Thursday 25 September 2014

Becky's Drawing in Martha's Book

I do love the value of a sketchbook exchange. We get to dabble, we get to fail, we get to try, and we get to learn to be okay with that. Right? Maybe? Sort of? For this round, I modeled a willingness to embrace doodles that veer off course.

Originally, I had fantasies a black line drawing would turn into a coloring book page as an entry for Doodlers Anonymous, but in the end...oh, in the end I just let myself step away from the book.
Sherbet Animal Party...ack!

The theme was "Contrasts in Nature." (great theme, Martha!) My vision was unusual animals decorated in patterns from the natural world that contrast with their unique selves. The result was not what I'd envisioned, and so after first drawing in pencil and then partially inking...I ran out of steam and found myself watching Jimmy Fallon Youtube videos and taking lots of snack breaks. So, to bring it to a close, I quickly scanned the drawing and "painted" with Adobe Illustrator in hopes of a miraculous (unsuccessful) make-over. It seems to me that a walrus and his wild friends have invaded a pint of rainbow sherbet. Sighhhh....
Black Ink Drawing

Monday 22 September 2014

Nobody Panic, I Already Did!


Despite my theme, I did panic!  I realised I was supposed to have handed this off yesterday. Never the less, it is done. I thought this was such a clever theme,  and I have had a couple of ideas but they just didn't seem to make the cut. So in my moment of panic I used a picture that I drew of myself last Halloween using Brushes 3 on my iPad. I cut it out, stuck it behind a window frame and that was that.  Looking forward to an easier theme next time around.

Sunday 21 September 2014

One Day at a Time...


A couple of years ago when I was going through a difficult time my doctor advised me to take "One Day at a Time". We've all heard these words but they become my mantra during the dark days that followed. I decided to use them as the theme for my sketchbook because I love to think of each day as a brand new beginning, or blank page, that we can create through the choices we make.

I chose to design my page on a calendar template. Yes...even my creative side likes to have a bit of structure. I loved cracking open my "Sharpies" and creating this first entry...and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's interpretations of the theme when my book is eventually back in my hands.



Shaun's Escape

I'm so excited to be involved in the SAS Sketchers group, I looked on last year and loved how it brought out so much creativity in people.

The theme for my sketchbook is, "My Escape". I chose this as drawing is one of the things that I love to do to escape the from a dull or stressful day. I really enjoy doodling, patterns, sketching and trying to improve my drawings. It relaxes me enormously, and get a buzz out of sharing what I draw.


Aside from the using the "pencil" to escape, I have also added in my family & friends, my bicycle, my camera and of all things, YouTube... it brings me so much joy.

Because I love YouTube and creative video making, I made a quick video of my creative process (some draft sketches) and a timelapse when I created the actual cover.

I can't wait to see what the sketchbook I receive has in store for me as we move them around today.

Whimsy in the Park


I'm learning from my colleague, Patrick Green, to #steallikeanartist. So for my first sketch on the theme whimsy, I did a google search for inspiration. There are beautiful graphic designs with whimsical trees and birds. Following the tree idea, I also saw a poster at the SG Botanic Gardens recently with trees made out of simple shapes. I'm always trying to learn something new when I create something for a sketchbook, so this was my lesson in Adobe Illustrator. YouTube helped me figure out how to make the tear drops and how to draw shapes you can color in. It was fun! I hope you enjoy my whimsical adventure.

Friday 19 September 2014

What's Brewing in Becky's Book

I initially intended to design some homebrew labels for my sketchbook. As a family, we're embarking on a lot of "brewing", and I had visions of clever faux-beer names that reflect the idea-percolating (and good microbrew sipping) that takes place in our quiet evenings.

As I doodled, and as we mused as a family, I realized that a lot of our mental "brewing" comes from two things in our lives: An old, about-to-fall-down barn and our ties to a third generation pear orchard. As people that have lived away from the homestead for over a decade, it's hard for us to sort out what we'll someday do or where we'll someday land or how we'll raise our completely unrooted son. So, we dream and we scheme. The dreams get large and unwieldy--tentacles all over the place of what might happen.

Returning to the sketchbook,  I took two beer mats and turned them into doors. If you flip them over, there's some embarrassing scribbles in there of what might become of the Green ranch or the 100-year-old barn. Looming over it all is our octopus of too-many-thoughts...it's a beast that is as stressful as it is liberating...and maybe someday we'll figure out what it's pointing to.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

PLAY IS SOUL FOOD

Howdie Sketchers,

Erin Caskey here with an intro to my sketchbook theme, "Play is Soul Food."





I am a big kid at heart.... and a bit of a mad scientist. I feel all learning (Science and Art), experiences (Common Culture), and individuals (Strangers and Friends) are connected. Here is what I've written on the inside cover of the sketchbook:










































Here is my drawing for my theme:




I used pens, pencils, markers, collage, white out, played a tic-tac-toe game with my son, and transcribed a word game we played this weekend. In addition to that, I felt that traveling, art making, cloud gazing, music and gives me opportunities enjoy the moment.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to create some art!!

Erin


Tuesday 9 September 2014

Heidi's Empty Nest


This is my own "literal" empty nest for my empty nest themed book. The description, "empty nest" has a sad, melancholy feeling attached to it, but, it isn't all bad, just an adjustment.  I started with the nest, zigzagging the frame, then using strips of black fleece cording cut along the stretch to raise the dimension of the nest, as a new dimension is emerging in my life. I left ends of the fleece cording out to represent twigs and loose ends, all good things that make up a sturdy nest. I spent a bit of time stitching the center of the nest round and round, maybe imagining where my energy should go next now that my girls are gone from the nest. Likewise, the blue stitching radiates from the center of the nest away, giving off energy, that is being captured by lots of new adventures. 
A new chapter. A new beginning.

Sunday 7 September 2014

Matthew Laurence/ Daydreams


Hello my name is Matthew and my theme for this sketchbook is 'DAYDREAMS'. The cover for this sketchbook is shown above. Over the summer I visited my father's place and in the guest room was this small antique crib toy that I photographed and wanted to incorporate into some type of artwork. I played around with Adobe Photoshop and separated the crib from the background and added a color gradient and downloaded a bird brush to add the winged creatures into the sky. Later, I printed the image out onto photographic paper and then applied several layers of tempera paint to the background and scratched away the surface to get that deteriorated look. Last, I added color markers to the work in addition to applying several layers of varnish to protect the surface.

This is my first image of the 'DAYDREAM' theme. It is a collage of work that started out as a teacher example for my printmaking class that is focusing on the principle of design, unity/harmony. This work uses the technique of the collagraph to which textures of objects are printed off of. the leaves taken from my apartment complex were used for the collagraph and a bit of photo collage from a magazine laying around completed the work. I will be using a number of my posted based off of a collage of media since it is something I find enjoyable and allows me to 'play'.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood-