20 Time Reflection

Doing this 20 Time project was a new and challenging experience for me. It was difficult to stay true to the timeline that I had prepared for myself in the beginning of the project, and I underestimated the time that it took to create each drawing, from finding and creating patterns to then trying to merge different ones together in a way that didn't seem like a giant mess. I chose to do this project because I wanted to try to help alleviate the stress of others at SHS. Saratoga is a really competitive school, and everyone is constantly pushing themselves to do better and competing with others in class and curriculars. Rarely to do we ever take a step back and take a breath, and I wanted to try and get people to do that with a coloring book. To actually finish the coloring book, I think I need a lot more time than one semester. I learned a lot about the different ways to create patterns, but along the way I realized that not everyone has the same idea of what should be in a coloring book. Some people like wide spaces where they can draw in their own designs while others like the small pre-made designs that let them use several different pencils to fill up. I think trying to balance those things stalled be for a bit and left me behind schedule, because I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I would balance both of those things while still making the page as a whole cohesive and and full.
I think that next time if I had to do this project I would give myself a little more time to do things. Between AP Testing and the regular stress of classes, the challenge began to feel less and less enjoyable as it had in the beginning and instead started to feel like a chore and a new source of stress, which was surprising to me because it's a project that I'm really interested in. I would also give myself a little more freedom to explore patterns, and would try and trust myself a little more when I was drawing.