Draw every day for 43 days

Just none for this posting yet.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, no matter how good you are at anything, repetition makes you better. Not to mention it can be relaxing, productive, or even lucrative.

My cousin has turned me on to a site that buys the kind of art I’ve been drawing, I finally got around to some other forms of artwork (a faux stained glass project and paper mache castles with my kids), and last but not least, people have become aware of my hobby and support my continuing participation in it.

I even have a cleaner and more organized office now because of the need for space to draw. Not to mention the fact that my art supplies have been upgraded substantially. Good tools always make a project easier and the products is that much better for it.

I can’t promote this idea enough for anyone who wants a change in their life. Big or small, it can go a long way.

I’m having a helluva time getting the drawings to this page…to the internet at all…but, as far as the drawing and the 43 days are concerned, it’s completed.

The way I pulled it off was, as I expected, fairly easy. And Yet, unexpected in manner:

1. I went to the Walgreens discount store near my job and picked up a packet of 100 blank 3×5 inch index cards. After all, no one said they had to be large drawings and I wanted to take ‘baby steps’ since I tend to consider everything I do ‘a work in progress’. Nor was it mentioned that they had to be good...which is more or less subjective anyway.

2. Opened the pack and numbered them 1 thru 43 with a pencil. I stored the stack (as I still do today) on top of my monitor, the old non-flatscreen Sony that I decided to use with my aging yet happily efficient Macintosh. It’s a G3 with only 333Khz of bandwidth running OS v8.6 that totally outperforms every Windows-based system that has lived on my desk. It has always consistantly and without fail done it’s duty for me without so much as a hiccup next to this semi-brand new 2.4Ghz Pentium/Sony Vaio with WinXP and a buncha other bells and whistles. All of which hadn’t prevented a random act of dead hard drive that I sorely replaced with a new 500GB Seagate. With only 137GBs supported natively, it now runs slower than the stock 80GB drive…but that’s another story for another day. For now, I move on…

3. Committed myself to sketching down whatever inspires me while I wait for anything too process on my computer. Which is more often than not. You see, when I had to rebuild the XP workstation, I decided to move my working area to a more convenient location of my home office. I disconnected all of the components on my home network. That ‘relocation’ has yet to happen. It did however make room for drawing on my desktop (the real one) because I purchased a flatscreen and an A/B Switch to broaden my options in the new location.
The A/B switch gave me some problems and I was temporarily Windows only until I could pick up an adapter for the Mac’s display port. Turns out, where my Macintosh would help me fill in the wait times on the Windows unit, I could sketch out some drawings on my cards.
I’ve since hooked it up successfully but for the duration of this project, I more or less put the Mac on the back burner.

4. Drew everyday…for countless days. I would only on occassion draw directly on the index cards and even more rare was when I’d use ink first. In fact, I un-officially thumbnailed ideas, sometimes doodles, on a post-it note before I would commit to a drawing subject. Sometimes I would rush this part so there remain some that live decidedly on the original 3×3 yellow scrap.
As time went on, I began establishing the criteria for a qualified count in the gallery of 43 days. For the most part, it needed to be beyond the ‘sketch’ stage and, whenever possible, finalized on an index card, occupying at least 60% of the card or more.

5. I’m now on my second 100 pack of index cards and draw whenever I get the urge. I’ve even taken to drawing at work while on the phone or while reports run. I was motivated to get some decent ink pens, pencils, and even a 4×5 hardcover wirebound sketchbook. In the book I’ve got plans to reproduce some of my favorites from the 43+ collection.

I think my hobby has taken on more of the level of participation that I prefer and I’m glad to have done it. Now all I have to do is get all these rascals scanned and archived electronically…maybe that’ll be my next item on my 43Things List!

This is a very good start if anyone truly wants to rise to the challenge of becoming good at something…anything. Let me start by saying that I was an asthmatic child. I coughed so hard once while trying to regain my breath that I popped a hole in my lung and wound up spending a few weeks in an oxygen tent at Children’s Hospital. I glad to say that is completely behind me and this is why…

When I was in high school all too many years ago, I joined an imaginary club of runners known as the “100 Mile Club”. Imaginary because besides not ever having met another member, I believe it was meant to be a spoof on the “Mile High Club”. However unbeknownst to me at the time, I was told by my Track coach that the club was host to every great track star in long distance running. To join, you were required to run 100 miles over the summer.

I was a mediocre runner as you can well imagine since I was asthmatic and had consequentially damaged my lung, a required asset to the sport of running. But, being a rather stubborn and competitive young boy on the verge of a hormone onslaught, I made a pretty good show for potential. I think maybe my coach saw that in me and invited me to join the club to see if I was serious about running while at the same time challenging my stubborn (and maybe a little cocky) disposition.

I ran well over a hundred miles that summer. Probably closer to 200-225. I kept company with a number of the Senior class girl runners over the summer. You see, I was a Sophomore but trained with the top female runners because my pace ran well for their pace and we could push each other well.

By summer’s end, I was fit as a fiddle and much too fast for the girls to keep up with any longer. I became Captain of the Cross Country team as well as the Track team and wound up an All-State Finalist in both sports. I can’t even remember what being asthmatic was like.

Where this becomes fully relevant to this forum is that I was given a suggestion to do something similar by an art teacher. Or was it my Journalism teacher? The one who ‘discovered’ me as an 8th grade artist and requisitioned me to do editorial cartoons for the high school newspaper? Or was it just something I read about? There was lots of advice when it came to my art but the suggestion to “draw every day” and/or “write every day” has resurfaced over and over again.

I think I may have even drawn every day. Back then, it was all I did. I drew because I hardly had anything else to keep me busy. I quickly grew tired of toys, my brother was my only true friend and I liked drawing.

Over time, my hobby became secondary to a plethora of other things. Mostly, making a living, relationships, social events, marriage, and children. None of which ever failed to deserve my attention but allowed me to lose sight of what I truly loved to do for myself. Create artwork.

I’d like to do anything for any stretch of time so that I could better identify with it. Or take whatever it is to the next level. My point is that everyone should try something once. After that, depending on their level of interest, they shoud do it again…then again…and so on. When you’ve reached the point where you could take it or leave it, you done it to your heart’s content and that’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

A year ago or so I came across someone who had committed to drawing in a sketchbook each day for 100 days (she wouldn’t have considered herself and “artist” before she started). The idea was to give herself permission to simply get comfortable with it, develop the hand/eye coordination specific to drawing, etc. It didn’t matter if the drawing was “good” or not, as long as it happened. She said the results were amazing. By simply allowing herself to consistently play and explore for 100 days, her drawing improved markedly.

I picked up the idea with the same intent. I think I made it maybe three weeks before it fell off my radar. During that time, I noticed a definite improvement.

In keeping with the theme of 43, I want to draw every day for 43 days. That’s probably more likely for me to stick with than 100 days anyway. If I decide I want to do more, I can always re-up for another 43 days.