oneMONTH?!?!

AN ENTIRE MONTH Y'ALL!
We made it! Absolutley fantastic WELL DONE. I hope you've all learnt lots and are even more inspired to continue the whole year through!
We've lost some people, we've gained some people but all in all I've achieved what I never thought I could; inspiring masses about art. Even those who cannot do it every day, Ihope this project has made you feel like actually, you could be a little more creative in your day!
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: So I asked a few tumblrinoes this but I thought I'd open it up; What has surprised you most about this challenge so far?
For me, I've been surprised by the community spirit of everyone and I've already felt small improvements on a few things like lettering and composition. Still got a lot to go but I'm confident this time next year I'll have improved! So comment with what you've learnt so far!

submitSUNDAY time: A very colourful week. Been kinda ill but produced some good stuff. Finished my big commision and done lotsa school work. Kinda. Should still be doing more actually...


So I wanted to share another image with you! It's a screenshot I took of all my days so far. I've organised folders for each month and this is my January folder, full up!

Anyone else doing anything this ridiculous? xP
So, what will February bring? Valentines day? YouTube? Tinsel-decorated CATS?
Maybe...
Whatever happens, keep all the creativity up and know that you're all awesome!
-Maddyx

sexy(submit)SUNDAY

Ahoy hoy lovelies,
Here's my submitSUNDAY within a week of a lot of pressure and rice krispies.




I won't add todays one because the symmetry is too pretty.

Not a lot to say this week! I've been working really hard on a lot of other artistic nonsense so haven't had a BUNCH of time. I'm CRAVING summer.
See you next week beauties.
-Maddyx

failNOT

Hi Coolcats,
Some people have come to me or posted elsewhere that recently it has been hard for them to keep up with the project and that they’ve missed days out. They start using the ‘F word’ (Fail) and even the ‘C word’! (CBA) Just to say if you miss a day out it does NOT mean you fail and it does NOT mean you can’t carry on. Do not get into a stress about missing a few days, all you gotta do is CARRY ON. Especially as it’s only January! It’s when you start missing months where you should start worrying if this place is right for you. :]
All you have to ask yourself is; do you really want to better yourself in art? Do you think it will enrich your life by doing so? I think it will, but who am I to tell you what to do? ;P
Submit Sunday Time!


It's been such a crazy busy week so colour is lacking.
I’m up to date with followers again and I’ve been flooded with creativity from all you guys recently which is great to see so keep it up guys!
Hope you have another fun-filled week, keep drawing!
-Maddyx

submitSUNDAY

Hey fellow iVJ-ers (I love how some of you have shortened it, that’s so cute!)

Not much to say this week apart from....IT’S BEEN OVER A WEEK. CONGRATS COOLCATS. If you’re still going –and I know many of you are- then I reward you with a genuine hypothetical imaginary pat on the back! It’s been a great amount of fun sifting through everyone’s work –all you guys are so talented now imagine how good its gunna be a YEAR from now. Or now, 10 days LESS than a year! HORRAH. And I’m always glad to hear that you’re having such a great time with it. It makes my rather chilly day that little bit warmer!
And yes, it has been snowing in most parts of England! If you wanna check out what rainbow-assortments I made click here! :] There have been some brilliant pictures floating around the internets!

I think some people are dwindling on inspiration a bit. (I know for a while, I was!) So here’s some random themes that you could use in those days lacking in excitement:

-If you could make anything out of snow; what would it be? Draw!
-If you could invite anyone to a tea party (celebrity etc) who would they be? Draw your tea party!
-Draw yourself in an opposite dimension on this day.
-What Resolutions have you broken ALREADY (hopefully not this one!)
-The Christmas Present you haven’t used yet.

Hopefully that’s got some thoughts pumping if you were running a bit dry. Remember, if you’ve got any ideas for THEMED DAYS. Then send your thoughts in to indievisual@live.co.uk

So here is my week in pictures! Lots of being at home and moping. :]

If you wanna keep up to date with my latest entries on the day I do them CLICK HERE to see my tumblr and down the side you can check out all the other cool’ns that are following the challenge!

That’s all for now folks. Hope you’re all having EXTREME fun and....
KEEP DRAWING. :3

-Maddyxz

PS. Thinking of a bit of a redesign of this place. Any ideas? Comments and emails, people!

lovelyTIMES

Hello my soupy dragons!
(....just....*sigh*)
Exciting topics of conversation for today:
-Submit Sunday (OPTIONAL)
-Funny Sentence Friday! (ALSO OPTIONAL)
-Provoking Prospects (well...I guess optional too.)
-Social-Networking Such-likes! (Urm...hellooo.)
Submit Sunday is going to be the official day of Uploading! HOWEVER if you think you’ve got into a rhythm where you can upload every day and that’s easy for you then ABSOLUTELY go for uploading every day still. For me, my tumblr account is where I’ll be uploading every day as much as I can and on my blogspot you’ll see I’ll submit on a particular Submit Sunday! Whichever way you wanna do it is fine with me. It’d be good, if you do chose to upload on Submit Sunday that you tag it or put it somewhere in the title. Just so others can know there’s more pictures on the page! Also, this is useful to those who go on holiday and are unavailable to upload their picture for say, two weeks! The next Sunday when you get home you can do a MASSIVE submit Sunday, you see? As long as you draw every day! Try not to cheat!
Funny Sentence Friday is one of many themed days I’m planning this year! If you want to join in all you have to go to is THIS site. And chose how you want to structure your sentence and automatically you have an interesting scenario to draw! You can keep clicking until you find something funny to draw. I’m going to try and incorporate it THIS Friday into my drawing. And, unless anything interesting happens otherwise, do it for the first Friday of every month! You can join in too! Of course you don’t have to do it every month. But I think it would be fun to know that EVERYONE in the project has at some point this year done a Funny Sentence Friday. Again, when you do one; tag it!
Kudos to my real life friend Luke (I know, I totally have real friends too!) who came up with this!
You can have fun with these theme days. You could also introduce What You’re Wearing Wednesday and Munchkin-related Monday! Well...maybe not the latter...
If you have any ideas for themes you’d like to suggest; totally send them into me through email! indievisual@live.co.uk!
Lastly, on this note, I need to mention that this doesn’t mean you can’t use this sentence generator/show us what you’re wearing/show how many munchkin-related lunchboxes you own every other day of the week too! Go crazy with it if you’re inspired!
Provoking Prospects huh? I mainly just used the word ‘Provoking’ because everything else used alliteration. What I really mean to think about is the FUTURE. Keep you getting excited about what a year of going through this could bring for you!
The answer to that is; frikkin’ awesome YouTube videos THAT’S WHAT!
Imagine watching a video where 365 images flash up on screen. Each one a different drawing for every day of the year! This kind of video will be the EASIEST thing to make if SOMEHOW you managed to get a drawing for every day of the year....hmmm....but how?! Oh wait! You’re already doing it!
So for those YouTubers out there; this could be a yearlong project for simply making a really awesome film! So hopefully that’s grabbed a few more of your guess attention spans and rattled them into shape; don’t give up!
We’ve also got some other exciting projects underway for the closing of 2010 (long way off but...a girl can dream!) so if you stick around until then, you might be in for some treats!
Social-networking Such-likes (alliteration fail!)
A number of you have been asking for a twitter and various other pieces of internet ways to stalk me. :]
I guess I see no harm in telling everyone my twitter. It’s @Maddyology and it’s not always indieVISUAL related but occasionally I’ll say something relevant. Something other than my view on different flavour poptarts.
There is an indieVISUAL Facebook group that has been set up by someone other than me. Haha, your efforts have been noted! However, if you do happen to come across a few comments by me I would ask you to please to not add me as a friend on facebook. I feel like I need a little place to run and as much as I love making mega-friends with you all I would greatly appreciate it if it stayed indieVISUAL free for the most part. Sozzles!
Other places?
I have a Myspace but I set it up for the lols when I wanted to do CD art design. Incidentally I’m still open for ridiculous cheap commissions. ;P (Nothing like a bit of self promotion!)
Urm, I don’t really hang out many other places. Apart from deviant ART which a lot of you have found already to my surprise. :]
So to be honest the best way to contact me is through here, through tumblr and through email. And if that’s not enough stalking for one day then...well....umm....you’ll just have to cope?
That’s about it for today. Just would like to thank everyone for keeping up the effort! It’s fantastic to see a real community growing amongst people! And it’s nice to see a few new faces trickling in! Right now it REALLY isn’t too late to join in with the fun!
Reached over 100 on tumblr and 100 on here! That probably doesn’t mean THAT many people are doing it for real but still a massive boost to know that you were interested enough to check it out. You couldn't be making me happier right now really, you lovely peoples you!

-Maddyx

watermelonJANUARY

Hello boys and girls.

I bring some fantastic news and some not SO fantastic news.
The fantastic news is that it is the 1^st of January and the project is underway with lots of exciting entries all over your blogs which is GREAT and I’m keeping up with them all!
I’ve decided what I’m going to do;
TUMBLR: will be for my entries to go up every day-ish as much as I can! I follow everyone who follows me so I get a direct stream of all your work which is nice.

BLOGSPOT: If there are any interesting things to say about the project they will be HERE. However I will LINK to this page from TUMBLR if I do put anything up! And then at the end of every week/month I’ll be putting up my work here anyway so don’t fear blogspotters! As for viewing you, I’m trying to work it out, I’ve tried following everyone but it resulted in an error page so I’ll try again soon, don’t worry though KEEP GOING.

I’m also thinking of having a specific DAY where we do a bulk upload every week instead of once every day. That means 7 pictures to a journal. What do you think? It might be easier for those of you who panic when they can’t get to a computer? Not sure yet though so please comment!

I shall however show my FIRST picture now.

It was an orange day today. :] Also introducing my 'word of the day' where I choose a fun/unknown word to my vocabulary. Even though I knew of the word Buoyancy before, its such a fun word I thought it fitted today!

Good news over; in case you didn’t know; Charlie quit early on the challenge! He’s got a lot of stuff to cope with over the next year so it’s perfectly understandable. I just wanted to address this here because I really don’t want this to discourage you! All of you can still do it and really get something out of it! Take this as an opportunity to become more encouraged to get through a year! He brought all you guys to me and I can’t thank him enough. In short; now that he’s gone....Please don’t leave meeee. =O

Okay, ripped that one off like a bandage.
Hmm, a happy note to end on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m904SQBfCBI

OH DEAR.

-Maddyxz

thisisCOOLLIKE

Look at you all.
Such lovely, eager faces; clutching at your pens and sketchpads in anticipation for the New Year.
This is just...slightly unbelievable really. Ever since I got a reply back from a rather charming young man called Charlie this project has rocketed beyond my expectations.
I never even had time to clean myself up a bit and introduce myself in an orderly fashion. But now more important things are afoot.
Here are some things included in todays lovely –omgsolong- journal. I do tend to ramble but a lot of its relevant.
-FAQs
-indieVISUAL Awards
I’d just like to say thank you and welcome to all you new recruits! I know its short notice but this project is as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Since this project has grown I’ve got a lot more emails asking me very similar things. I love answering your emails but I feel a bit of a Frequently Asked Questions is in order just to clear some questions up that I had barely even thought about myself. (That’s right Maddy; come across as NICE and organised!)


-When does the project start?
The ‘Official’ Project starts on January the 1st and continues allllll the way to January 1st 2011 (where we’ll have cake and dance around the fire.) IF for any reason (like you FORGET) you do not start on January the 1st don’t give up hope. But as soon as you do start; there’s no going back! I think January can be a bit of a practise month where we’ll all make mistakes together and grow as a community. Hopefully by the end of January we’ll have a sweet rhythm of drawing daily going through our viens!
-Is there a place where I can sign up? Can anyone join?
As the name ‘indieVISUAL’ suggests, it’s a pretty individual (I’m forgetting how to spell that word.)project because it’s your own work with your own flexibility. There is no specific ‘signing up’ method as of yet and certainly no requirements of who can join! As long as you really want to join in and progress in your own art, I think that’s the main thing.
-Can I do something creative instead of conventional drawing? Photography perhaps?
Completely up to you, my friend! I do have to apologise as I am an illustrative person so what makes sense to me is drawing on paper. However if drawing on the computer is where you’re at and you know you could do it every day (the wonder of laptops and things.) then absolutely-positutley go for that. The key to this however is not to go too ambitious; for me things on the computer can take a few hours to look remotely sensible so bare that in mind. You can mix and match with bit of digital/traditional if you like. I’d suggest making a specific folder on your computer for it so all you scanned images can go there too!
Photography is equally as feasible if you’re the type to take your camera everywhere with you! I always enjoy a bit of mixed media (ie drawing over photos and things!) There are NO rules to how or what you put in your day!
-What do I dooooo? ARRGGGH. NAAARGH. BLAAARGH.
Ok, first off; relax and breathe. No one is going to come knocking at your door in the middle of the night DEMANDING that you draw something. If you don’t think you can cope anymore just stop, have a little rest. This isn’t supposed to be an annoying chore you have to do! If anything it’s supposed to be a relaxing experience with which you let your mind think about what’s happened in the day. If you’re the type to read in bed, keep your journal there too so you can take 2 minutes before you go to bed to draw anything from your mind. :] Drawing can be very therapeutic.
-Instead of drawing daily, can I stick a dead possum on my head and call him Larry?
...Yes? But that’s not really what I’m trying to go for here. This refers to all the people who ask me if it’s ok to do something different than what I’m telling them to do. Which makes me LAUGH because I barely have control over my own mind let alone other peoples! OF COURSE you can; I’m just happy that you got inspired to do SOMETHING from seeing this! And who knows; maybe in 2011 it will be YOU that’s at the forefront of some creative project!
-What if I don’t/can’t upload my drawings to the internet every day?
Again, absolutely no obligation to upload EVERY single one of your journal entries every day! That might get a bit of a pain for some of you! In fact, if you feel a day is particularly private then by all means don’t upload it at all! This project is for you and if you want it to be; for you only! As long as you’re DRAWING every day, the benefits will still be yours to plunder!
-Do you have a tumblr account?
I’ve been checking out a pretty swish tumblr pad. Should have it up and running in the new year as lots of you came from there so its only fair I set one up! Obviously Charlie has a link to here on his tumblr so if you need me; I’m only a few clicks away!
-Do you have a YouTube account?
YES!......
.....There’s nothing on it though. SADFACE. So as soon as I figure out why my internet is being a massive twatbucket and fix the upload problem and get some stuff up there I’ll share some indieVISUAL related videos with y’all.
-Are you friends with Charlie? Can I have a lock of his hair?
Until a few days ago, he didn’t know of my existence so that answers both questions really. I’ve obviously been a big fan of his YouTube for a long time but that’s all I am. Now I feel like I owe him one though. Big time. Also, you can buy locks of Charlie’s hair on Ebay here.
-What if my life is so dull I have nothing to draw about?
Yup, lots of you are commenting places with ‘But I’d have nothing to draw!’ BOO-HOCKEY is what I say to that! I’ve always said ‘Creativity thrives on boredom’ that means if it’s an uneventful day; DRAW THAT. Or if you’re a creative soul; draw what you’d rather be doing or your big thoughts of the day! Often my best drawings come from the stupidest thoughts. Take my drawing ‘ZOMGZ’ which involves me drawing Zombies Outside My Green Zoo because that also spells ZOMGZ.



I hope that clears some things up although if you still have some questions, emaiiiiil me at the address above (don’t comment your /questions/ because it’s easier if I reply to you separately.)
NOW some exciting news! Whilst writing down the FAQs, I kept thinking about how the most frequently said thing (FSD...-__-) was ‘I won’t be able to keep it up’, ‘I’ll have given up by end of January’ (*cough*Charlie*cough*) so I was like; that’s true! Lots of people are going to try but only a few would pull through on pure self-motivation. Or even community motivation! So I thought it might be fun to have a few little rewards for some of those who actually get through the entire year! This gives you a tiny bit more incentive to continue through the whole year because not only do you get MUCH better at art; you get some sweet gear too!

So here are a few ideas for indieVISUAL Awards!

-Outstanding Perseverance: For those of you, who really give it a go, persistently put lots of effort in every day even if you’re not happy with your results at first.
-Best Ideas: Innovative and cool ways to present their diary. One for you multi-media types I bet.
-Consistent Amusement: There’s always a funny guy in the pack and if you make us all chuckle, this is up for grabs!
-Outstanding Community Effort: Big efforts to be part of the community and draw in attention!
-Overall Attractiveness: The Beauty Pageant winner. One for you super-skilled artists who make me shiver in me timbers!
-Overall Best Improvement: Drawing stick men now but move onto giant robot awesomeness by December? This one’s for you!
-OVERALL BEST: Not sure if I want to have this one yet. Might just see how it goes.
There are a few others that might be cool but we’ll see how it progresses throughout the year. Most importantly I hope I cover all bases. Even those who don’t think they’re very competent in drawing have a chance to get something if they bring EFFORT to the team.
Here are a few rough ideas of what you can win:
-Coverage! You’ll be WORLD FAMOUS for winning something and everyone will be like YAAAAY, GO YOU! This will happen! ;P
-Drawings! This is either a really cool prize. Or a really shit prize. But if you so wish, I shall draw every winner a drawing of their choice (within legal limits) It will vary on size depending if you win the overall thing, etc etc. Might try and get some other artists together if you’re a fan of people drawing for you!
-Special Gifts of Love! Not promising any HD TVs or nothing but hopefully if I’ve taken enough interest in your journal I SHOULD know quite a bit about what you like and don’t like. My mother is a very good knitter of hats! And I enjoy making charms and t-shirts. There could even be a book or art resource or something. Who knows yet! Time will tell! It’ll be out of my pocket though; so you better make sure you deserve it! ;P
-Certificate! OH WOW. Best Prize of ALL TIME right there!

So hopefully that’s got your creative juices flowing again and you want to get to the end of the year even moooore! For me, the main prize will be the self satisfaction of doing something for a whole year. No pressure on me or anything though right?
...
Meep.
Yes I know this has been a pretty long piece of text to read but it’s important at the early stages to all be on the right track so thank you for all grinning and baring it.
I wish you ALL the best of luck with the start of the New Year! What’s exciting is that we have NO idea what will come our way in 2010, but what is for certain; it’s about to get DRAWN.

(Oh and I’ve got my own catchphrase now: ‘Have fun and keep drawing!’ ...I didn’t say it was a GOOD catchphrase!)
-Maddyx