Before I started the 100 Day Project this year, I wanted to make sure that this was a project that I had a good chance of being able to finish.

I needed to stack the odds in my favor because let’s be honest, 100 days is a lot of days to invest in sitting down and creating when creating is often the last priority in our busy day to day lives.

Yes, even when you have a YouTube channel about watercolors.

And especially when you’re a full-time mom to a 19 month-old toddler.

So, I started the project on April 7th and ended it on July 15th without missing a single day.

Now that it’s over, I want to share some thoughts about why I think I was able to keep up with my project this year and why it felt for the most part, effortless.

Since this wasn’t the first time I’ve participated in a 100 day project, I knew what I would be up against.

And if I was going to do this project this year, I needed to make it sustainable. Which meant each daily action was going to need to be small and manageable. Something I could do every day within 30 minutes or less - or else I know I wouldn’t be able to keep up.

I came up with the idea of painting a small 2x2 square each day. The 2x2 size was inspired by the 2x2 swatches I make with my swatch stamp. 

I thought about how I would “section” out my project since doing that back in 2017 was helpful for me to be able to get through the 100 days.

This year, I decided to divide the project into quarters. So every 25 days would be a full painting. Which means each “grid” of squares is 5x5 and composed of 25 squares.

Throughout the project, a lot of people asked about the process behind this project, and it’s really quite simple:

• Pick a reference photo

• Use Adobe Illustrator to crop it down to a square

• Lay a grid over it using white lines

I would export this image and use it as my “map” so to say for the next 25 days.

And so I carried on painting little squares like this for 100 days.

As I mentioned for the most part it felt pretty effortless. But there were days that I just didn’t feel like doing the square - yet it was so easy that I forced myself to anyways.

I suppose in that sense I succeeded at my intent of creating a sustainable and iterative project and I learned quite a few lessons when it comes to creativity in doing the project this year that I want to share

First, breaking anything that seems daunting into small digestible pieces making it easier to do.

I picked some quite detailed pieces but when painted one square at a time, it definitely did not seem as hard.

Second, even in a small space, you can get lost in the details. I purposely wanted to try staying ‘loose’ with each square. I thought I could make each square look like it’s own abstract piece but when pieced together it would form a whole picture. As you can see, that didn’t really happen!

And the third, biggest lesson is that less Decision-Making = Less Resistance To Creating.

I took all the decision making out of the daily task. I had a map as mentioned to what I was supposed to do that day.

That worked really well, but here’s the twist: I also think Too Little Decision Making = Less Creativity When Creating

Even on my worst days where I was feeling ‘so over it’, I was still able to muster up the energy to splash some paint down and complete my square.

What that tells me is that I set myself up so that I was creating without having to be very creative.

Of course, there are moments in each square where I am using my creativity to decide on colors, style, etc. However, I wonder in hindsight if I removed so many of the decisions that I also removed the opportunity to be more creative with my project.

By nature I am a “box-checker” and funny enough, I created a project that allowed me to ‘check off’ and complete a box each day so that I could have the satisfaction of filling in all my boxes - literally…

So what am I taking away from this lesson?

Reducing decision fatigue when it comes to creating is not a bad thing. But for me, I’m planning to apply it in a healthier way for my creativity.

A few examples of what this might look like for me:

• Choosing a limited color palette before starting a piece

• Keeping my supplies out and ready to be used

• Picking a topic or subject that I want to work on (for the month or the week).

• Giving myself guidelines for my daily sketching practice (like the session will only last 15 mins.)

And finally, a life lesson that can be seen through this project…

I started this project a few weeks after the pandemic began. 2020 has been quite a year.

Looking back at where it started, it reminds me of how quickly things can change in our world, yet we still have to take things day by day.

One day at a time.
Do the best we can.
And keep going.
Because it all adds up.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the process behind my 100 day project this year.

Thank you so much for reading and watching!
Susan

P.S. Please note that I am no longer selling my swatch stamp at the moment. Apologies for the inconvenience. The best way to keep in touch and find out if I decide to take orders again for Swatch Stamps is to click here and sign up for my newsletter.