The Sketchbook Project

Front cover

I finally finished it! After several weeks of diligent work, drawing, painting, fussing, planning, spraying (there might've been some praying from time to time), I painted the cover yesterday, scanned it all, and rebound the pages this afternoon...(I keep looking at it!) It's a sweet little sketchbook and lots of lucky people will get to look at it on the 2012 tour.
 

It's just a bitty thing, but it's chock full of good stuff!

side view of pages...will it ever lay flat? I'll need to put some weight on it before it goes...

Here...let's look inside...

I made extra sheets of tinted rice paper to slip in here and there, I painted both sides and then would later saturate one side with another color to let it bleed through to the other side...

This is one part of the sheet inside the book.

First drawing on first page

 I was intimidated at first, but once I got going, I didn't stop...so this is why I've been so quiet for so long...well, some part of it...it's been a long preoccupation that I've been grateful for and needed!

This is one of the text pages, I mounted rice paper to the verso of the drawings using archival ATG tape and then printing the text on semi-transparent vellum and tipping in with photo corners.

Another page of tinted rice paper, I slipped it in so front and back, right and left will be seen in different parts of the book

Another drawing...this one is so dang pretty! I love making these little pieces.

This is it inside the book with glassine covering it.

One of my worries was the verso sides of the pages with drawings and paintings on them and how to deal with them. This is a verso page which had a painting on the recto, so it was a lumpy, I colored the whole page with a 9B pencil, sprayed it with a coat of Crystal Clear spray to hold it, and then tipped in a text...

The blue square window theme is ongoing...

This was the last drawing I made, finished it on New Year's Eve morning. (I really love this one!)

On the left edge, there is a piece of glassine that I have hinged with archival ATG tape to protect the drawing surface, it was tedious work putting that stuff on each drawing, but it's worth it to preserve the drawing. I'll probably spray everything one more time before it leaves just because...

Another text page

This is the "Center Fold" painting...

 My painting pages were done with acrylic washes and applied rice paper (using matte medium) so the pages are pretty thick and not so bendy...they should stand up to handling all right.

Another sheet of tinted rice paper...a piece of summer sky...

This little painting has multiple layers of colors, I was starting to get frustrated with its monochromatic-ness, then suddenly it just happened, like paintings tend to do...(there are lots of colors in there...really, lots of them.)

This is another one of my favorite drawings...I really put some of my best into this little sketchbook!

The back cover...I love that blue.

 It was a nice way to end the year and to start the new one...I had a good time making the little book and will probably make others on my own and I will participate in the Sketchbook Project again next year!

Happy New Year!

Spring ponderings on paper...

I'm echoing ponderings from one blog to the other...I've been a busy girl creatively, playing around with colors and experimenting with monotypes in my sketchbook...

Abstraction study, March 21, 2009, acrylic monotype on paper, 12 x 9 inches

A detail...this little piece happened because I had leftover paint to use up, so I just started in using it up...and it went on from there...



Color study, 4/3/09, Cretacolor pencils (with water), 10 1/2 x 4 inches

A detail of texture...these pencils become very painterly when wet! I got bold with some orange and then toned it down with white and blue...

Spring Dawn, April 5, 2009, acrylic monotype on paper, 6 x 6 inches (very delicate colors)


And finally, a work in progress...still a little bit left to do with it to make it right...

Tinted graphite, acrylic, and watercolor, 8 x 8 inches...

Maybe I'll finish it today...

Creatively Busy!

A detail of the mixed media study...it's luscious up close!

From the Sketchbook, Bones of the Earth, a study, 3/20/2009 (the white circle was added yesterday on the 21st). Acrylic on sketchbook paper with Cretacolor pencils.

Yesterday was a very productive day of creativity! Several works in progress were finished, new work started and some of them were seen through to the end, a few new things are still in progress...it was a good "play day"...my hands...it was a day to take a break from writing, since the last three weekends I have been immersed in my novel, Dusty Waters, and getting her ready for publishing (a new proof is being ordered, the book should be on sale by the end of March!)

Enough about the book...that's Upstate Girl's business...this is Follow Your Bliss...

It's been a long time since I worked on a canvas with any satisfaction, I've been content with paper, and not having to fight with the process of stretching my own, or the expense of buying pre-made canvases in the standard rectangle sizes...well...it's nice to see the art store carrying a variety of shapes, sizes, and clean edges. I pulled out these little canvases that I had stretched ages ago...I dabbled on one about a month ago, hated it and left it sitting looking unfinished and forlorn...then I painted over it, and messed about a bit, set it aside...still uncertain, so I pulled out another and started slopping paint around, didn't like that either...the colors were nice...I mushed them together, then took a piece of mat board and pressed it on the surface, pulled it off...oh, that I liked, so I did it again, different spot...

Go!, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 9

Then I did it with another scrap to the other canvas...hey, now...the colors were doing that nifty thing that I like about monotypes...and the ghost pattern of the rectangle and squares gave me my windows...and then I dug out my cardboard rings leftover from packing tape (normal people throw this part out once the tape is gone, not me, I save the damn things just for this sort of thing!) I squished the circle into the wet paint and made the celestial bodies that repeat themselves in my work...painted the edge of one and stamped it...

Celestial Spring, the Phases of the Sun and Moon, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 8

I had a lot of fun...leftover paint on the mat board was pressed on paper in my sketchbook, overlapping textures and shapes...varying impasto with watered down color...once things started to dry, I began to draw on them...

Go! 3/21/09, 12 x 8 acrylic paint monotype in sketchbook with graphitint pencil

Then I retrieved that little crumpled paper that I've been fussing over on the drawing board upstairs for several weeks...I scumbled black acrylic paint on another canvas, and then slathered paint on the back of the paper and stuck it on the canvas...acrylic paint makes good glue in a pinch...and then I waited for it to dry on there...well, this morning I've been splashing and touching up...so what started like this...



is now this...


I might do more to it...or not...it's an experiment in fun...

Oh, happy day!

What's for sale...

My Fred and I delivered artwork at the Delavan Art Gallery this week...thought I'd post a few pictures of the "friends" that I have parted with...organized by smallest to largest...

Twilight, Black and Gold, 4/21/2007, pencil and colored pencil, framed 9 x 9

The Eighth, 2008, watercolor, colored pencil, pencil on Stonehenge paper, framed 12 x 12

Celestial Sliver of Time I, May 31, 2008, mixed media (watercolor, pastel, gouache, acrylic, and pencil) on Strathmore watercolor paper, framed 22 x 12



Natural Chaos and Order, Composition in Gray and Black, 2008 pencil on gray charcoal paper, framed 20 x 16



A Violin Opus, Allegro - Fuga, 2008, pencil on Bristol paper, framed 20 x 16 (I always think of these more "busy" drawings to be like listening to something by Beethoven...usually I am listening to Beethoven in some form.)

Each one seems to have it's own personality...yet they're all related...I look at each one and remember what was going on at the time, what I was thinking about, and I always marvel over the act of making art...they're personal, and I cannot expect anyone to completely understand them or how I come up with them, they just happen (there I go again, following my own random beat of the drum)...but it is always my hope that the person who is drawn to them will find something meaningful in the marks that I make...