365 days of art
I drew or painted every day for 365 days and everything changed. Seriously.
On June 14th of 2021 I started the 365 challenge where I committed to drawing or painting every day for the next year. With my main goal obviously being to grow my skills, another big part of it was really giving the finger to my perfectionism. When I first started I did not know how to draw or paint loosely. I sometimes held my breath while creating and held my brushes and pencils really tight. My default mode was, and sometimes still is, photo realism which isn't at all the kind of art that I personally enjoy the most. I just didn't know how to simplify or how to be loose in my hand and arm and definitely not in my mind. This made the process of creating much less enjoyable and more like a task to execute perfectly and to check off from my list of “straight A's” so to speak.
Now, with that I have to say that not every day has been perfect which in a way has been part of the point. There has been a few (but not many!) days where I have not drawn or painted. What I have been doing instead on those days though, have been related to my small business or been creative in other ways.
There's a thin line between pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone to grow and thrive, and to go too far and burn yourself out. When I was about half way through the challenge I decided to balance that and not post on Instagram daily, but to still continue drawing every day. I proceeded to only count the times I posted art in my caption countdown, not sure why I did that!? Lol. Anyway, the challenge was not 365 days of posting on Instagram, hence I decided to celebrate the actual date. I hope this makes sense.
The point is, I made it.
I finished the challenge and more importantly I went after my dream of starting an art business. A year ago I did not have a developed personal art style, I did not have a website, I did not have an online store, and I did not have the wonderful art community that I have now. I'm not sure exactly how many followers I had when I started the challenge (is there a way to see that in analytics?), but it was under 1000. This means that I've grown more than 20K in a year :') And while that number in itself is not important, I'm so grateful for every single one of you and for all of the amazing support!
You are the best.
I appreciate you and I believe in you!
<3