My 100 Day Project: 100 Days of Cartoon Dogs
Recently, I completed a new 100 day project: 100 cartoon dogs.
I have posted previously about my daily drawing habit, and early on, I especially found it helpful to break things down into smaller, time bound projects. After all, doing something for 100 days sounds a lot more achievable than 365 days. So I’m convinced of the power and merit of joining in such projects.
This is my fourth time joining a 100 day project, but I only completed three (last year I lost interest in the project I had chosen after 50 days). The idea behind these projects is to pick something you want to accomplish or explore and do it for 100 days straight.
It’s interesting. In the beginning, you find yourself determined and excited.
If you have make it to week 3 or 4, you start to loose a little steam.
By day 50, there is a wall you have to push through. And you usually need something to shift in the work you are doing so that some learning or breakthrough carries you to the end. There definitely is a rhythm to be aware of.
At least that’s been my experience.
Why did I choose cartoon dogs?
It’s something I wanted to explore and improve upon, especially drawing different breeds of dogs in cartoon form.
About a little more than halfway through the 100 days, I had a bit of a revelation. Something came to my attention that I wanted to test.
While drawing one night, I was watching a Netflix show call “The Toys That Made Us.” After watching a few, one particular episode was about Hello Kitty. There’s no way I’m watching something about Hello Kitty. I’m a forty something year old man. But that darn quick auto start feature on Netflix’s next episode beat me to finding the remote.
And while it played, I heard something that intrigued me. It was about how Hello Kitty was designed as a character. They used the word “Kawaii” which is Japanese for “cute”. They further explained an intentional proportion of the drawing and placement of the features to make Hello Kitty “cute”.
So, I thought to myself, what if I tried this Kawaii in one of my cartoon dogs? After all, who doesn’t love a cute dog?
And so this is the first cartoon dog I drew with those proportions and features.
And you know what? People immediately responded “how cute.” And so, my new character, “Chachi”, was born.
What about you?
Have you ever participated in a 100 day project? If so what was it?
What skill, knowledge or habit would you choose for 100 day?
Why not start today?
