I first heard of Elle Luna's collaboration with The Great Discontent for The 100 Day Project a few months ago on Instagram and knew I'd love to do it. However, after recently quitting a daily drawing exercise (coincidentally, after 100 days), I worried that it would be flaky to commit to another project, put too much pressure on myself, and need to quit again.
The 100 Day Project can be anything you want to do for 100 days. You could meditate, conjugate a new verb daily, bake something, write a letter, whatever you want. The idea is that it will help you learn something new or hone a skill and hopefully make it a new habit or gain confidence.
After much introspection, I knew I had to follow the tingly/excited feeling in my gut that told me to do this. Plus, one of my favorite internet friends, Michelle Ward, says that if you're equal parts scared and excited, you should go for it. (If you're just scared, don't do it!)
I thought about why my last project fell short. The goal was to paint daily to explore more with my mediums, marks, style, and to have fun - all which I did, and it truly helped with my abstract work. But I couldn't keep up with the daily time commitment because honestly, my heart wasn't into it anymore.
The previous project lacked focus, and no longer aligned with my current goals (I'm starting to sound like my day job). It was making me feel like my style was too disjointed, when I want to be more consistent in order to grow my art and illustration business.
Creatively, I thrive on having limits. By not having stricter limits in place for that exercise, it required more time to sit down and think of what to paint, what to do, and what to work on.
Here I am using Marie Kondo's methods to clean my house, hooked on seasonal capsule wardrobes, and meal planning hacks because it takes out the guesswork and makes my daily life easier. By realizing that I need to apply that to my 100 Day Project, it started to make sense.
So I focused. What do I want to do? I wanted to find a way to paint more without relying on my signature style of black outlines specifically for interiors. I wanted to have more content and ideas for my interior design consulting side hustle. And I had so much fun creating a master bedroom vignette for myself, that I knew that this would become my 100 Day Project.
Day 1: Since the outlines and rules were already set, I just had to wake up a little earlier to paint before work.
Day 2: (technically I fell asleep and painted it on Day 3 instead. Early lesson learned that I need to do this in the morning or I won't be able to complete it). It was my favorite painting so far though!
Day 3: I realized I needed some type of story or character in mind for these designs to make sense and to give me a way to make decisions on what to paint. Or to just give an excuse to do paint something ridiculous.
Day 4: I realized part of the fun was creating the stories and characters. I enjoy it as much as the painting.
Day 5: This one was heavily influenced by myself, as I love having all of the dishes washed before bed lately.
So far, I'm loving this project, and seeing what others have challenged themselves to do. The hardest part is taking a good picture in the morning with natural light! I'm sharing it on a Tumblr page so that all of the paintings and stories are in one place, and of course on Instagram under #100DaysofMHVignettes and #The100DayProject.
http://marissahuberart.tumblr.com/
