I'm kicking off this workshop on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I've chosen a quote from him to use for my daily practice.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

Looking forward to getting started!

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Day 1: Loved the practice and especially appreciated Bryn's call for mindfulness and attention to breath and rhythm. I want to focus on increasing my steadiness and consistency...and being a lefty, I'm still figuring out how to get around smudging things as I write. :)

10-day challenge - image 1 - student project

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Day 2: I think I'm still just trying to figure out how to hold the pen to get any real consistency. I love how these exercises help really pinpoint different areas to focus on that need work and extra consideration.

10-day challenge - image 2 - student project

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Day 3: I can already feel improvement! These exercises are great—I really appreciate how much they are helping me become more aware of different aspects of my writing that I hadn't really focused on before. I am still struggling with how exactly to hold the pen to get line consistency and get the downstrokes to feel like they're weighted properly (my downstrokes always seem top heavy to me) But I felt like I wandered into a good "zone" a few times during this practice and made some mental breakthroughs.

10-day challenge - image 3 - student project

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Day 4: I've fallen behind, but am going to catch up!! So, here's my random creative break pencil doodling, and also my sentence (in pencil as well):

10-day challenge - image 4 - student project

10-day challenge - image 5 - student project

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Day 5: For my capitals I chose F and J. I was trying to loosen up and try new angles and new ways to write the letters—these practice sheets ended up being a total mess, though.

10-day challenge - image 6 - student project

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Day 6: I chose a random word that I thought would be fun to write for this exercise. I really had good time playing with different tools—I chose some brush pens, pencil, pink ball point, uni-ball pen, crayola marker, a stick and a piece of cardboard. Although, I'm not sure I followed the directions correctly, I had a super fun time exploring!

10-day challenge - image 7 - student project

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Day 7: Flourishing! This is *another* thing I'd like to get more comfortable with. I decided to use a pencil for my exercises so that I could focus on shape without worrying about smudging everything. (One step at time...)

10-day challenge - image 8 - student project

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Day 8: I made a couple of versions of my collage. I made them on the fly, trying to be conscious of spacing. Neither are anywhere close to perfect, and I tried a new approach. As a lefty, I always smear things, so I decided I'd start at the bottom and work my way up to avoid my usual smudging issues. And it was a fun way to kind of evaluate spacing from a different perspective.

10-day challenge - image 9 - student project

10-day challenge - image 10 - student project

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Day 9: Another great exercise to explore and experiment. I really like these exercises, especially since I feel like I'm still trying to figure out a style. The tip of using the "n" and "o" to help define style and check consistency is something I think I'll come back to over and over for practice.

10-day challenge - image 11 - student project

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Day 10: More creative experimenting! I feel like each exercise has really helped to push my boundaries and this breaking habits exercise is also something I think I'll revisit, because it's so easy to get stuck in a rut.

10-day challenge - image 12 - student project

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After the final exercise, I wrote my sentence a few ways. I want to really explore all I've learned and come up with a style that I want to hone. So I know I will revisit this again.

10-day challenge - image 13 - student project

10-day challenge - image 14 - student project

I know have a LOT of work to do to get to where I'd like to be, but I feel like this workshop has given me a TON of valuable insights into how to explore and improve my practice.

Denise MacNeil

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