The "30 in 30" Challenge - lessons learned

The September "30 paintings in 30 days" Challenge is now complete. Due to my passion for details, I spent approximately two days on one work (technically, 4-5 hours) and I was able to complete 16 drawings and paintings. And I'm happy I reached my mini-goal. It was a great challenge for me and I learned so much from the entire experience! Here is what I learned: 1) Get materials (paints, pencils, brushes, canvases and/or paper, erasers) in advance in order to avoid multiple visits to an art supply store; which will then free up more time for painting. 2) Plan a theme and subjects to paint well in advance. I know that sometimes for me like many other artists it can take a while to decide on what to paint. Looking through reference materials for an hour to find the one that fits the mood of the day will be a waste of time during the Challenge. I chose floral theme and wanted to paint all the flowers that my husband gave to me (however, that would be at least 100 paintings).

3) Plan in advance but save some space for spontaniety. I had to start my Challenge away from my studio with no paints, just paper and pencil. Drawing a rose is one thing, but drawing a bouquet would never transfer all the vibrancy of the flowers with just pencil. So I had to change the entire theme and I found a great source of inspiration in silver serving set which was perfect subject to draw. 4) Be consistent. After the seventh drawing I was tempted to change to acrylic and watercolor painting and for a brief moment I did end up changing subjects but in the end I came back to drawing in order to complete the ititial theme I chose.  5) Stay strong. To be honest there were moment when I felt rushed and I didn't feel comfortable with the pace the Challenge was going. I'm very hard on myself and I consider myself to be a result oriented artist. I fully realized that from the Challenge and now I know what to work on and I'm confident that this entire expericenve will improve future painting processes. Overall, the Challenge was one of the most interesting art events I have ever taken part in. Maybe I was not completely ready for it but I enjoyed the Challenge and took a lot of positive feedback from it and things to improve on in the future. This past September was the most productive month this year. I'm looking forward to tackling this Challenge next time because I now know what to expect and hopefully will be better prepared to complete the maxi-goal.