The Sketchbook Project

I managed to finish (or at least fill...) my book for The Sketchbook Project 2011 in time to meet the deadline, but just barely. I signed up for the project rather late but still had a few months to work on it. Unfortunately, I procrastinated pretty badly with it for a while. Only managing a few half-hearted sketches until well into December. Finally, while doing some Christmas shopping I found this fascinating book on the sale rack outside of Borders.


I had my inspiration for the rest of the sketchbook. But even then I didn't carve out the time to work on it. Thankfully the deadline got extended to Jan. 18th. I went into full-on marathon drawing mode over the MLK weekend (I think I did all or most of 14 drawings and all of the lettering in that time!). I had to pull out four blank pages and I doubled the pages (the paper was so thin that I decided to tape every other page together) so I ended up with only 16 spreads versus the 40 that were originally in the book. I cut a couple other corners by including one of my Jon Stewart stickers on one page and a selection of the ‘Faces of Flickr’ series on another.

Needless to say it was a pretty stressful finish. I really wish I could have ended with a drawing of Martin Luther King's powerfully defiant mug shot (which would have been drawn on the holiday dedicated to him) but I had run out the clock by that point.

I am however proud of most of the work I did manage for the book. And I think I surprised myself with the sheer volume of drawings I was able to crank out in that last frenetic weekend.

Check out the whole set at the ArtHouse Co-Op Site and all of my other work at my flickrstream.

Moly X Portraits

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the Moly X Portrait Group that I participate in, but with the exhibit at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts opening soon I thought it was time to mention it again.

Also, I've done quite a few entries in the past year and I just finished one that I’m particularly proud of. It is in Brazilian artist, Claudio Ramires’s book. Claudio is one of my favorite artists that I’ve discovered through the Moly X project. He did an amazing entry in my book that even included a Pop-up portion. Check out his awesome Youtube video to see it in action. After seeing that I knew I had to try and knock it out of the park once his book came around to me. I was inspired by elements found in his artwork, especially his blimp-whales. Check it out:

Also, check out our group's blog and/or my moly_x flickr set for more images.