100 Days of Quarantine Painting
30+ Days ago, just as the new global reality was setting in, I embarked on a more uplifting project. I joined the global #100DayProject2020 which is a project as much as it is a personal commitment gift to work on a creative endeavor, every day for 100 days.
I’ve followed this project in the past and admired the creative persistence and the artistic growth that occurred. I even started once and stopped when work/ life became too crazy.
This time was different… If I am ever able to commit to creating art every day for 100 days, it will be when I am stuck at home. Not only has it been the perfect opportunity to start this, but it has been so rewarding and ultimately been keeping me sane and putting some creative structure around sometimes formless days months.
One major aspect of the project is to choose a challenge that excites you, and that you can reasonably do in a “normal” day. And like all design projects adding in just the right amount of constraints can be the key to unlocking creativity.
My 100 day project “rules” (constraints)
Medium
Watercolor (mostly standard fluid watercolors, but I have bent the rules and played with acrylic a couple of times or used watercolor pens when I was on the go).
Why is a product designer playing with watercolors? Well, we all need a break from the computer. Painting was my first love and was what lead me into graphic design(my second). I relish working with my hands and feeling the paper and the medium and always want to make more time to draw and paint. Watercolors are a great medium because they’re portable, work up quickly, and are chiefly non-toxic, desirable for quarantined live/work environments.
3 colors
I’ve always enjoyed working with limited color palettes in graphic design and elsewhere. 2 colors can produce striking results but three opens up a lot of possibilities and allows you to explore triadic primaries. Watercolors make this all the more interesting because not only does each color have a leaning of warm/ cool and all the fun trappings of color theory, but they also have chemical and physical properties that interact such as transparency, opacity, granularity and blooming tendencies.
Format
6×6 paper
Why? because it is a small and manageable enough size not to be a daunting daily task to fill. It also won’t take up too much space in a small quarantined flat. I wanted a fresh daily project that was a reasonable size to start and finish at one sitting or at least on the same day. I enjoy picking a format or aspect ratio and pushing its boundaries. Squares are a tidy choice that a graphic designer can’t help but enjoy. Plus they look great all lined up next to each other.
Topic
Dealer’s choice! Open to anything. I wanted to keep this open so that I can fit this challenge to whatever I’m working on, thinking about or whatever context I happen to be in. This also allows me to vary my scope and involvement depending on how much time I have that day. Even a quick color study counts!
