This is one of the reasons when Jake Parkers' Annual illustration project, Inktober, was drawing to a close I jumped upon the idea of extending it to a full year of daily artwork. I know myself very well and without goals I flounder against a tide of inertia and my creativity drowns in the resulting procrastination.
The reason that I post my doodles online daily is also part of the motivation to keep me drawing. Committing myself publicly to such a project shames me into actually getting my ass in gear and doing the work. It's not a sense of guilt that forces me to draw, rather honouring a commitment to do something.
Some have said that if I should miss a day that I can catch-up by drawing more later....but that is defeating the purpose of the entire exercise. I'm completely capable of creating more than a single drawing in a day, that is not the point. I want to prove to myself that I can produce work regularly, create a habit of doing so and to that end will do so for an entire year.
Being a creature of habit though, if I allow my creative time to become too tied to a place (in a cafe) or time (2 hours in the morning between 9 and noon) then I set myself up to fail as I will not be able to work outside those comfort zones I've constructed for myself.
My trip to NYC in October helped me to move the daily drawing habit into different venues and I am confident that I can continue this project no matter where I am, but when in my home town I had to break the coffee shop habit and force myself to work in the house. The reason is not just to teach my family to respect my time at the artboard but also for me to develop the ability to concentrate on a project here in spite of the domestic chaos that dances around me.
In addition to working at home I needed to shake up the time of day I work in and inject a sense of flexibility into my work patterns. Interruptions to my creativity are met with anger and frustration. I need to learn to be able to stop work and then resume it, because life isn't going to pause just so I can sit down and scribble.
The past few days I have allowed myself to start drawing at later times and take breaks at odd points during the process. I didn't need to stop but I would and find something else to do. The net result was that I was still capable of completing a drawing without being emotionally wrung out or stressed and I count that as a win. The proof was when I received a request to watch my 3 year old niece that next day. I know that even with an entire day potentially spent away from my desk, that I had plenty of time to produce my work when she had left to go home in the late afternoon. My normal sense of panic had been replaced by confidence that I am up to the task and that is a good feeling. Proof that as mad as this 365 day project appears on the surface, it is actually having the positive results.
#78 of 365 Daily Drawings
Inspiration: Christmas music
Result: A Merry mouse
Materials: Pentel 0.3 HB, Micron 005 & 02 pens, in a Moleskine
plain journal
Location: At home
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