So I’ve recently signed up for The Sketchbook Project which in hopefully less than 25 words is a communal project open to anyone held by the Art House Co-Op and the Brooklyn Art Library. Sign up, pick a theme from the list, and they will send you a 8.5 x 5.5 Moleskine Cashier sketchbook for you to draw in and mail back in time for the gallery tour. It looked kinda fun and I thought I’d give it a go.
Last weekend I got my sketchbook in the mail and despite being a teeny little cashier there are a LOT more pages than I originally thought. Also the paper is kinda of that iffy Moleskine quality. Great for writing, not so much for drawing. In searching around about the project, the trick some people do is make works on their normal stock and glue it into the pages in a pretty fashion with origami papers or other things. Some people get super creative and take the book all apart and rebind it with new stock all together. In looking at the binding technique used on the book I’m not so bold enough to try it for fear of ruining it. Some people even arrange the pages to fold out into giant posters! Or form other kinds of art like accordion folds! It’s pretty cool. :3
The theme I picked was ‘Happy Thoughts’ and initially while I hit a total roadblock called Intimidation I started making a list of things that make me happy and asking others what make them happy. And soon I had a good number of thumbnails as a starting point. Some really promising and some that need a little more development. It’s going to be my challenge to draw a lot of ‘cute’ kind of art with bunches of chibis, kittens, puppies, cupcakes, and on and on. I also have a few ideas for sections of the book that fold out into larger works. Pretty much all of it is pretty literal of happy things because I’m that kind of artist. While there’s bits of expecting people to roll with some of the details, people still look like people and cats are cats.
I’m looking forward to what comes of it. :3
In other news I had a fantastically TERRIBLE day for Weight Watchers. I just didn’t feel good today and while I started out on a good note it had quickly spiraled out of control by lunchtime. I kind of feel a depression creeping in since I’ve been sitting and doing nothing for too long. I need something to occupy my time again with deadlines to meet. I need to get back writing. I can feel it kind of slip from me and I need to keep busy. For me not to be busy it’s the kiss of death and results in me raiding the fridge. D: