What I Learned from My 2019 30 Day Drawing Challenge

Hello Moonbeams, 

After finishing up with all my Noirs Animonth drawings, I took a much needed "break" to catch up on other work which had piled up during November.  

I wanted to write a post wrapping up my overall feelings about the Noirs Animonth series, what I learned, and how I felt about it in the end! 

So for anyone who did not follow along during November, my Noirs Animonth challenge was a series of 30 graphite and  gold leaf drawings done each day of the month focusing on the Noirs Animaux, a specific set of animal spirits that frequently appear in my work.    

I mentioned after the first week of the challenge that I had been having some difficulty connecting with the series and was feeling a bit overwhelmed and uninspired.  After changing a few things, my creative setting, my mindset on the series, and thinking of how much the series meant to me as a whole, it began to go a lot better.  But, it was not without challenges.  

I believe the main source of difficulty I felt during this challenge from, beginning to end was frustration about time.  November was a bit of a rough month for many reasons and I noticed I was in a mostly constant state of over stress, which, as we all know, tends to magnify small problems and make them seem far larger.  

I have the tendency to constantly think of too much and get distracted, particularly during times of stress.  This made the amount of time each piece took stretch out far longer than it should have which led to a lot of self blame, another unhealthy habit I have.  Overall, I found myself feeling  like a strict teacher at the end of each day who was disappointed with the amount of work I had accomplished. 

Taking all that into account, I want to talk about what I learned, and why I am so so glad I created this series!  First, I was delighted to gain so much work for Mountaincholia, my upcoming artbook.  This series meant a lot to me and having so many drawings created for it not only lessened the amount of work yet to be done for the book, but helped me grow closer to the creatures in my book, and to my art in general.  Every time I do a series, I feel like I learn a little bit about my own universe and how I function.  

Of course during the series, I was met with some artistic challenges as well. Because the pieces had a lot in common technique-wise, I found that I kept encountering  those little issues which forced me to confront them.  Issues of values, working with negative space, and creating unique ideas one after another, were a majorly beneficial practice for me.  I also got closer to some of my favourite mediums, pencil, and gold leaf.  I absolutely fell in love with working in real gold leaf this month once I realized some of the unique benefits it had over metal leaf for me.  

Lastly, November really pushed me on how I value my time, the way I treat myself, and the daily challenges I regularly face as an artist.  I confronted a lot of difficult emotions and have been trying to work on letting go of the things I cannot control.  I have also changed up the way I plan my day, and have totally redone my studio.  I will be doing a wrap-up video podcast before the end of the year to discuss more of that.   One thing I come away with time and time again when doing a challenging series of art, is that the lessons I learn are worth just as much as the benefits I might hope to receive.  As such, I plan to definitely continue doing monthly art challenges in the future! I am not sure when the next one will be, but of course you will be the first to know when I decide!  For now, I hope you enjoyed Noirs Animonth!  I  know I did, in so many ways I did not expect!

Be well!

~Aria