What I Learned From Drawing 140 Bunnies

Aug 20

The #bunnified project began as a simple tweet: “post your picture in the comments and I will turn you into a bunny.” It was only meant to be a bit of weekend fun. I figured I’d only get about five responses, would spend a day or two drawing these five individuals as bunnies, and would then be on my way to planning the next project. But my Tweeps surprised me. They shared and shared and changed their profile pictures to their haresonas and I gained over 100 followers in about a week. I gave everyone the hashtag #bunnified to use and they added another, #thecottontailcult, and the community came together during these lame times to just laugh and chat and make hare-raising jokes. The project that had started out as a bit of weekend fun had become so much more.

Before I get into all the lessons learned during this project, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who participated, shared, and/or let me draw you as a bunny. This was an awesome journey for me, and for all of us, and it helped me see that something as simple as a collection of bunny sketches can have a positive impact, despite all the hell we’ve been facing lately.

Let’s get into what I learned, shall we?

It’s okay to take breaks. In fact, it’s necessary.

One morning I woke up and just had no positive mojo. Everything on the news sucked, my faith in humanity was dwindling, and the world just kept turning despite it all. I decided to inform my Tweeps that I was taking a mental health day, and I spent the majority of my time far away from social media and the news, and painted with whatever I could get my hands on.

And you know what? I didn’t lose followers. Nobody told me to get back to work. Nobody complained. In fact, everyone was super supportive and told me to go relax. Because of this, I didn’t hesitate whenever I needed a day off from bunnies. Or anything else for that matter. Some days we just need a binge-netflix-on-the-couch day.

Lesson: Take that break. People will understand, and you will feel a thousand times better once you let the mud settle and the water clear.

Hands are hard, but so are glasses.

I mean, we all know hands are tricky. I’ve seen even big-name illustrators draw their character’s hands in their pockets because they don’t have the emotional capacity to deal with fingers at that moment. But what I didn’t realize until this project was that eye-glasses are almost just as hard (for me, anyway). There are so many different shapes, sizes, frames, and these different frames all fit different faces, well, differently. A lot of paper was tossed into the scrap pile due to hands, but even more so due to glasses.

Lesson: practice those basic shapes!

Find a routine!

This reminds me of that Big Bang Theory episode in which Penny decides to sell hair bows and Sheldon teaches her how to create an assembly line that moves to the song of “Hey Ho Blow the Man Down” in order to get more bows done at a time. It took me a little bit to get into a groove, but trying new techniques and working with more organization allowed me to find the perfect routine so that I could get more bunnies done in the same amount of time. In the beginning I was doing 3 bunnies off and on over the course of a day. At the end, I was doing 10 bunnies in two hours.

Lesson: Pay attention to your habits and your most productive times of day, then put them together to create a successful routine.

This is the kind of work I want to do

When I was in my young twenties I pursued a degree in psychology because not only did I find humans fascinating, but I also wanted to help them be happier. Once I finished my degree, however, I became a stay-at-home mom and so this was never applied to a career setting. This might explain the many different existential crises when I eventually began to pursue a career in art. The #bunnification project reminded me that my altruistic motivations haven’t changed. I want to make a positive impact, whether it be by making someone laugh, teaching a fellow artist a new technique, or even painting something that will make someone think “this artist gets me.” And no, this doesn’t mean my future will be nothing but Haresonas. But knowing my motivations will definitely help keep me on the trajectory that’s most meant for me. No matter what medium I use or what subject I draw or what camera I choose.

Lesson: never forget your why.

There will be more #bunnified projects

Doing this project was fun, but seeing all of the complete bunnies together, like above, is super inspiring. I have a few ideas on how to continue the bunnification. One is a yearly “yearbook” which will be a book anyone can purchase with all of the bunnies inside. This itself would be a tremendous project, with a few copyright hurdles I’m sure, but it would be so worth it. Other smaller projects include Halloween Bunnies that I can make for participants to use as profile pics during October, our favorite movie/TV characters #bunnified, and an entire month of pet bunnification.

Lesson: Art begets art. One project will almost certainly lead to another.