Stuck in somewhat of a creative rut, Australian freelance illustrator Justin Maller turned to more work for an answer. While most of us fail to see any inspiration buried in our livelihood, artists like Maller understand that creativity is a well that runs as deep as you’re willing to dig.
So he dug. And on the other end he found jewels for days. 365 days to be exact. After having slaved “away over a personal piece that [he’d] put a couple of weeks into that was just not turning out,” Maller decided to tone down his approach. He took a break from what he was working on and made “something quick and simple just to try to have some fun like I did when I first started making art.” After playing around with Photoshop and Cinema4D, Maller wound up with this, now titled Dense:
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So, he tried it again the next day.
Facets, No. 002 of 365
And the next.
Caption: Pale, No. 003 of 365
Pretty soon he knew he was onto something. Five days into it his girlfriend Ting–an admirer of performance artist Tehching Hsieh–challenged him to do it for a year.
After doing mostly work that was “extremely polygonal in nature,” with “no curves in sight,” he came up with the name Facets, as he was exploring “multi-faceted surfaces coupled with the new impetus to create something different every day of [his] life for a year.” Eventually, the curves came.
Spring, No. 051 of 365.
And though he had no visual template in mind before creating Facets, “or really at any point during the project,” he started to notice “very discernible 7-14 day periods where [he] was immersed in exploring certain stylistic aspects.”
“These periods either flow slowly and gradually into the next area of study…”
Iris, No. 235 of 365
Seeds, No. 236 of 365
Unicorn, No. 237 of 365
Seahawks, No. 238 of 365
“…or else are demarcated by abrupt cuts to other things” when interest was lost or he grew frustrated.
Forest Oracle, No. 270 of 365
Forest Oracle II, No. 271 of 365
20/20, No. 272 of 365
The off-road he took has paid off as he’s noticed that it’s benefitted other areas of his work: “I’ve discovered new techniques and new applications of my style that probably would have taken me several years to find had I not been producing a finished piece every single day.”
It’s been such a bejeweled experience that he’s planning on doing another year-long project. For the next few days, he wants to set aside his full attention to completing Facets. But after he hopes to explore a “few ideas in mind, mostly centred around collaboration.” Ideally, he’d “love to find a like-minded brand partner to help produce a more in-depth and conceptual approach that is more about process and personality than just raw daily art production.” Have at him, world.
Prowl, No. 354 of 365
