About the 365 Drawing Experiment
About the 365 Drawing Experiment
The basics
In 2014, I will create 365 hand drawn or decorated index cards and post them online. No digital alterations except to make each card look as close as possible to the original. I’ll use the cheap 3 by 5 in (7,6 x 12,7 cm) cards that are widely used and thus very easy to find in the USA.
What I hope to achieve
- finishing the project, with 365 little crosses on my calendar and a big pile of 365 cards to show at the end of 2014. Slightly scary.
- by drawing more, drawing better in the end.
- being closer to finding my own style after experimenting with a wide range of completely disparate techniques, styles, materials.
- rediscovering what it is to work without the safety net of the cmd-z. Getting better foundations for my digital work.
Follow the project
- all the cards will be published on the Verte Adelie // The 365 Experiment Tumblr.
- I will post more detailed posts about the project and the process on my main blog.
Food for thought
Quantity / quality
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. (…) Well, came grading time, and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the « quantity » group was busy churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the « quality » group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear
Sharing the process online
You don’t put yourself online only because you have something to say – you can put yourself online to find something to say. The internet can be more than just a resting place to publish your finished ideas – it can also be an incubator for ideas that aren’t fully formed, a birthing center for developing work that you haven’t started yet. A lot of artists worry that being online will cause them to make less work, but I’ve found that having a presence online is a kick in the pants. (…) Whenever I’ve become lost over the years, I just look at my website and ask myself: What can I fill this with?
Austin Kleon, Steal like an Artist
Having a schedule
A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life