Back in October of last year, artist Regina Agu started a personal project to create a drawing every day and post it on twitter. A couple of drawings in... I decided to join her, started tagging it "#draw365" with the intention of doing this for a whole year, and the rest is history.
Others on twitter joined us shortly after that, and this project quickly snowballed into a massive online artists' collective. Well over 100 artists from all over the world have created and posted thousands of drawings and are still going strong. The result has been an ever-expanding display of talent, glimpses into the souls of those involved, and a bottomless well of inspiration for anyone to draw from.
Last month Regina was the first to accomplish a year of daily drawings. I followed shortly after with my No.365 drawing. A few others have since achieved this and many more will soon do the same. I decided to keep going until the final page of my fourth sketchbook was used up. And now, I am both happy and sad to say my #draw365 project has come to an end.
This project has been one of the most important and rewarding exercises I have ever done. It has allowed me to explore stylistically as well as express myself in ways I had only thought about. It has also been responsible for the birth of my Black and White series.
The first month was the most exciting, I couldn't wait to get home to create something new each day. After that it was a blur as months flew by. I was all over the map conceptually and in my execution... and loving it. After a while I noticed that sometimes I was not in the mood to draw, or my days were so busy I had very little time to draw. This started occurring more and more as the year progressed, especially during the weeks I was painting heavily. Although I still enjoyed creating daily drawings when I allowed myself time, this exercise for me became an obligation I was waiting to free myself of. I had always wondered if I would continue this forever or if I would stop after no.365. I decided to stop after I finished out the last sketchbook.
No worries though. I will still continue to create daily, whether it be through painting or drawing for larger projects. I will also continue to post my work online and share with all, as well as post and share others' work.
The most rewarding thing about #draw365?
The group of artists I have met through this project has expanded to hundreds of other artists all over the map. I am privy to a staggering amount of wonderful, inspiring art every day as a result. I look forward to continuing the practice of sharing my art and having dialogue with others as well as growing my network. Speaking of which, those of you following me on twitter should friend me on facebook... and vice versa. I'll do the same.
My Twitter
My Facebook
Its been a great ride!
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