Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Sketchbook Project


If you’re interested in artist sketchbooks, there’s a big exhibit on right now at the The Brooklyn Art Library that will also travel to Portland (Maine), Austin, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and Winter Park in Florida. (See locations and dates below). I have a sketchbook in the exhibition—along with a ton of other artists including my good pals, JK Gent and Jennifer Pearson Vanier—although I would have to use the word “sketchbook” with some latitude in my own case.
Because the topic I chose was Secret Codes, I fully intended to invent my own arcane language, and then draw on every page. But when the reality of what I intended to do sank in, I remembered the saying: Don't let perfection get in the way of good. In other words, there was no way I was going to finish (or even get started) without drastic compromise.
I ended up using rubber stamps and adding to them with pen (see above). Saul Steinberg included stamps in his drawings and I always loved the effect, except I started from the other end. And since I didn’t have time to work on every page, each image showed through on the opposite side ...not an effect I would normally go for, but sometimes it’s just a relief to finish something without stopping to critique it along the way.
P.S. The purplish textured background I used to display my pages on is from Lennie Locken’s set of textures on Elemenopea, a new blog of custom brushes, textures and photography by digital gurus Nancy Donaldson, Marie Otero and Lennie herself. Check it out!

Click map to enlarge.

7 comments:

nancy said...

wehat a great project to be apart of, looks like i have to go on a road trip,
maybe chicago for my b-day!!

Ronna said...

Looks very cool Susan!

Leslie Jane Moran said...

How great is this! It would be lovely to be in DC for cherry blossom time! Hmmmmm!

Sharon said...

Bravo to you, Susan for being part of this amazing project. Suze has many pictures from selected entries on her blog. Wish I could get to one of the venues to see for myself.

MarissaDW said...

Susan...wow i saw this project on someone's blog during OWOH. That's great that you"re part of it.

beenebag said...

Hey! congrats on submitting. I did one this year, too! My theme was "this is not a sketchbook". I ended up collecting bits and pieces of what most people would call "trash" on my daily walks and glued/taped/attached them to the journal pages. One "entry" was an ultrasound of someone's innards:) I liked the ability to choose our themes. I'd like to go see the show in chicago.

me again said...

LOVE this post; just great....I foresee another road trip in my future! And thanks so much for the shout-out!!!