(Or, “The Cool Women From History You Probably Never Heard About” Project)

In 2019, I decided to participate in the 100 Day Project by drawing a portrait of a woman I thought was interesting every day, and sharing them plus a little bio on Instagram under the hashtag #100WonderWomen (If you want to go see the originals, they’re all still there).

My criteria was pretty slapdash – I tried to pick women who were lesser-known, WOC, or non-American women. But I did also include a few better-known faves, such as Billie Holiday, one of my favorite jazz singers. After the end of the project I had two sketchbooks full of ink drawings of cool women from history, and no idea what to do with them.

So I scanned the pictures, cleaned them up in illustrator, and let them sit on my hard drive for three years before deciding ok, fine, maybe they can have a permanent home on the internet.

You’ll notice that there are far fewer than 100 portraits here. I tried to pick my favorites – again using very slapdash criteria – a mixture of the women who I felt were most interesting and/or influential on me, and the portraits I thought turned out the best – to keep here. In the future, time permitting, I may decide to add to this gallery or expand on this project, but enjoy my favorites for the time being.