Day 1 of the 100 Days Project: Elements of Art and Principles of Design

I've decided to participate in The 100 Day Project as a way to establish and maintain a daily art practice, and hopfully grow as an artist. While these 100 Day Projects have intrigued my artistic curiousities, I'll confess they have intimidated me as well!!  I've considered past participation but always chickened out at the last minute because I couldn't choose a focus area that excited me and/or one that would be feasible with my travel schedule. Given the freeze on my current teaching and travel schedule, this seemed like the opportune time to play along. Today I woke up from a much needed nap with an idea for a 100 Day Project that would challenge me to grow as an artist, be portable in the event that I am able to start traveling within the 100 day scope, and would use materials/resources I already have on hand.

Goals:

• Study the Elements of Art and Principles of Design 
• Create compositions that use different design combinations

I pulled out three books that would serve as a a resource for my studies (left to right):

• Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises by Lyric Kinard
• A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color & Design by Heather Thomas
• Illustrated Elements of Art and Principles of Design by Gerald F. Brommer

My rules:

• Use fused elements (from my overflowing tub of pre-fused fabric bits) to create one composition every day for a total of 100 days
• Roll three dice to determine my assignment for each day (see chart below)
• Use the same background fabric to create 25 consecutive blocks (for a total of 4 background fabrics) with the idea that each group of 25 blocks could then be assembled into 4 small quilts.
• Document my process:  Photograph dice roll and finished composition, include a personal critique: challenges/successes, and post to Instagram/Facebook and/or a weekly blog post with all 7 exercises

Rolling a set of dice seemed like a fun way to randomize the selection of each day's exercise.  Using three die, and assigning each side to a different color scheme, art element, and design principle would yield 216 possible design combinations!  And even if I were to roll the same die combination on more than one day, there are still many variables within each category to explore so I wouldn't have to worry about creating identical blocks.

As I was outlining the various categories, there were a few that were definitely outside of my comfort zone.  And as luck would have it, two were selected on my first day: monochromatic color scheme and form! I chose to keep this first composition fairly simple by exploring the 3-dimensional aspects of a simple cube. A few photographs of a nearby tissue box helped me to study value, angles, and shadows.

And here is my fused 7" x 7" composition...

Critique:
Multiple values of red-violet fabrics were used to establish a uniform light source and create the illusion of 3-D cube forms that float across the composition. A medium/dark sheer fabric was used for the shadow, however determining the shape/angle of the shadow was tricky. Pattern was achieved by using three cubes that progressively get smaller as you move from the foreground to the background.

One down, ninety-nine left to create!  I hope to post a weekly compilation of my projects to document my journey and hopefully progression! Pssst!  There's still time to join The 100 Day Project fun as I'd love to have an accountability buddy (or two!!)