Sophie Ashdown

After thirty days of creating a new piece of art every day, what did I learn? What was the hardest part? What do I regret? Which are my favourite and least favourite pieces? Here we go…

At the beginning of this challenge I was determined but not entirely confident that I would get through the entire thirty days. Previously I tried to set myself a personal challenge to make art every day and I failed miserably. I think that the structure of this challenge, and the fact that I had to submit each day by 11:30pm or I was out, gave me the routine and motivation that I needed. 

I didn’t want to fail, or be seen to fail. At first I think the danger of being seen to fail, and somehow letting down my course and Jonathan kept me going. But quite quickly the challenge became a purely personal one. If I can do this for the first week then surely I can make it to the end. 

Initially I had loads of ideas in my head so it was easy to start new pieces because I already knew what I wanted to do. That changed about halfway through when I had to come up with brand new ideas every day. Sometimes the prompts provided by the Artquest site helped to spark an idea, but often they didn’t. I found myself thinking ahead during the day of what I would create next. Each day I would be conscious of seeing things in my travels or online that gave me an idea. A few times I literally just started from the centre of the paper and worked my way outwards without having a definitive plan. 

Generally I think the pieces that I had pre-planned in my head usually worked out better although there were a few surprises that came out of nowhere. 

Time was definitely not my friend on many of the days. There are at least half a dozen pieces that I submitted in the last ten minutes of the deadline, that I could/should have done more on. For example this one:

I had wanted to colour in the shapes behind to make the circular pieces stand out but I ran out of time. I updated the piece after submitting:

Also this one:

I think it’s okay to look back on a piece, recognise how it could be improved, and act on it. Nothing has to be set in stone. Reworking these pieces felt good and I am much happier with the revised versions. 

There are a few pieces that I don’t like much, usually because they were done in haste, eg:

The dots piece was as a response to the prompt for that day which suggested making art while doing something else, so I created it while on a zoom call for work. I don’t mind the composition but it is so simple and obviously did not take a lot of preparation. This one did not go in the interim show. 

Also this piece:

This was admittedly a rush job. It lacks complexity in the composition and the lines in the circles are too haphazard. Perhaps if the lines were more ordered and structured it could be better. 

For this one I had a definite idea in my head as a response to the prompt asking to make something related to your biggest pressure. Time is definitely my nemesis so I thought I could “constructivise” a clock but it didn’t work out so well:

I think it looks like something from  a children’s TV show, or a kid’s school project. This one wasn’t going anywhere near the interim show!

So which pieces do I like the best…

This may come as a surprise since this piece is not constructivist or abstract, but I do love cats so I’m going to include this one as a personal favourite.

It makes me smile even though it’s so different from what I usually make. It didn’t go in the interim show of course!

I made this piece quite early on and still love it:

There’s a simple and delicate nature about this. I like that there is an implied circle in the middle from which the strands extend from. It is certainly one that I intend to make in a larger size. 

A few times during the challenge I experimented with positive/negative space, and I like these two the best:

There is something about the crossing of shapes into other sections where their compositing changes that I particularly like. I am planning to make some bigger pieces that explore this further. 

And finally, although this piece does look like something about of Star Wars, I really enjoyed the process of making it and I like the outcome:

Now that the thirty days is complete, I have to admit that I miss it. I miss creating something every day to a deadline. Previously my large paintings would take weeks or months to produce, so making a complete piece of art every day was very satisfying. 

I will definitely do the challenge again next year. I’m not sure if I’ll do the A5 ink drawings again. Perhaps by then I’ll be doing something completely different in my art practice. I’m kind of excited about that.