#cardoftheday / 2016 ends / 2017 begins

Posted by on Dec 29, 2016 in Drawing
#cardoftheday / 2016 ends / 2017 begins


The second year of the #cardoftheday project for 2016 comes to an end, with as of this writing only three cards remaining.

This years cards brought some changes over the first year.

  • Cards were not posted daily on my social media feeds. Instead I posted a set of seven cards once a week, starting from Friday through Thursday, with the post falling on each Thursday of the week.
  • For each week I chose a set of colors to work with.
  • I started to transition from Posca acrylic markers to Molotow acrylic markers. The paint of the Molotow markers is more opaque in their consistency and they are refillable.


As the year progressed I also decided to fill each card with a ‘base’ color using a thick marker. This lead me to painting in the base color of all the cards at the beginning of the weekly cycle.

The uniformity of color yielded some benefits.

  • I spent less time choosing colors and more time on exploring what a small set of color was capable of doing for me.
  • If I travelled during a weekly cycle I could choose the colors I needed ahead of time and alleviate myself from having to carry all of my markers with me.

… although the latter was not always possible, as was the case with my trip to Mexico in late November, early December for almost two weeks. Given that I am a light traveler the added weight of the markers was not a major issue, but it has inspired me to take a new approach for the coming year.

For 2017 I have made some very specific decisions.

  • All cards will have either a full black or full gray background.
  • I have designed a pattern using black and gray to create an overall composition as the cards are assembled on the wall.
  • I have purchased a set of twelve markers that will be used exclusively for this project. They are dual tipped, so I don’t have to carry as many markers with me.

It took me a week or so, and several drafts, to come up with something satisfying.


I am also thinking about how each individual drawing can be made in a way that can balance maintaining a unique quality if its own while fitting in with the overall composition. I don’t want to be too methodical about it, so I will try to keep the idea in the back of my mind and see if this approach will allow for an emergence. I am figuring that a key aspect of this will be to keep the drawings simpler. We shall see.

Plans for the exhibition of the cards from this year started to take shape in August. Blanca Regina Bustamante is a friend who has a space in Madrid. Unlike this year where we put the cards in one line around the room I plan to display them as they are installed at the apartment, columns of seven cards representing each week.

As with this year, the cards will be free for those who manage to show up in person, with a suggested donation. Blanca has also proposed to have a series of hand made books containing reproductions of all of the cards. These would of course be for sale both at the opening and online. There are many details that will need to be worked out, and I am not absolutely sure any of this will happen, but it is a very good start compared with last years efforts.