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Day 100:
A little over 200 days ago, I decided to start the NMA 100 Day Challenge. I’d always wanted to take art seriously and dedicate proper practice to it, but had never managed to put it into my schedule in any long lasting way. I was doubtful I would make 100 days and I was nervous to post in public. However I knew that the accountability would help, so I began.
I’m a botanical artist, but decided to draw people for the first time, to push my drawing skills – I don’t think there’s a more difficult subject in the world. I felt clumsy and what I drew looked so awful it was embarrassing, but I discovered that the community here was gentle and encouraging. I made it to 10 days, 20, 30, halfway and eventually to the full 100 days. My drawing skills improved and I knew that something of a drawing habit was beginning to form. They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit. I’m not so sure. I knew in myself that if I stopped at 100 days, my drawing habit wasn’t reliably set and I would be prone to letting it slip. So because it was important to me to make sure it was, I decided to do a second 100 day challenge. To take the habit thought to its conclusion, at the end of this second 100 days, I know that my practice habit is set, and if it falters in the future, I know how to get it back on track. I’m so grateful for the challenge for helping me to conquer this.
As much as this challenge has been about learning to draw, it has also taken me on a journey of what art I want to do. What is it that I wanted to say? I loved Steve Houston’s lectures on what art is and I’ve come to understand that although there is no clear message in an artwork like there is in a piece of writing, it nevertheless does speak and what is in one’s heart does come out in the making. I have to trust that what I make does say what I’m trying to say, to the person it is meant to speak to.
Although I began the second challenges as focusing on people and perspective, due mostly to thoughts that I may go down an illustration route, I came back to my original love of botanicals. There is a difference though in how I draw, thanks to what I am learning through NMA. This leptospermum drawing I’ve settled on completing over the past weeks is coming from a new perspective and place of understanding. I’m using reference, but not to copy, as a guide (whilst maintaining botanical accuracy). I know that understanding structure makes for more informed and accurate work. I hear Glenn Vilpuu in my head saying ‘I don’t copy the model…’ and this has freed me to create light and shadow, form and composition etc instead of just trying to accurately copy what’s in the photo, or the plant in front of me. I hear Steve Huston in my head saying ‘making a gesture line too curved is a better error than not curved enough’ and ‘gesture, structure’ and this helps me with design and composition. I feel I’m becoming more thoughtful in my work. There is still much to learn, but I am learning and that is a good feeling.
And so, I am signing off from the challenge for now. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me on this journey. It has been a very good one. And thank you NMA, for providing us with this opportunity and such a wealth of knowledge. I am truly grateful.
Deborah
Hi Abhi. Thank you for your kind words. I do a lot of this kind of work and I’m glad you like it. I’m nearly at the end of this second challenge now and won’t be doing a third at this stage, but some of my older work is on my Instagram page @deborahharback including the beginning stages of this one and I’ll be setting a website up as soon as I’ve finished this drawing, most likely early in the New Year.
Days 97 & 98:
Day 96: I did work on this over two days, but was short on time and made only a little progress, so I’m posting it as just one day. It is such a busy time of year here and everything seems to need to be done all at once.
Day 95: I had to skip yesterday, so only one day’s progress this time. I’m not going to be finished by the end of the challenge (in another life without any other deadlines I might), but I’m making solid progress, with less than a third left to do. I’m hoping for the end of the year, but that’s unlikely too because of Christmas – end of January is my real deadline goal.
Days 89 & 90: A very busy few days = not much progress. A couple of hours a day minimum on these busy days. Forgive the poor quality night time photo.
Thank you for your kind words Ian. That sums up pretty much exactly how I like to work!
Days 87 & 88: I’m always redrawing this as I go, tweaking composition etc, but this section is in the process of complete redrawing, as I’d obviously not thought about the depth of perspective when I did the original drawing. That’s something I’ve learned through my time at NMA. The sections that come forward need to be larger and those that recede smaller, and that’s something I’m needing to be aware of in the process of the design. I’ve also realised that I have tended to draw this section more yellow than the other sections which have a bluer hue, so I’m going to need to calibrate the colour across the drawing too, before I go any further. All of this plus more, I am creating, not copying, so whilst slow, this drawing is pushing me in a number of skill areas.
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