It’s almost time again for #the100dayproject, a free online art project where artists and creatives share their contributions of doing one creative thing for 100 days.

This will be my second year participating in the project, and I have really been looking forward to doing it again. The project is back with a new website, a more robust newsletter, and new this year is a Facebook group where participants can connect and chat about the project (I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who gave that feedback in the survey sent out a few weeks ago).

I’m still trying to brainstorm my 2019 project, but here’s what I learned the first go-round.

The Cons

My last project, 100 days of drawing (#LATdraws100days) was broad. Broad works for some people, but for me, there were wayyyyy too many choices. I was constantly asking myself, “What do I draw today?” This year I’m considering some guidelines relating to size, subject matter, medium, or maybe even all three. I haven’t decided yet. 100 tiny flower drawings? 100 tiny paintings? Will I actually get my paints out every day? Yeesh.

If you’re not careful, it can become a chore. Many days my drawing was the last thing I “had to do” before turning in for the night. And that’s not how I wanted to run the project. The idea is to make space for creativity, not cram it in somewhere (although sometimes the cramming…it happens.)

I skipped more than I would have liked. Slip ups happen. We get busy. We collapse into bed at the end of a lonnnnnnnng day. You have to do what works for you. But giving myself permission to skip one day made it all too easy to miss another and another, and by the last half of the project, my participation was very spotty. Some people try to catch up when they miss days, but I always picked up on the actual day the project was on. So by the last day of the project, I had about 58 drawings. Not 100, but 58 more than I would have had if I hadn’t done it at all.

The Pros

I loved having a project. Much like training for a race, I like to have something to guide me.

The response from my Instagram and Facebook community was fabulous. People who knew I “did art” (notice I still don’t ever say I’m an artist) loved that I was drawing again.

My kids noticed. They saw that I was making space for myself and doing something I loved. Sometimes they even joined in.

I was pretty proud of myself (but also sheepish for not really doing 100 days).

I found tons of great art and artists on Instagram through the project. My Instagram feed is super pretty now.

So now that I’ve done the project before, I kind of know what pitfalls (in myself) to watch out for. I know what will trip me up, I know what excuses I will try to make, and I plan on creating strategies to help me avoid those pitfalls and excuses.

Wanna join?

Visit the100dayproject.org, sign up for the project here, follow @lindsayjeanthomson and #the100dayproject on Instagram, like The 100 Day Project on Facebook and join the Facebook group. And follow along with me at @latorres78 and @leighann.torres.