The daily card, weeks 50-52: Twelve days of Christmas

Inspired by Crystal Moody, who drew twelve days of Christmas at the end of 2014, I decided to end this project with twelve days of Christmas in December. I got a great start with a partridge in a pear tree... and then realized that four out of the twelve gifts are birds, birds are hard to draw, and that I particularly don't have the drawing skills to make a turtle dove look different from a calling bird. 

So that idea quickly got shelved and I decided instead to make my own twelve days of Christmas based on what was going on that day. I took a break for a few days around Christmas but then finished out the end of the year. My twelve days of Christmas look like: twelve months of creativity, eleven hours of writing, nine train tickets (from playing Ticket to Ride), eight family members, seven layers of tiramisu, six high school friends, five pairs of grippy socks, four hours of crafting, three sheep boats (from playing Settlers of Catan), two cold old-fashioneds, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Here are the full twelve days:

...and that's it for my year of creative habits! I am so glad to have stuck with it to the end and to have finished strong. More thoughts on the project as a whole coming next week.

As a creative challenge, I am decorating a playing card every day in 2015. More context on this project is here and you can see all past card posts here.

The daily card, week 49: Mauritania

Happy New Year! In real life, I am so excited to have wrapped up this project. In blog life, I am a bit behind in posting the cards so I'm going to power through sharing the final ones this week, and then pop in next week with some thoughts on the project as a whole.

In December, I traveled to Mauritania for work for ten days. (More on that here and here.) Similar to what I did on my last trip to Mauritania in May, I assembled a little travel kit and got to work.

These traveling cards end up being some of my favorites - the map backgrounds can feel a little repetitive, but I love the creative challenge that comes with working within additional restraints. December 12 and 13 are based on patterns from cloth I bought at the market and the pattern on the couches in the guest apartment where I stay. Hilariously, the "desert magic" card on December 9 is supposed to be bougainvillea... but every time I start to get cocky, this project reminds me that I still have a ways to go on my fine art skills. I think it makes for a cool pattern nonetheless.

And since the trip covered a few calendar weeks, here are the Mauritania cards together:

As a creative challenge, I am decorating a playing card every day in 2015. More context on this project is here and you can see all past card posts here.

The daily card, weeks 47-48

November 24 was inspired by watching a lot of Trump rallies (don't ask), by applying Trump's winning attitude to challenges at work, and most specifically by Vox's illustration of Trump in their Thanksgiving primer. November 29 inspired by Elise - I love how this one turned out.

November 30 is a favorite quote from the inimitable Lindy West and December 3 refers to this great quote from Ira Glass about closing the gap between art you recognize as great and art you can create yourself.

As I write this, there are just five days left in 2015. Pretty wild to be so close to the end of the year and of this creative challenge. Since I got a bit beyond in posting throughout the year, I'm going to double up for the last few weeks' worth of cards. 

If there's one thing I will take away from this challenge, it is that creativity breeds creativity and action begets action. I've gotten some of my best card ideas when life is hectic. And this holds true well beyond the cards. The days that I have to do a bunch of writing at work are the days that I am raring to start writing new blog posts. 

The best part is, high-volume writing days in a professional context help take the fear and emotion out of my personal writing here and elsewhere. They remind me that writing is just words and ideas - not a reflection of my deepest worth as a human being. They teach me to be comfortable with criticism and to not take it personally when someone has thoughts on how to strengthen something. They remind me to just start getting stuff down on the page and to go from there.

As a creative challenge, I am decorating a playing card every day in 2015. More context on this project is here and you can see all past card posts here.