Tuesday 26 September 2017

Kelly's Work in Chris R's Book

The theme in Chris' book is Construction: What Do You Like to Build? This is the first idea that 'popped' into my head.

Kelly's Sketchbook - August

My theme is idioms. I decided I would do "hanging by a thread." I thought a little embroidery would be fun. I may have gotten carried away.

Becky adds to Erin's book: "Transform"

My creative nonfiction students created proper noun timelines of their lives. There are a lot of book and movie titles in their lists, and they've inspired me to brainstorm alongside of them, thinking of the titles that have fueled my life at all of its different stages. What resulted was a semi-autobiographic and mostly silly doodle of a few transformations from 16 to 42:

Adobe Illustrator remains a beast I choose not to wrangle--mostly due to reluctance to move beyond my comfort zone. I like feeling confident in the four things I can do with it. This gave me a little permission to stretch my AI boundaries and learn a few new things (adding textures!) without smashing my laptop.

Monday 4 September 2017

Erin's "transform"






Erin Caskey here.   
My theme is TRANSFORM.
I had fun integrating the name of the theme as well as my own name in the cover of my sketchbook.




In this page, there are a few elements of Transformation. The left page is organic forms with varied shading techniques. When i was drawing the blobs on the left, i was thinking of how bees change pollen in to honey. That is one of my favorite transformations that occurs in nature!!!  I ran out of time, but i will color it (so you can see it's pollen/honey). 

The right page is more mechanical with gears. I made a collaged insect by cutting out different pieces from of a Lego how-to booklet for a Lego plane and transforming it into a mechanical insect.  



This drawing isn't as Transform- related but was fun to make. I went to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition and wanted to use the museum sticker in a sketchbook image. She is known for using dots/circles in her art and I liked how the museum sticker is also circle. 



Side note: I'm a bit disappointed with this sketchbook paper because it is very thin. I can see the gears from the previous image through the paper. so if you get mine to draw in.... maybe skip pages between designs.


Looking forward to seeing everyone's work. I'm proud of our collective commitment to taking moments and making somethings. 


HAPPY SKETCHING!!

Sunday 3 September 2017

Kyle's Book "I Am"


I'd like to get to know the sketchers in my book a little better. Show me something you like to do, or tell me something I don't know about you. This is quick collection of some things that describe me.

Laughter: Rebecca's September Sketch


I can't draw...yet. I am good at imitating people, though (that's what we teach our students about writing, right?), so I just used the fabulous Noun Project website to find an image that related to the mini-stories I was working on (icons are easier to draw for me). Writing is definitely more in my comfort zone than sketching, but that's what I love about the sketchbook: drawing, in and of itself, is both a generating strategy and a revision strategy (searching for images actually made me re-write). 

I thought it might be neat to try a peek-a-boo style so the image would (hopefully) hook the reader into hearing the funny story.  I drafted it first online and then just used my Zebra marker to draw after pencil and a Copic Multi Liner (0.3) to transcribe the vignettes.

Mash Up- Matthew Laurence

I am excited and looking forward to experimenting again this year with the sketchbook exchange. A big shout out to Becky Green for setting this up again!

My theme for this year is "Mash-Up", to combine, add, subtract, elements and processes to mash-up a creation figuratively or literally.

The cover is developed from an idea that will be developed further with a printmaking project for my Art Foundations class to which they will generate a range of mono prints on paper and then apply a silhouette of some sort to form a focal point.

It is a tricky thing to apply more or less to the negative space in order to retain the focal point to the work. Yet this is where the mash-up comes into play. I hope everyone that participates this year has a chance to step out of their comfort zone, get comfortable in letting creativity take over, and just find the time to step out of the ordinary.

best,
Matthew Laurence

September Sketch

Tuesday we begin. This will be my first foray into a sketchbook exchange. I must admit, though it's low stakes, I'm a little nervous. I have never done this before and I am a rather insecure artist.

This year my one little word is &. It's a thing that, I think, started with Ali Edwards in the Two Writing Teachers blogging community.  My friend, Beth, and I have chosen words for the last few years. I love how it makes me think about the days differently and how the word shows up in surprising ways. Last spring at some point, I added yes, so the theme for my sketchbook this year is: & yes.

I love the possibilities and how my word(s) are showing me opportunities to connect & to do & to be. Two of my favorite poets sound "& yes" too: Brian Andreas and e.e. cummings.

I'm keeping my actual first piece in my sketchbook secret until Tuesday, it's on the next two-page spread (& there's a surprise in the book).

 I played with purple and blue and the idea of the stars and sky for the first page featuring Brian Andreas' poem "Say Yes." It's good to be creating again after the move.






Recycling some jeans!

This is so not artsy, but totally crafty. My theme for my journal is recycling/upcycling. I decided to work on recycling some jean material I had. These are my first attempts. OK, but not really making me super happy....so I went to pinterest for some more inspiration....
This is where I went next. I decided the 3D stars were much better. The first star on the left took me about 45 minutes, all the trim was hand sewn on. Not practical for a small Christmas tree decoration.Then I got smarter. The second and third star took me about 15 min each. So, here's my best Christmas decoration recycled from an old pair of jeans!

Saturday 2 September 2017

Robin's September Sketch

Inspiration!

Becky's September Sketch

My son loves Ed Emberley drawing books as much as I did as a kid. We've been doodling from the Faces book lately, and it's inspired people to pair with pieces of advice (good, bad, and strange) I've received over my lifetime: