June 1, 2021

My very first #100DayProject! If you’re not familiar with what that is, you can learn more about it here. But the TL;DR is simply that you choose one creative project to work on every day for 100 days. For 100 days, I’m making paper collage tiles—abstract compositions of cut-out cardstock shapes arranged on 5” x 5” cardstock canvases.

Since this is my very first experience, I’m giving myself a lot of caveats, including:

1) I’m starting on my own schedule; this year’s official #100DayProject already came and went.

2) I’m not going to aim for 100 iterations of my concept, just a (somewhat) continuous 100-day process to make whatever I can make.

3) I’m not going to post my progress every single day; more like once a week or so.

4) It’s ok if it takes me longer than 100 days to finish my project. Most likely, it will.

5) It’s ok if I need to course correct or even walk away from this project at any time, though I will try my best to stick it out!

You can follow my progress here, or over on Instagram at @alysonimagines. Wish me lots of fun, motivation, and perseverance!

October 17, 2021

Finally, I’ve completed the very last series of this 100 Day Project! It ended up taking me 137 days, to be exact. But the important thing is that I stuck with it and finished.

If you’ve been following my paper collage tile project, you probably noticed that I kept some constraints: a certain canvas size and shape (5” x 5” square tile), a specific color palette, and a limited number of shapes for each series. I planned these constraints meticulously, because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time wracking my brain in the thick of the project. For each series, I also drew concept sketches and chose specific colors before cutting out shapes and assembling the final composition.

For the final series, however, I decided to use the clippings I’d saved from previous tiles. And I decided to design and assemble the tiles in real time—no concept sketches. Creating and then strategically breaking my own rules was fun!

But the truth is, I improvised throughout this project. Often the vision I had didn’t translate exactly to the final composition. Sometimes the shapes I cut out were too big to fit the canvas, and sometimes I decided I didn’t like my original design. So I made adjustments. And it all worked out. This project helped me assert my right to have fun and make a beautiful mess. I’m so glad I initiated and completed this challenge.

Do you want to make some art and have fun doing it? Give yourself all the permissions you need and then make it happen, one day at a time!

These are illustrations I created to accompany blog posts.

I created the first four illustrations on commission for three different posts of a client’s blog. For each illustration, I started with several visual reference photos provided by the client, as well as some additional images I sourced myself, to guide the tone and composition of the piece. Then I drew a pencil sketch and used this as the basis of the digital illustration I created in Affinity Designer (a vector graphics software program similar to Adobe Illustrator).

I created the remaining illustrations to accompany several posts comprising a series called The Gifts of Slowing Down, featured in my own Snail Steps blog. For these illustrations, I used Procreate, an iPad app that is especially well suited to making art with a more hand-drawn or painterly style.

What is neurographic art?

Neurographic art, as I understand it, is a meditative exercise that aims to connect the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind, and it can be a helpful tool for processing emotions, reducing stress, and gaining clarity or insight. There are different techniques, but generally one starts by setting an intention or focusing on an emotion, channels that through drawing a quick scribble across the page, then adds lines extending to the edges of the page, softens any sharp edges or corners by filling them in, and finally colors the resulting shapes.

My process

I started with a free-form Sharpie scribble that I did in a few seconds based on my current feelings, extended any unconnected lines to the edge of the page, and softened all the sharp angles by rounding them out. Then I added more lines to fill the page, softening any additional sharp angles. Finally, I used Sharpie art markers to color in the resulting shapes.

The drawing part went very quickly, but the coloring took much longer, mainly because I was being very thoughtful about the colors I wanted to use and how to balance them throughout the composition. In both drawings, I looked for a heart center to start coloring from and then colored outward from there in a rough spiral sequence.

Benefits of neurographic art

I have found this exercise to be very calming and enjoyable. It also gives me clarity, as focusing my attention on one simple project oriented around an emotion helps my brain process what’s stuck or bothersome and frees up my mind to move forward.