30 Bugs in 30 Days Series

Today is the start of my new ACEO series, "30 Bugs in 30 Days."
Here is number one!
Colored pencil on acid free art paper with recycled content.
Click the image to find it in my Etsy shop!

I've wanted to challenge myself with a series for a while now, but I didn't want to have to interrupt the series with my Alaska trip in mid-June. 100 days was a nice even number, but daunting, and I would have to interrupt it with travel. I settled on 30 days and if I start now, I'll finish a few days before I leave for our trip.
Also, by "30 Bugs in 30 Days", I do mean 30 small finished pieces of art. So if I were to draw 2 bugs on one drawing (like today), it does not count as 2 of the bugs.... I am not going to allow myself to paint 1 swarm of honeybees and call the 30 bugs done! ;)

My original plan with my series was to include small paintings, ACEOs, embellished reproduction ACEOs or prints from paintings sketches, etc. Just some kind of art, each day. I decided against that because it seemed a little too simple (but that might be applicable if I do a 100 day series).

For this project I thought a collectible series of ACEOs would be more of a challenge and give me more finished products at the end, because sometimes I tend to start a project but have difficulty actually finishing it. Especially small projects that could be seen as insignificant, like just a sketch. By specifying finished ACEOs each day for the 30 day duration, I'm forcing myself to endure all stages of the creation process on a daily basis: Beginning (initial concept, research), Middle (sketching), and End (the final piece). Some parts of the process may take place over the course of a day or two, such as when I finish a piece and begin jotting down or sketching ideas for the next one.

I also want to challenge myself by not using photographs in the creative process. I may use them for reference on occasion, but I don't plan to use entire compositions of bugs and flowers I've already captured with my camera. I want to force myself to do something different, and while I love realism very much, I also enjoy looking at whimsical artwork- I just stink at creating it. In one college art class, we were told not to use compositions or subject matter from our heads but rather do lots and lots of research to get everything perfect and REAL. Since I love realism so much that seemed like a great idea, but I do feel that it may have slightly altered my creative process. I want more experience coming up with an idea and composition in my head first, maybe playing around with representative shapes rather than absolute reality, and later I can research some specific things if necessary.

At some point, the ACEOs from this series will probably go up for sale in my Etsy store. They'll be identified as being part of the series, with their number and completion date, and signed by me (initials on front, full name on back).