Sketchbook Project Limited Edition

Well....It's finally complete.  My last Sketchbook Project....I have been busy with a lot of activities since January and I am finally able to take a minute to do a blog post.

My sketchbook theme was "the secret and how to tell it."  You have no idea how I agonized over what I was going to do.  I thought of all sort of great ideas, but it came down to the simplest idea.....

The Secret is in the sketchbook...you can visit it at the Brooklyn Art Library at 103A N 3rd Street.

These are the first two spreads....

I posted all the sketches to my website, I just didn't post the secret.......you'll have to see that one for yourself......

Happy New Year 2012

Well here's my first ink blot of the year...I did this one with my Sketch group this evening...I used a dropper and Burnt Umber ink....Same process as before, I taped down the pages so they wouldn't run into other pages...then I dropped the ink with a dropper....one of my fellow artists handed some sort of scrubbie type of packaging and I used it to create the wiped effects you see on both pages....I said the blots reminded me of a tornado so I shaped this one into a tornado scene....basically just winged it like the others, right there in the kitchen.  Looks pretty cool in person....the scanned image doesn't do the other page justice, the plastic scrubby stuff made it look like it had an antiqued texture that looked so good I didn't want to do anything over it.

Workshop Offerings in 2012

So far, here's the workshops I am teaching in 2012, these are at the East End Arts School in Riverhead NY. 

 http://www.eastendarts.org/index.html

February 11, 2012  Pastels - "Painting Skies with Pastel" 

May 12, 2012  Pastels - "Painting Spring Foliage with Pastels"

Also being offered at East End:

Sketch Club, Thursday Evenings from 7-8 March thru May. Specific dates will be posted on their website.

As I organize more, I will be posting them as well.

AEDM - Day 30 Sketch Night

Here in the town of Patchogue, I organize sketch outings on Wednesday evenings.  We sketch locally between Sayville and Bellport, with Patchogue in the middle of the two.  The club has been sketching on Wednesdays for about two years now.  Tonight, we hung out at the local coffee shop, Roast Coffee and Tea Company.  I sketched some merchandise that was for sale....the soda bottles caught my eye, so I went from there.  I didn't "color" this sketch in, I left it as ink.  I thought about it, but this sketch already took some time and I was ready to call it a night.

This is the last post for Art Every Day Month, 2011.  Hope you enjoyed the posts.

AEDM - Day 28 - Cover

I finally decided what I was going to put on my cover of The Sketchbook Project 2012 book....one of the places we traveled to this year was Pike's Peak, so here it is on the cover of my 2012 sketchbook (I know it's 2011 but it goes on tour next year).  I used this same reference photo earlier this month to do a night time painting and watercolor sketch of Pike's Peak.

AEDM - Day 22 - Another Ink Blot Creation

Last week I did a scene that started with a bunch of ink blots that I dropped on a page with a quill pen.

Today, I got the "bright" idea to use a medicine dropper.  However, learning from the errors of many previous issues with leaky pages and ink blots running amuck to other sketches...I battened down the hatches and made sure there was no destruction to completed pages this time.  I used masking tape and newsprint to secure the pages and prevent leaks.

When the pages were secure, I dropped the ink on the page (I forgot to photograph the drops) and then closed the book, when I opened it, this is the image the was created.  Now there is a big difference here from using the droplets from the quill pen, those drops were smaller and finer...these were thick, almost like lacquer.  I had to use a hair dryer to dry them.

OK, my first thought looking at this was the Disney Character, Pluto.   I didn't want to be that obvious so I looked at it some more and HARLEY popped into my head.  Harley is my Brother-in-law's dog.  I have a photo of Harley with Mack, but since this is a G rated site, I won't be showing that photo and what Mack was trying to do to Harley, who is twice the size the Mack.

The blots looked like a dog wearing a hat, so I used ink, gouache, white gel pens and acrylic to work up the image.  Note that I tried to use all the blots and the one that didn't fit in, I left untouched.  (I could make a ball out of it.)

Here is the finished image with the tape removed.  I really like playing with the ink blots.

AEDM - Day 21 - Journal Pages

I started this last night and finished it tonight....working on an exercise from a book I am reading...I am juggling several books with several topics right now...I feel like I am taking multiple college courses.

I am not happy with this sketchbook at all, unfortunately.  I like the size, the paper is so-so with wet media, though tolerable, but when anything leaks into the center of the book, it ruins previously completed pages...I spend more time fixing stuff than I ever did.  That little Chloe sketch got damaged... I am going to have to limit what I am doing with mixed media work.