17 days down, only 83 more to go!

As I type this, it's Day 17 of my #100dayprojectofrocks and so far things are moving along quite well.

I'm not sure why the last part of that sentence surprises me, since planning and prep are some of my best skills. Yet, this time around I've been a little worried about keeping up with my project, unsure if I picked something too ambitious.

During my first 100-day project in 2021, I was in a different place as an artist. I didn't have other projects going on, I wasn't teaching workshops yet, and I didn't have as many "other" tasks to take care of with my creative work. So, I just wondered, could I keep up?

Here's what I've learned and how I'm managing the project so far...

1. Some initial prep work has paid off and made things more efficient. Before I started, I created a little bit of a plan for how I was going to break down the 100 days. The first month I'm focusing on gel printing individual rocks. Each print is on 8" x 8" watercolor paper and I taped off 30 sheets before the project started so I'd have a month's worth ready to go. I've also been picking a full week of rocks and cutting the stencils for the whole week on one day, usually Saturday morning.

2. Having this initial prep work done has meant that often I'm able to finish my rock for the day in my early morning creative hour. (NOTE: If you didn't already know this about me...I get up about 5:30 am and spend the first hour in my studio before I'm needed for my "mom" job.)

3. But, part of this success is really about letting go while trying to finish one rock per day. If I didn't have a new rock coming my way every morning, I'd probably let my inner critic and perfectionist win. When a color isn't quite right or a technique didn't turn out quite how I had hoped, I'd probably try to redo it, maybe even completely redo the print. I don't have time to worry about it or fuss too much, which is honestly a good thing for me.

4. It's been exciting to see how many new techniques I've been able to explore with the rocks so far. I recently taught a new workshop on gel printing with drawing media. In the weeks leading up to this class, I was playing quite a bit with some of the tools I don't use very often in my work, such as charcoal, graphite, and soft pastels. It eventually hit me that these could be very useful for my rock exploration, and they certainly have been. So far the textures and lines I've been trying to copy from the rocks have involved Posca markers, charcoal, soft pastel, graphite, masking fluid, and stencils with my gel plate. This week I'm playing a little with stitched lines (after printing), as well as oil pastel resists.

5. It's also been a great way to focus on color mixing. While I have some "colorful" rocks, most of my collection involves some shade of gray. It has been a good challenge getting the right mix, sometimes lighter or darker, sometimes more blue or brown. Sometimes I'm right on, other times a miss, but that's part of the challenge. And, I love experimenting with background colors, mixing up a variety of bright or dark colors for the space around each rock, including hues I don't use very often.

6. I'm trying to document as much as possible in my sketchbook, including notes about certain techniques that did or didn't work, and color formulas. I think this will prove helpful as I move into larger pieces in the latter stages of my 100 days and try to revisit certain rocks.

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen these videos and photos, but here is a little recap of my progress through the first 2 weeks.... Thanks for reading and watching!

A video of all the rocks in my first week: