Kelly Canby in Perth, Western Australia made a year's worth of art in Illustrations365...
Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project because I felt a little bit like I was disappearing. I've always been a creative person, I was a graphic designer for many years and I painted/illustrated in my spare time. When our son was born in 2010 my focus started to become all about sleep times and routines and poopy nappies and burp cloths and pureeing food and the other million things involved with having a baby … I decided I wanted my son to grow up knowing that I'm more than just a pretty fab mum and that, although he is my main priority, there are other things I can do quite well too. He has basically done this 365 project with me as when I painted, he painted, when I drew, he drew, so its been fun for both of us and I no longer feel like I'm losing a big part of what made me who I am.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It has affected my life in SO many ways! For one, I learnt a whole lot more about being disciplined. Discipline was never really one of my strong points. I learnt how to blog, thats been pretty cool. I discovered that I do actually have an illustration style of my own, which is huge because I went into this project feeling as though I was the only artist on the planet that had no distinctive style, and as a result I've become more confident in my work and I really feel as though I "own" the stuff that I do now. I wrote a book too! Kind of. For years and years I dreamed of writing and illustrating a children's book and over the course of the last year I've been able to develop a character and write some words. Now that my daily project has ended I'm going to put all my effort into getting the story and pictures as perfect as I can and then (keep your fingers crossed for me), I'll try my luck with some children's book publishers. What else? Oh! A whole new world has been opened up to me this year. That's exciting. I discovered artists and illustrators that I never knew existed, then through them I discovered even more artists and illustrators that I never knew existed! I've been inspired almost daily because of them and I even signed up and became a member of SCBWI Australia (The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). Without a doubt, this last year has really put me on a path that I've wanted to jump on for a very long time, all because of my 365 Illustration project, really.
All up this is probably the most creative year I've ever had, including the years I spent studying art and design, because I was just living it. Everything I did became more creative, seriously, the food I cooked looked prettier, the places I went to were more interesting and my ideas just seemed ...bigger. I can't imagine not living the way that I live now, and the best part about that is that my son is in for some great fun times!
See all of Kelly's illustrations HERE.
Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project because I felt a little bit like I was disappearing. I've always been a creative person, I was a graphic designer for many years and I painted/illustrated in my spare time. When our son was born in 2010 my focus started to become all about sleep times and routines and poopy nappies and burp cloths and pureeing food and the other million things involved with having a baby … I decided I wanted my son to grow up knowing that I'm more than just a pretty fab mum and that, although he is my main priority, there are other things I can do quite well too. He has basically done this 365 project with me as when I painted, he painted, when I drew, he drew, so its been fun for both of us and I no longer feel like I'm losing a big part of what made me who I am.
How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It has affected my life in SO many ways! For one, I learnt a whole lot more about being disciplined. Discipline was never really one of my strong points. I learnt how to blog, thats been pretty cool. I discovered that I do actually have an illustration style of my own, which is huge because I went into this project feeling as though I was the only artist on the planet that had no distinctive style, and as a result I've become more confident in my work and I really feel as though I "own" the stuff that I do now. I wrote a book too! Kind of. For years and years I dreamed of writing and illustrating a children's book and over the course of the last year I've been able to develop a character and write some words. Now that my daily project has ended I'm going to put all my effort into getting the story and pictures as perfect as I can and then (keep your fingers crossed for me), I'll try my luck with some children's book publishers. What else? Oh! A whole new world has been opened up to me this year. That's exciting. I discovered artists and illustrators that I never knew existed, then through them I discovered even more artists and illustrators that I never knew existed! I've been inspired almost daily because of them and I even signed up and became a member of SCBWI Australia (The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators). Without a doubt, this last year has really put me on a path that I've wanted to jump on for a very long time, all because of my 365 Illustration project, really.
All up this is probably the most creative year I've ever had, including the years I spent studying art and design, because I was just living it. Everything I did became more creative, seriously, the food I cooked looked prettier, the places I went to were more interesting and my ideas just seemed ...bigger. I can't imagine not living the way that I live now, and the best part about that is that my son is in for some great fun times!
See all of Kelly's illustrations HERE.
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