that hill, held in place by some invisible force so I could draw them. It doesn’t feel organic.

And then there’s this little baker fox:

Ink drawing of a fox wearing an apron while standing at a table mixing something in a bowl. He holds a book open on the table with one paw. On the table are measuring cups and cracked egg shells.

Yeah, he’s cute I guess. And I actually like the imperfection of the items on the table. But again, it’s so stiff! He looks like he’s got a neck injury and is afraid to move closer to the cookbook, lest he hurt himself! But, again, this was practice done during—you guessed it!—the 100 Day Project.

Since creating these sketches, and many others, I’ve done some learning and growing as an artist. This is partly because of my work on Mari in the Margins, but even more so because of classes and workshops I’ve taken that have helped me loosen up as an artist, understand that I don’t have to draw things correctly (some of my favorite children’s books illustrations are loose, whimsical, and far from “accurate”), and allow myself room to make lots of mistakes. Basically, I’m learning to have more fun—or rather, a different sort of fun—with my art! I’ve also learned that it’s not as scary to share my “bad” art as I thought it would be.

Simple line drawing of a cat looking surprised as she plays with a ball of string.

Here are a few other things that I already knew, but that it’s good to be reminded of:

I can learn how to draw almost anything without a reference if I practice A LOT.
Plenty of “real” illustrators use references regularly.
Adam Ming
is right. Committing to a daily sketchbook practice makes a big difference. It’s not only helping me be better at drawing, but also more confident as an artist.
Making bad or cringe-worthy art is part of the learning process.
Drawing things “incorrectly” while creating an illustration that is appealing and tells a visual story is harder than it looks!

That’s a lot of learning! Add to that this latest 100 Day Project in which I wasn’t allowed (or able) to erase, and I feel like I might actually be getting somewhere.

But I might just need another challenge to keep me accountable.

Here are a few of my drawings from the past 100 days:

Simple drawings of ten whales, ten ghosts, and ten owls. — A snippet of my 100 Day Project sketches!

Children’s books about drawing that are totally worth your (and your kids’) time:

I Can Only Draw Worms by Will Mabbitt. I challenge you to NOT want to draw worms after reading this book.
20 Ways to Draw Everything by Eloise Renouf, Julia Kuo, and Lisa Congdon. Great for practice at drawing lots of things in different ways.
My Pen by Christopher Meyers. An inspirational book about the power of creation.
I Cannot Draw a Horse by Charlise Mericle Harper. A hilarious book in which everything is drawn with the same basic shape, which should encourage readers to try drawing something with that basic shape themselves.