I like to take part in creative challenges. But only those where I get to choose what I do. Things like 100 or 30 day projects, where I choose what I do, and I do it every day for however many days in a row. They are a great way to stimulate new ideas, build up a body of work or inspiration, or a way to practice something new with diligence.
Currently I’m four days into the Aotearoa Quilters Spring 30 Day Challenge. I’ve been the facilitator of this program for the last two years, and have run it was a Winter Jumpstart, but I’ve handed over the reins, and Jenny, the new facilitator, is running it in the first official month of Spring. It feels good to start something new in Spring.
Some of my most successful daily projects have been sketching. And later this month I’ll be travelling, so I need something small and portable. In fact, one of my biggest pieces of advice to doing this projects is to keep it small and portable! I’ve decided to go for a daily sketch of a bug, butterfuly or bird. I typed bug into the search function of my photos and I seem to have enough to start me off!
First up was the little spider you see above. I have no idea what type, but it was quite small with a pretty coloured back. Day two was the luna moth below. I photographed that when I visited Canada. Quite a spectacular creature, and I remember the kids were suitably intrigued.
Day three was a pūriri moth. They are bright green, ranging from grass to chartreuse, so maybe I should go back and add colour. This one I photographed was almost yellow.
Then yesterday, day four, was a dragonfly I caught in a net as he was struggling to escape from my house.
I haven’t decided what to draw today. But if you have any good photographs that you wouldn’t mind me using as a reference, please send them my way!
The random numbers and scribbles in the backgrounds of my sketches is because I use my old to-do/journal/diary pages as sketchbook backgrounds. It saves space in my handbag and provides an interesting texture to work on. Maybe I’ll show you more of that in another post.