Learning, Adjusting, and Embracing the Creative Journey

I’ll be honest, when I started #the100dayproject, I wasn’t sure how this was all going to shake out. If it was going to feel too overwhelming, too daunting of a task (although that could still come later down the line.)

However, I really wanted to give myself the space for daily creativity & making. And I accomplished this goal each day this week. I learned a lot about my process over the last seven days and I’m super excited to see whats to come in the next 90ish days.

Don’t start late at night!

This is a huge one for me to remember. More than one night in the last week, I found myself up at midnight(or later) - which is unheard of for me since I typically wake up around 4:30am each morning. SPOILER ALERT - I did not get up at that time most days this week - which threw off my whole morning routine overall.

It was definitely productive art-wise for me, but definitely not sustainable for me in the long run. I get so sucked into making (which I adore) that I forget all time and external things like waking up early.

This week, my goal is to start working on my daily projects earlier in the evening - closer to 6pm, and/or put a time limit on my work. My morning routine is a critical one for me to manage the stress of my 9-5 and health, so I can’t sacrifice one for the other.

Prep sketches

Spending a few minutes sketching out my ideas before translating it onto the watercolor paper became more and more important to my process. It helped determine the values, proportions and placements of things before starting to add color and other elements.

Filming my process

I have a lot hate relationship with filming my process - I’ve loved spending time putting together reels and being creative with angles, etc. However, its harder to get into the flow state when you’re considering if your hand is in the shot or not.

This week, my goal is still to film a few clips for my daily reels - but focus more on being in the flow state. This means to slightly plan ahead on clips, reel prompts, etc. so that I know what I have to film before starting. Just trying to get a bunch of random clips makes it harder to fully drop into that true flow state.

Also, I want to focus on editing my reels the morning after, not the same night. Editing them at night also contributed to my being up late at night (see above LOL).

For week two, I’ll be focusing on starting my projects earlier in the day as well as setting time limits as needed.

Another goal for this week, is to review my prompt list for the week to start the ideas flowing inside the sketchbook. This will help if I have other commitments that require my attention and a shortened working window for my daily creative play project.

All in all, it was a great week and I can’t wait to continue to create! Have you embarked on #the100dayproject? If so, please share what you’re creating - I would love to see!