The drawing itch struck me about a year ago. Sure I drew as a kid, it's amazing what things fall away as we move through life for various different reasons. My day job is at a desk, behind a computer screen, feeling chained. I've been teaching myself how to draw since sometime last year. I had sticky notes at my desk and realized that I was drawing on them close to every day. I am drawn to nature, botanical, leaves, flowers, mushrooms, etc.
Fast forward (or rewind) to January 2026. I saw a post on Mastodon about The 100 Day Project and I was intrigued. A quick search brought me to The 100 Day Project homepage (https://www.the100dayproject.org/about). I was already doodling at my desk on sticky notes close to, if not everyday. And I had started sharing those on Mastodon in January. So after reading about The 100 Day Project and what I needed to do to participate, I decided to go for it, but what am I going to spend the next 100 days doing? Well .. duh using the sticky notes I had available on my desk to doodle through a book that had already been a motivator to me, Botanical Line Drawing by Peggy Dean.
According to The 100 Day Project all that I needed to do was to participate. Tag my posts on Instagram ... but wait ... I don't have Instagram. No problem. I could also sign up for the newsletter, here is where free turned into paid. Which is totally fine if you need inspiration, want project updates from featured creators, or maybe need some prompts, etc. I decided to remain free and that meant I got a newsletter about once a month or so. Totally cool. So I decided to keep it to Mastodon and used several hashtags in my toots (what Mastodon calls posts).
The first day was February 22, 2026 this year. I started the project on day 3, February 25, 2026. Part of me wasn't sure if I could do it? Little by little, starting on page 1, every morning. I drew. Sometimes it was five minutes, sometimes ten minutes. There was some stuggle, since it was easy to draw at my desk everyday before work. My sticky notes, quickly turned into little notebooks. What I realized was that it was harder for me to draw on the weekends because I wasn't sitting in my office. I had to find a way to remember to bring my book and my notepad downstairs, so I could draw in the kitchen.
It wasn't until day 24 that I started posting my little doodles on Mastodon. Over time, I developed confidence with my line drawings. I liked a certain aestatic with my posts. I got a ton of inspiration and enjoyed seeing others who were also participating on Mastdon. Some drawings I really liked and others I didn't like. I know what shapes I want to practice. In the end all of this lead to me taking a Botanical drawing class which I'm really excited about. I'm hoping to build upon what I did for The 100 Day Project. And I continue the habit of drawing everyday.
