ICAD Challenge 2022 - complete!

ICAD Cards 1-60 (The challenge is actually 61 index art cards (June and July) but I chose to make 60—it makes for a better grid).

And that’s a wrap! I am really so grateful to Tammy Garcia at Daisy Yellow for hosting this annual challenge. It’s been a great experience and I’m glad it’s over!

Art Challenges aren’t always easy—thus the word challenge—and it is true, sometimes making a card every day felt like a slog. But sometimes it’s worth the effort to push through to finish a goal. And as it turns out, I met two goals. And yes, I feel it was worth it.

For the first 30 days as I explained here, my goal was to release perfectionist tendencies and practice working faster and looser—so I worked on myself as an artist. And it was a good challenge. I did work faster and more loosely, interpreting each day’s prompt without overthinking.

After 30 days of that, though, I shifted focus from process to the art.

I decided I wanted to learn to use shape and color more effectively, especially when drawing abstractified figures, so each day according to the daily prompt, my goal was to draw a character with shapes and color and less reliance on line.

Days 31-61 (minus one)

As with any challenge, some days worked out better than others, but either way I learned so much. First, I found that it wasn’t easy to draw people in the one style I wanted to create in most—which is very abstract and shape-focused and brings both foreground and background into one cohesive composition. I hit that style only a handful of times really—and these are my favorites:

And yet…I also learned that maybe I could play with approaches and achieve slightly different but I think interesting effects. I ended up pleased with other characters in different styles—some with stories to tell like these:

And some quite whimsical and fantastical:

I guess my “style” is asserting itself, whatever my head may have in mind! And that’s okay.

In any case, I understand shape and color and my own preferences for both just a little bit more and by drawing 30 different characters emphasiziing color and shape, I met my goal.

After completing a challenge like this, I am always excited to STOP and do what I want again. My head is already full of new projects—which will be sure to be filled with lots of shape and color. Every creative experience gets folded into the next.

Thank you for letting me share this challenge with you. It’s nice to put all the cards together and reflect a bit after focusing just one day after the next for two months.

I guess that’s how an art practice flows.