100 Days of Creative Practice
This year I took on a new creative challenge; pairing up with my favourite writer to illustrate 100 poems in 100 days as a part of the #100DayProject.
When I started this project I was unaware of how it would shape my design process, build creative confidence, and reward me with surprising outcomes.
Regaining creative confidence
I was feeling like I hadn’t taken any creative risks, and I was no longer excited to make art. The thought of sitting down and drawing (something that I used to love and spend hours getting lost in) seemed daunting. I feared the blank paper in front of me. I knew I had to do something to get over this creative block, or I risked losing any remaining artistic ability I had left.
One of the most talented writers I know, Courtney Symons, wrote something that resonated with the creative challenges I was experiencing in her article “What I Learned Writing a Haiku Every Day for 100 Days”:
“More than anything, I learned that it’s important to practice your passions.You can’t spend your life telling people you’re a writer if you don’t write. Which is what I was coming dangerously close to doing. I can confidently say that I am a writer. I refrain from adding any form of qualifier, because on some days I’m a good writer; on very rare days I’m a great writer; and more often than not I’m a hack. But I’m a writer, and it feels good to own that part of my identity again.”
When she told me about the 100 day project, a spark was ignited within me and I knew I had to be a part of it. It was the strike of inspiration, the creative “Aha!” moment, that I hadn’t felt in a long time. She told me about her plan to write 100 poems in 100 days, each anchored around the theme of life transitions. It was going to be called Passages. We teamed up; I was to create an illustration for each poem that she wrote.
Getting started was especially intimidating. I felt immense pressure to do Courtney’s great writing justice and perform with equal excellence. The first few illustrations were rough. I hadn’t figured out my process (each drawing was taking more than an hour) and I hadn’t figured out the style I wanted to carry through to the end. Looking back on some of the earlier drawings, I still don’t like them. This was the first lesson in letting go of outcomes.
Creative output is not precious
In my design work and creative projects, it has been challenging to share work that isn’t “done”. It can always be better; more polished, have more research, another round of feedback, another coat of paint. It can be frustrating when your creative output doesn’t match the beauty of the ideas in your mind. But at some point you have to release the work into the world whether you’re proud of it or not. If you love your craft, there will always be more projects, more potential books, more blank papers.
The format of sharing work everyday taught me not to think of my work as precious, and that with imperfect practice comes growth.
You never know what opportunities will surface from your work
The greatest outcome from this project was all of the unexpected opportunities that surfaced as a result of sharing our work each day.
People contacted me with requests for prints, and commissions for custom work. Our project inspired people to pair up and do their own similar poetry/illustration projects. Some even reached out for permission to use my designs as tattoos. It is still shocking to me that my artwork is permanently inked on three people!
We published a poetry book, and created an online store to sell it to the community of followers we had established over the 100 days. We sold over 100 copies, and artists and designers that I have admired for years were purchasing and sharing our book.
And now I am writing this article and posting it publicly (another intention I’ve always wanted to do but have been too intimidated to).
Community accountability
The online community was so supportive. People I’ve never met before would reach out with positive words, and requests for advice on how to get started with their own creative endeavours. I met many other creatives doing their own 100 day projects (and even attended a 100 Day Project meetup), where we discussed challenges and successes and learnt about each others motivations and takeaways. The community that involvement was so important in building creative confidence and maintaining momentum to finish the 100 days. Of course there will always be skeptics, but the support greatly outweighed any negative feedback.
Having the most talented and patient partner to embark on this anthology with has been so rewarding. We did this together and I was beyond happy to have someone alongside me to be vulnerable with, to overcome challenges with, to grow with, and to celebrate with (in Mexico!).
Going into 2020, we’re so excited to take on another 100 day project together, but this time with a new theme, new challenges, and more unexpected outcomes. More details to come!
To purchase our book, visit 100DaysofPassages.com.
To learn more about the 100 Days Project visit #100DayProject.
To view the original series of poems, visit
Courtneys instagram.
