Context and Project lore
In May of 2018 I was finishing up high school and headed into summer with my first diploma. The green leaves and warm spring air filled with opportunity and excitement for the future. My recent knack at the time was playing with the Adobe Illustrator computer software. Which I learned the basics in from my art classes. On a whim while eating a brisket sandwich with my brother, I created an instagram account dedicated to posting art. My first few posts were some class projects and some other digital creations I made previously.
A week later I was compelled and challenged myself by making “a new art” every day and posting it. As simple as that!
As the challenge progressed, I added new criteria like a theme and what to put in the caption. The season and what I enjoyed doing most wound up being the overall theme for the challenge: “Summer at the Beach”. The captions evolved into positive messages inspired by my creations. The messages were quotes I found online or beliefs and motivations I felt.
The real challenge
The challenge lasted over a year, with no hard end date and few days and breaks in between. It was difficult to think of something different each day. Yet alone to create distinction from the previous day, but it was fun and an accepted challenge.
At first it was simply endless fun– exploring different patterns, techniques, colors and constant play.
Eventually the ideas slowed and creating something new was becoming more difficult. Each day turned into consistent browsing on Pinterest for ideas I thought were cool or sparked an idea nugget. Based on what Pin that caught my eye that day, I would identify what design elements of the work I enjoyed most. Then figure out how to imitate or re-create the technique in Adobe Illustrator. Watching hours upon hours of Youtube tutorials helped in recreating the techniques I liked. Once I learned how to create a similar effect from the Pin, I would add my own spin to fit the Beach Summer theme or any other stumbled upon elements.
It was my first self-initiated art project that taught me a lot of valuable lessons that I didn’t realize until refining my education in undergrad at the University of Maryland.
