1) It’s Instagold
I am gaining new followers daily from this project. That’s awesome. I’m also finding lots of people to follow based on this project. That’s awesome, too. Also, I’m learning what my followers like and don’t like. As a marketer, that’s interesting to me. I now know birds and cityscapes rate (I get a higher number of likes on those). Finished portraits do well, but process pics not so much. Abstract backgrounds are of average interest. Urban sketches and youth art lessons don’t interest at all. This information can help me create blog content that is more interesting to people.
2) It’s harder than it seems
It’s hard to keep up with a daily practice. Life is busy. Sometimes I’m tired. Sometimes I’m spent creatively on work. Sometimes my creative attempt isn’t Instagram worthy. Sometimes we aren’t home all day. 100 days straight is a big commitment. Is it okay to miss a day or two? Of course. Do I feel guilty about it? Yes. Should I? No, but I do. So that’s part of this project and I’m learning to be okay with that.
3) My topic lacks focus
I purposely chose a broad topic to help myself be able to complete the 100 days: 100 Days of Creativity. I figured that I do something creative almost daily anyway, so this is just committing to photographing it and posting it; however, I now see that I am not gaining all the possible benefits from the daily practice as someone with a more focused goal. For example, when I look at the feed of someone doing 100 Faces, you can see their improvement / creativity because you are looking at 100 versions of something similar. When I look at my #Boomers100 feed, I see art, but looking at day 1 vs. day 50 you can’t necessarily see any progression.
4) Size matters
I have multiple substrates that I’ve worked on in the past 2 months: wood panels, 11×14 watercolor paper, an 8×10 art journal, a 9×12 art journal, and a 5.5×8 art journal. I have traditionally saved the smallest journal for my urban sketches, but I traveled with it and did some mixed media pages in it. I really like working on the smaller size. As I noted previously, process pics don’t rate as well as finished work. Finishing a small piece is quicker and it makes me happy to flip through my small book and see a variety of works now.
5) I can fit creativity in during the day
I do have the time. Time is a funny thing that I never seem to have enough of, but if I make this a priority, I can find the time. I can fit in 10 minutes of painting when I’m on break. I can eat lunch as I work on something. I can do art for a few minutes before I go pick up my daughter from daycare. I can forego watching TV. I can go to sleep a few minutes later than usual. Voila – I just found the time I need to do something creative.
Final Thoughts
So, overall, I’m proud of myself for keeping up with The 100 Day Project. I’m trying to be gentle with myself and quiet my inner critic. I’m loving seeing everyone else’s work and progress. I’m already thinking about what to do next year.
What about you? Are you playing along? How’s it going for you?
About the 100 Day Project
The rules of the 100 Day Project are simple. Choose an action and do it every day for 100 days, posting each instance of 100 on your Instagram account using the hashtag #The100DayProject. You can read my introduction post about The 100 Day Project here.
