For 30 consecutive days during Nov–Dec 2017 I drew a minimal cat picture using a 9-in x 12-in sketchpad and a black sharpie.

(It wasn’t always easy since I was looking at a small cell phone screen and usually had cats and a dog trying to climb all over me.)

Then I posted the original photo + drawing together on Instagram with the hashtags #30dayfminimalistcatdrawingchallenge, #minimalistcatdrawingchallenge, #30daysofminimalistcatdrawings, and #minimalistcatdrawing.

There were no do-overs – I just shared the first and only drawing I did on each day.

Sometimes I would steal my friends’ cat pics from social media and draw those instead.

(I seriously started to consider doing another series just of people with bikes and cats, since a lot of my friends love riding bikes and also have cats.)

This all started when a friend shared a link to the Reddit Minimal Cat Art group [“A community dedicated to artistic expression in its purrest form”] to Facebook and I commented – rather pompously, in retrospect – “I would excel at this!” and another friend commented “words are cheap!” – so then, game on.

I have seven cats so there is ample opportunity for fresh visual content lying around my house on various soft, warm surfaces. I took some random shots of them those first few days and drew them with a sharpie in my notebook since that’s what was on hand. Nothing precious.

I got such a good response on Facebook and Instagram and I had so much fun drawing them that I came up with the idea of the 30-day challenge, since I had seen other people doing similar drawing challenges – #InkTober and #the100dayproject for example – and wanted to hold myself accountable to a certain extent.

About a third of a way through the month we had a party and my friend’s kids found the sketchbook and colored the cats in (I can see why – they do look like coloring book pages).

I love that they did this! Her daughter even drew a cat of her own!

A few days later another friend visited from out of town. While we were away she picked up the sketchbook and drew one of our cats, too. This made me happy. More people being inspired to draw and be creative and express themselves!

Here’s all 30 cats I drew ⇓

Actually I miscounted and did 32 drawings, so this grid leaves two out.

What’s your favorite?

The 3rd row, 1st column pic is my favorite – of Vigo on his back licking his front paw, which is this cute quirky thing he does when he’s very happy.

I’m really glad I did this. It seems to delight people, which makes me happy. Plus I’ve been telling myself for many (many) years that I really should draw more. But I never had a reason or felt inspired. This gave me a purpose. And with the graphic recording work I’m starting to do more and more, I need to practice. What’s next? My cat Oshie and my dog Rory love each other and are too cute not to capture snuggling together, so I’m starting a new series of drawings on Instagram with the hashtag #canoodledoodle (Canoodle: “The act of enjoying another’s company by getting close to them. This generally takes place on a couch… – Urbandictionary.com).

I also just got a new Apple iPad Pro 12.9 and an Apple Pencil as a wonderful gift, so I will be upping my game into the digital realm, creating videos and drawing/scribing remotely.