Here is a record of a recently finished sketchbook December 17,2020 to January 8,2021.
This sketchbook had watercolor paper pages,so it was a little treat from the regular paper of past books...
Page 1
Here are some modernist vignettes,playing with bold colors and inspired by Mid Century graphics,menus,matchbooks,and prints and patterns...
Page 2
A Hornbill with his Mid-Day Meal
and some birds flying and spying....
Page 3
A Study of a Gope(?) Board, Papua New Guinea
i used ink straight from the dropper,
blooted it,
then a wet brush to blend the colors together
Enjoyed the raw,spontaneous application
Page 4
study of North Sumatra Dwelling
Page 5
study of Spatula, Papua New Guinea
Page 6
Ventured out and went to the Bookman a few weeks ago,and found a wonderful old book
with Artifacts that just begged to be recorded!
Page 7
Wooden Adu, Indonesia
Page 8
When blotting and creating texture with the ink and paper
i'll have an area on the facing page that slightly echoes
the more saturated surface,and can be used to create something entirely new
or appreciated as is.....
Page 9
A pair of Mask designs and a chance to play with texture and color bleeds.
Page 10
Two very raw and fast mask designs
rendered off the cuff
straight from the ink dropper to paper.
PAge 11
Sometimes one has to create a landscape
before setting off to explore it....
Page 12
Back in the early 90's,i would fill countless sketchbook pages with figure and character studies
and attempting to use as few unbroken lines as possible.Decided to revisit that exercise from 30 years ago and see what fruits it may bring forth....
Page 13
"The Shade"
Sometimes a figure ,or a story
just flashes in the brain.
Most often they are enigmatic and Mysterious
,so it's best to just record it.....to let it flow out
and decipher at a later date.....
Some days there will only be one
other days,they just pour out.
This sketchbook was lucky enough to receive a good number of these "flashes"...
Page 14
"The Child"
Page 15
"Comparing Beards"
Page 16
"Freeing a Bird"
Page 17
Another Inspirational Exercise is to find an illustration in an old book
and create a study BUT with a small twist
to hijack the original intent
or to reframe the story.
i achieved this by adding a third arm and hand
playing with the smoke....
Page 18
For these last pages,i quickly pencilled out a few jungle scenes
playing with exaggerating scale and rhythm
i would then fill in the watercolor to get an idea of the lighting
and then a final blackline after that.
After finishing six of these
i realized i had run out of sketchbook
and have switched back to the regular paper....
Page 19
"Forest"
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 22
I hope you enjoyed this little hike around a snapshot in time. May the optimism and enthusiasm to create and problem solve inside this book be an indicator of exciting discoveries and opportunities in 2021.With so many surprises around each corner,it's good to have a sketchbook nearby....