This artist watched a movie a day for a year and drew them all

One year ago, Greg O’Regan set out to watch 365 days of movies and complete a drawing from each film. 

His final day was this week, and he’s completed a collection of cult-classic and pop culture films that perfectly capture his personality. 

O’Regan works full-time for the Australian government, freelances and goes to school, but after listening to a podcast he couldn’t get this idea out of his mind. 

“I listened to the podcast ‘Doug Loves Movies’ with comedian Doug Benson, who was watching 365 movies in one year,” said O’Regan. “I’ve always been inspired by films and pop culture in general when I draw, so I thought why not combine the two.”

And with “Back to the Future” day right around the corner, he had the perfect place to start. 

“I started on the 21st of October 2015, which was the ‘Back to the Future’ day,” said O’Regan. “It seemed like a good movie-centric day to kick off.”

O’Regan’s talent is undeniable, and he’s fostered interests in both art and film since he was a child. 

“I remember when I was young trying to draw all the dinosaurs from ‘Jurassic Park,’” said O’Regan. 

While there was no specific way that he went about choosing the movies, he said that fan art is a good way of seeing what it is about a particular film that people really latch on to. 

“Trying to convey the film in a sketch means that you need something that stands out from the film, that I need to be able to latch onto something,” said O’Regan. “I think the reason why certain films have fan art is probably [because] the artistic community has latched onto that same visual element that I’ve grabbed ahold of.”

His works definitely seem to be standing out to his followers on Instagram. With 14,800 followers and climbing, it’s easy to see how, in O’Regan’s case, practice has made for an Instagram sensation. His first piece had 586 likes and his last had 2,033. You can also see a difference in his style over the progression of the year. 

“I’m always inspired by artists who can hit the sweet spot of a dynamic yet simple drawing,” said O’Regan. 

It’s safe to say that he has achieved just that. And as for his favorite piece? 

“I kind of have the mantra of just doing them and going forward -- not looking back.”