As this year draws to a close, so does a major goal for me. in January I set the goal to paint or draw every single day in 2015. I am delighted to report that I have not missed a single day!  I’ll freely admit that there were a few days that came pretty close.  One day in particular that I can think of: we happened to be driving through South Dakota at 11:00pm on the longest day of driving during  our cross-country road trip this summer when I realized I hadn’t drawn anything that day.  13+ hours in the car tends to have that affect.  I whipped out my sketchbook and added just a few details to a spread in progress.  I risked carsickness (with which I am plagued) in order to make sure I didn’t miss my goal.

Happily, most days were not that frantic.  I was able to create pieces that were meaningful and challenging during the early hours of the morning while our house was quite.

One of the many things I’ve learned during my first Year of Creative Habits Challenge, is that I love drawing intricate designs.  I’ve spent a lot of time this year with a micron pen in my hand!  

I’ve been amazed at the progress I’ve seen since I began this project.  More than anything I’ve proven to myself that in order to improve in my artistic skills, I need to have a daily creative practice. I still have so much to learn and the only way that’s going to happen is if creating artwork is a daily part of my life.  So, the plan for now is to continue every single day.

Technically, I began this challenge on my birthday in 2015 (January 13th) but because I like the streamlinedness (new word!) of starting a project on January 1st and finishing on December 31st I’m going to switch projects on January 1, 2016 and stick with that schedule going forward.  It doesn’t really change much, I’ll still be creating every day, but my brain likes the simplicity a little better.

Because I love intricate illustrations so much, I decided to create a coloring page calendar for 2016. All the images in this post are from the calendar. I’ve included 12 hand-drawn pages with detailed motifs for you to color and display.  You can snag the instant download here.

2016 will began a year of hand lettering.  I’m planning to do daily lettering practice exercises as well as hand lettering a quote each day.  I’d love to add your favorite quote/scripture/lyric/word to my list.

Please comment with any suggestions you have.  I’m going to need a LOT of quotes (366 to be exact. It’s leap year, you know.)