Friday, December 31, 2010

More SBP pages

I hope the Sketchbook Project people don't mind that the book is a little thinner than what they originally sent me. I ended up ripping out several pages I didn't like. I seem to have upset the stitching, but it looks like it'll still hold together.

This is a normal thing for me and my sketchbooks. I rip out pages that I need to photocopy or trace on the lightbox. Most of my old sketchbooks are not fit to be shared. But I'm used to thinking sketchbooks as places to work out project ideas that I finish in other formats. In that sense, the theme of this project fits -- this IS not a sketchbook. After all, I've never filled one while thinking the book is meant to be handled and viewed by others. It's making me self-conscious. But I am a good little soldier and am diligently trying to draw my way through the unhelpful feeling.


The stitching means we're now at the halfway point - - with only two weeks left to finish! Panic!


I decided I needed to see what the cat was doing with that bird. But then I couldn't decide what to do next, so I gave the book an intermission. The time pressure means I need to keep drawing even at the end of a long day. So the intermission page got a weirdly doodly while I was drawing and vegging in front of the TV simultaneously.

Then I started thinking about New Year's parties, so I offered myself a drink. I don't actually drink, so that brought me back to the pattern of putting negatives in red ink.


When I start drawing again later today, I'll go back to that red haired boy who was heading up to an art class. Not sure yet what he's going to do next, but I have decided the boy hates to draw. His mom makes him got to art classes so that she can sneak off for trysts with her brother-in-law. The cat killing the bird doesn't give the story enough tension. This plot line will give me the chance to draw people getting hot and bothered -- in more ways than one!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Sketchbook Project Continued

Next time I do something like this, I must sign up earlier. I had intended to create a cohesive plan for the sketchbook, but then I noted how little time I have left to complete it. The project requires that you fill your sketchbook and have it in the mail by January 15th. That's a lot of pages for someone with a day job, a Christmas-celebrating family, and novel revisions she wants to keep up the momentum on. So the planning phase is out. It's more important that I keep drawing. I'm pantsing it, letting the pictures on one page lead me to the next. Here are the eight spreads I drew Sunday and yesterday. I'm still not quite halfway through the book.

I'll let the images explain themselves:








Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The next two sketchbook spreads

Boy, do I need to draw faster if I'm going to fill all the pages in time to send the book off by January 15th.



Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Sketchbook Project

About a month ago I signed up to participate in the Sketchbook Project, a project/challenge offered through the Art House Co-op in Brooklyn. I decided to let the folks in Brooklyn choose a theme for me from their list. I was assigned "This is not a sketchbook." Next time I think I'll choose my own theme. I really wanted to sketch, not to turn the book into something else, so I decided to negate the negative in the theme. I received the moleskine cahier about a week later. I am slowly filling the pages, mixing words and pictures, and skipping every other page so that ink bleed-through won't be an issue.







More to come...

Hello!

 Just checking in to say I am still alive but less active here, obviously.  You can find my more recent art posts on social media, especiall...