Star Wars Remix

Just wanted to announce that a new project I've been helping out with has launched today!

Star Wars Remix is the brainchild of my friends Emma Beddows and Scott Walker, who asked if I would use my Skull-A-Day expertise to help them get the ball rolling.

Basically the idea is to get people making Star Wars characters, scenes, props, etc. out of everyday materials. I helped out with the banner for the site as well as several original creations, which they will be posting over the next month. I've had a lot of fun returning to materials and techniques I tried out in Skull-A-Day. In fact you may recognize today's post's concept from this piece and material from this piece.

I also got several 365 friends to participate as well including Everything Burger's Charlton Yu and Freehand Profit from MASK365, so expect to see some great new work over the next few weeks.

I hope you'll check it out AND consider making and sharing a Star Wars Remix of your own!

Habitual Hands

Tricia Whitworth Daniels in Chico, California is doing a project called Habitual Hands...

Why did you decide to do this project? I enjoy collecting hands. I have a visceral reaction to the form. My collection probably numbers in the hundreds. Many are creeped out by my hands but I'm OK with that. I have wanted to photo-document the collection for years.

I am also a graphic designer... This project allows me to combine the two with the challenge of a daily deadline. My only client is the calendar. My compensation is the daily accomplishment of finishing a project.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I started in February. So far this challenge is a welcome distraction. As my day-to-day life sometimes meanders in directions beyond my control... Habitual Hands is a project that I give myself permission to spend time on, and I completely enjoy it. I have made wonderful visual discoveries that would have never happened if I didn’t start this project. I even made a crazy hand-shaped meatloaf to bring to an Oscar themed party! Good times.

See all of Tricia's hands HERE.

Lori's Daily Personal Art Blog

Lori Weitzel in Winter Park, Florida is doing what she calls, Orlando Illustrator: Lori Weitzel A Daily Personal Art Blog. She explains, "using the format of paint color chips and daily inspiration boards I visually journal what I am working on or thinking about. I sometimes use others photography or images (I credit them), to support the art and feeling that I create that day."...

Why did you decide to do this project? Like  writers who need to stop reading and start writing daily, I felt a need to force myself to stop surfing and do illustrations each day to help me hone in and develop a recognizable look and style to my art. At first it was a private art journal,  but once I got discovered I decided to use it as self promo. I  just moved to Orlando and wanted to get some exposure to obtain freelance editorial illustration work. I question whether its the best way to promote my work, since not all of this is my finest hour.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It has been therapeutic and rewarding to complete work so fast. Logistically, besides paid work that must come first, it has been tough because I want to get the illustration done before the boys come home from school. Often I have not lived enough of the day to have inspiration yet, so I end up working on it at night when I should be having family time. I am getting faster and my goal is to be able to produce the post earlier in the day.

See all of Lori's art HERE.

Utne likes 365

365 got a nice shout out at Utne this week...

See the entire post HERE.

Jon Grinder's Bicycle Stories

Jon Grinder of Denver, Colorado (whose Pix X 366 was featured here previously), has started a new 365 project in which he's telling a bicycle related story every day!...

Why did you decide to do this project? I wanted to do another 365 project, because I felt my last one had led to some personal growth.  As I also wanted to work on my writing skills, this seemed like a good way to work on both skills and growth.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I am only in the second day of this particular project, as I write this.  But, I am very excited by the prospect of weaving these tales, on a daily basis.  And, I am curious to see if I have 365 discreet tales floating around in my vast cranium!


Read all of Jon Grinder's Bicycle Stories on his site HERE.

365 Haiku

 My friend Jennifer Willis in Portland, Oregon has set out to write 365 Haiku!...

Opportunities
abound now. New doors open
unexpectedly.

Why did you decide to do this project? I've known Noah for going on ten years, and have always marveled at his artistic stamina – especially when it came to his Skull-A-Day project. When I first heard about his 365 book, I knew I wanted to get involved but I wasn't quite sure how. I'm not a visual artist. I thought briefly of cooking/baking something new every day, but didn't want to follow in the footsteps of the Julie/Julia Project and didn't want cooking to become a chore. I'm not sure where the idea of haiku came from; I am a writer, but had only once before attempted haiku – earlier this year as part of Michelle Rafter's annual blogathon. I jumped in with daily haiku without thinking too hard about it.

Now I’ve lost my voice.
I sound like a muppet or
cartoon character.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I began this project on October 31 – Halloween is my favorite holiday! – so I'm a far cry from year-long at this point. I cheated at first: writing up a bunch of haiku and pre-loading them to post on different days. I was admittedly intimidated by having to do *anything* each and every day for a full year, especially beginning at the same time as National Novel Writing Month. Now I only pre-publish if I know I'm not going to have internet access for a few days. My daily haiku postings don't have a particular theme as yet; mostly it's just a reflection of what's going on in my life – the weather, flight delays, power outages, going to the rock gym – though these seventeen daily syllables also afford me the opportunity to muse on global events, passing seasons, religion, and more. Being limited to so few syllables poses a daily creative challenge, which is the whole point. I sometimes get so excited that I write four or five haiku in a row – and I now have a running list of options to choose from if I ever find myself stuck.

A power outage
means haiku by candlelight
and a restful night.

Follow Jen's poetic journey on her site HERE.

A Flower A Day

Jackie read 365: A Daily Creativity Journal and was inspired to make A Flower A Day!...

Why did you decide to do this project? Flowers are one of my favorite things. are a symbol of friendship and love. No matter where they are they always bring beauty.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It has taught me to think outside of the box and to explore new forms of art. It has also pushed me to take other art forms that I know but not good at and become better. It has also made me more aware of the the world around me.

See how Jackie's flowers are growing on her blog HERE.

Ornithoblogical

NYC-based illustrator Anna Raff decided to create a bird image every day for a year on her Ornithoblogical site...

See all of Anna's lovely birds on her site HERE.

Weekly Reliquary

Not every 365 project has to take place on a daily basis. My friend Tere Hernández-Bonét is a fantastic jeweler here in Richmond, Virginia who was looking for a way to inspire her own creativity in the midst of a very busy schedule. She decided on creating a Weekly Reliquary over the course of a year and give herself more time to put towards each piece...

See all of Tere's reliquaries on her blog HERE.

BBCX365

Johnny Selman from San Francisco shared his BBCX365 project in which he's creating a poster every day for a year based on a headline on the BBC news website...

In his words, "I am currently working on my graduate thesis at Academy of Art in San Francisco. My intention with the project is to bridge the knowledge gap between global current events and the American public. The project has been featured in the BBC, the Guardian UK, and Dezeen. I am prepping up for a 100th poster event in SF on Dec. 16th. where the first 100 posters will be displayed in storefront windows down a stretch of Valencia St. in the Mission."

See all of Johnny's posters on his site HERE.

Napkin Moustache A Day

My friend Phil Ford was inspired by me to start making a Napkin Moustache A Day!...

Why did you decide to do this project? Being silly for my wife at various meals, then Noah had to go and do this thing to inspire to create and all that...so, can I do this for a year?

How has doing a daily project affected your life? I have already had a positive response from people, some even asking to contribute (which I may do as the year goes on).  I think what has been interesting so far is the directions that I can go with it.  What is kind of happening is that I have been writing about what is happening at that moment to bring me right up to the photograph of the Napstache.  A captured diary moment, if you will.

See all of Phil's "napstaches" and read the stories of the meals behind them on his site HERE.

Year of The Chopper

Josh Welton decided to build a motorcycle sculpture every week for a year and then donate the profit from their sale to charity! His Year of the Chopper is over, but some of the bikes are still for sale...

See all of Josh's choppers on his blog HERE.

Robot-A-Day II

Another great thing about daily projects is that even when the subject is the same the outcome is completely unique. Chris Zeliff was inspired by Skull-A-Day to make his own Robot-A-Day...

See all of Chris's robots on his site HERE.

MASK365

Gary Lockwood in Los Angeles, California was inspired by Skull-A-Day to create his own daily mask making project MASK365...

Why did you decide to do this project?  I chose to start my own 365 project in conjunction with a friend who started one as well called Burger365.  When I read about and saw the Skull A Day project I was reminded of assignments I did in college at Corcoran School of Art & Design. As an artist and designer always looking for ways to progress my work I knew devoting myself to creating a piece everyday would open the artistic flood gates.

How has doing a daily project affected your life? Doing a daily, yearlong project like MASK365 has commanded much of my time.  It truly demands a central role in my life.  It also forces me to push through and finish pieces that I'd probably give up on.  A daily project is an extreme commitment, even for a creature of habit.  Truth be told, extreme actions produce extreme results and I'm excited to have recently passed the half way mark and I am looking forward to seeing how my work will progress by the end of the year.

See all of Gary's masks on his site HERE.

Doodle Daily

Warren Beinart in North Potomac, Maryland was always a doodler, but started making a doodle every day over a year ago and shows no signs of slowing down on The Doodle Daily...

Why did you decide to do this project? Since the beginning, I have said that it was your appearance on Martha Stewart (when my partner Lisa was in the audience and brought back your book) that inspired me to start this 365 project.  In fact I have had that listed on the FAQs on my site since day 1.  I love to create and being able to share that creativity with others is so rewarding.  I would love to memorialize my year long journey in a book of my own.  I just don't know where to start, but is is definitely a goal of mine as a progress through year 2 of the project. 

How has doing a daily project affected your life? I find that drawing is very relaxing and zen-like and it is an incredible escape, so forcing myself to do it every day has helped my calm down and express the creative side that I had always kept hidden.  From the project I have expanded to include my doodles in my greeting cards coming up with many new and fun ideas. My range of greeting cards is actually  for sale on the site just in time for Hanukkah & Christmas.

Over the year the blog was featured on 2 major DC radio station morning shows.  It was included in a list of the top 10 blogs in the DC area by WTOP listeners.  I had articles written up about the site in on websites such as Art of Day and was a featured guest on a weekly online radio broadcast.

You can see all of Warren's doodles on his site HERE.

In addition, Warren started a World Doodle Challenge with the moto of "Uniting the world 1 doodle at a time" and a goal of 1,000,000 doodles submitted from around the globe. Why not add your own today?

Another Day Another Dollar

Oscar Fox from Melbourne, Australia was inspired by 365 & Skull-A-Day to create the daily project Another Day Another Dollar in which he will "add just one lousy buck each day to an ever increasing pile of dollars." and document it...

Why did you decide to do this project? Another day another dollar is done purely to see if I can stick to a simple task for a year, the subject is not a mind bender but I hope to execute it with some imagination and creativity. The general consensus is to donate the $365.00 collected to a local Dog rescue center when the task is completed.

How has doing a daily project affected your life? So far the process hasn't driven me to drink (anymore than usual) but time will be the teller.

Watch Oscar's pile of money continue grow on his site HERE.

Pix X 366

Jon Grinder in Denver, Colorado shared his daily drawing project from 2008 called Pix X 366. He actually made 366 drawings instead of just 365 since it was a leap year!...

Why did you decide to do this project?  I had a number of reasons: I wanted to improve my drawing skills... I wanted to see what subjects would occur to me from day to day and track my mood, etc, by that... and i wanted to justify to myself the assertion that i am an "artist"...

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It definitely made me look at art, differently, having a daily deadline and no long-term plan for subject matter.  Eventually, the mere act of drawing became the art, rather than the picture itself.  And, it did solidify the feeling of actually being an artist, rather than a guy who draws (if that makes any sense).

See all of Jon's pix on his blog HERE.

The Weather sKwirl

My friend kHyal™ shared her daily project The Weather sKwirl, where she's been posting a new image, featuring the cutest little squirrel, every day since February 12, 2010, and has no plans to stop!...

 

She says, "The Weather sKwirl™ was created out of sheer fun and silliness and continues everyday for that same reason. The byproduct is that it provides unexpected creative opportunities, has won public art competitions, has become a fine art, style and jewelry line that for some reason sells. (Which perhaps is the oddest part of it.) Mostly, it brings me great joy to see it make other people smile. The character itself houses my own anxiety, thereby deflecting it from me personally, which is just plain good for my mental health."

Catch the sKwirl's adventure's every day HERE.

kHyal™also blogs daily with her partner Karl at DesignerGrill.

Interview: Thomas Fuchs - A Heart A Day

Thomas Fuchs decided to create an image of a heart every day …

Why did you decide to do “Heart A Day”?

I just started at some point with a few random heart ideas, realized there's a plethora of images that just have to be created and simply kept going.

On average how much time did you spend on each piece?

On average maybe an hour.

How much/how often did you make similar creative work before this?

Many times, there's a whole bunch of similar series in my back catalog- I tend to work well in that format.

Had you tried making a yearlong project before (and if so did you complete the year and how did that experience compare)?

Not yearlong, exactly. On and off a few that stretched over a few years.

What did you expect to get from this experience and were your expectations met, surpassed, dashed? How?

I didn't really expect anything other than fun, so that expectation definitely was met.

What have you learned about yourself in the process of doing this?

That I'm inside my own head way too much, it's scary in there.

How has this process affected your creativity/skills/style?

I've definitely gotten more efficient at Illustrator/Photoshop.

How do/did you stay inspired?

By anything around me and by not trying to hard to get inspired.

In what ways did doing a yearlong project transform your life?

Having to post on the blog everyday- that seriously cuts into the beach time :)

What is the best thing that has come from doing this project?

The best thing would probably be that this particular project has opened up a few possibilities of applying my work which I hadn't really considered before.

Any advice for people considering starting their own yearlong project?
Don't overthink it.

Thomas Fuchs was born and raised in Germany. After finishing his studies in Graphic Design and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with an MfA in '97, he moved to New York in November of the same year. His work has received awards from The Society of Illustrators (Gold Medal, Advertising and Institutional Category), American Illustration, Communication Arts, Print, SPD, The Art Directors Club NY and Germany (of which he is a member) and SND (Silver Medal). He currently lives and works in New York.

www.AHeartADay.com