Word of the Day Exercise: Week Fifteen

I finished my Word of the Day notebook on Monday—100 continuous days of drawing the Word of the Day each day. Overall it was a fun exercise. Some words I knew and some words were new to me, but I was always curious each morning to see what that day’s word of the day would be. Some days I instantly knew what I was going to draw, while others I felt less inspired and less motivated to do it, but I always did it.

Since there’s no “undo” function when drawing in pencil, I tried to think about my approach of each Word of the Day a bit before setting pencil to paper, because it’s rather time-consuming every time you make a mistake or want to try something different. [Pause.] And let’s just say I used my eraser…a lot. The most common issue I had in my drawings was trying to figure out the letter spacing (so I wouldn’t run out of room on the page towards the end of the word). Often the letter spacing was off, but I could only care to a point because I had my predetermined time limit.  

I’m a little sad that my exercise is over (since I got used to it and it was kind of fun). But I’m also glad it’s finished because it frees up quite a bit of time. While an hour was my maximum time limit for this daily exercise, on average I probably spent closer to 30-45 minutes per drawing (and maybe 20 minutes on the quick ones). Now I just have decide how I’ll use all that extra time…

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Fourteen

I enjoyed doing my last full week of my Word of the Day exercise. But it’s a little bittersweet knowing that it’ll soon be over…

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Thirteen

One more week down. I’m nearing the end of my Word of the Day notebook—there’s just a little over a week’s worth left to do.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Twelve

So this is last week’s set of words…I’ve finally caught up.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Eleven

So this is last week’s set of words, since I’d forgotten my sketchbook at work last week, which meant my schedule for photographing was off. Of course after that I was somewhat paranoid about forgetting my sketchbook (and of course remembered to take it home this week).

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Ten

I had a moment of panic while I was falling asleep one night, thinking: “Did I do my Word of the Day today?" It took me a few moments before I could remember, that yes, yes I had (and I felt relief wash over me and I could then go to sleep without worry). Because I’ve been really good about doing each word the day of, and have never cheated and drawn the word on a later date, and I hadn’t wanted to break that rule.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Nine

I’ve been hanging in there continuing doing my Word of the Day exercise, although my motivation has somewhat waned. My goal (if I don’t get lazy) is to finish this notebook up with my Word of the Day drawings. My notebook has 100 pages, and thus far I’ve drawn a total of 63 words.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Eight

This week I was somewhat ambivalent about my Word of the Day exercise. For whatever reason, I wasn’t quite in the mood or particularly inspired by most of the words. Whenever I feel excited about the Word of the Day words, I tend to like my drawings more, while with the words I’m rather apathetic about, they generally turn out (at best) mediocre.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Seven

I enjoyed the drawing the Word of the Day more this week because I thought some of the words themselves were more fun and interesting.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Six

I officially ended my Word of the Day exercise last week, but I’ve just been continuing on. I admit, this week I was less inspired by the words than in previous weeks; I’m not sure if it’s because of the words themselves or because I just wasn’t as motivated in general…maybe both.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Five

This week marked the final day of my one-month exercise of drawing the Word of the Day each day. It felt pretty good to reach my goal. Yet, I couldn’t help but finish off the week (because once you start doing it, it’s hard to stop). I may continue to draw the Word of the Day...or not (I guess it depends on how lazy I get).

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Four

This past week my timing seemed off because of Christmas and I felt a bit discombobulated, but I managed to finish drawing my word each day. I’m nearing the end of my month-long exercise of drawing the Word of the Day, and a part of me is sad and a part of me is relieved. Only three more days to go…

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Three

Another week of my Word of the Day exercise is finished. My resolve to draw each word each day has remained steady for 21 days straight. I did make one edit after the fact because I’d made an error. (It was only a matter of time before I caught a mistake, and perhaps there are others, but I saw this one before I posted it so I changed it). I’m not sure why, but I’d spelled “midriff” with two d’s (which isn’t right), so I fixed it.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week Two

I have more of a rhythm now for drawing the Word of the Day. I like to look at what the Word of the Day is shortly after I wake up and let it sink in. Although sometimes an idea instantly pops into my head, other times I’m a bit perplexed of what I should do and so I like to give myself some time for my subconscious to come up with an answer. Then during my lunch break or later in the evening I’ll draw the word for that day.

Word of the Day Exercise: Week One

So far I’ve been successful with my exercise of drawing the Word of the Day each day (with a one-hour time limit). I haven’t cheated (and done two words in a day) and I haven’t had any resentful feelings like I have to draw the latest Word of the Day. I actually like it; I look forward to seeing what the new Word of the Day is each day. Sometimes I instantly have an idea of what I want to draw and other times it is more of a struggle…but I always finish.

Word of the Day: Fuliginous

I thought it would be a fun exercise to draw a Word of the Day (from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary) in a way that reflects the meaning or feeling of that word. I enjoy language and words, and the English language is vast and there’s a ton of words that I don’t know what they mean (let alone exist).

For the month of December I’m going to try and draw each Word of the Day everyday. Because this is just an exercise, I’m going to limit my drawing time to one hour maximum (and if I’m honest, it’ll likely be less than that on average). So some words may look a bit more finished than others, although all will look quite rough. I don’t have any rules for drawing the word; it can be a mix of typography and pictures; I can add notes or thoughts—basically I can do whatever I feel like doing within my limited time frame.

I chose “fuliginous” as an example word because it had a fairly easy and tangible meaning (and one that wasn’t too difficult to draw). Once December starts I won’t have a choice, and will randomly be assigned a word—and some words will likely be easier to draw then others. My plan is to build up a week’s worth of words and post it on the weekend. I think (or rather hope) it’ll be a fun daily exercise…but only time will tell.