2013 Sketchbook Project Complete!

I mailed my book off the day before the deadline and just got an email that it has been received, so my Stargazer's Almanac sketchbook now lives at the Brooklyn Art Library! :)

Due to the watercolor washes and thinness of the sketchbook paper, my book expanded a bit, making scanning on my small scanner a bit problematic. Hopefully the digitizers at the Art Library have better luck with it. But here are some of my scans of the finished book...

The finished cover, with cut-out tissue paper window.

Sun Spread

Moon Spread

Mercury Spread

Venus Spread

Mars Spread

Orbits Centerfold on Watercolor Paper

Aries & Taurus Pages

Gemini & Cancer Pages

Leo & Virgo Pages

Libra & Scorpio Pages

Sagittarius & Capricorn Pages

Aquarius & Pisces Pages

All in all, it was a fun experience. I got to try out new techniques and media, and pushed myself to meet the deadline. Some things didn't turn out the way I envisioned them, but I'm still happy with the book overall. And it gave me some practice for something I'm going to be doing on a regular basis: art journaling.

Now that the Sketchbook Project is done, I'm taking some time to relax and plan out some ideas for my other projects. Stay tuned!

Sketchbook Project... Almost Done!

9 more days until the book must be mailed back! After a long day of cutting and collaging, I have it all done except for the handwriting and a few more decorative bits. I'll put those on sometime this week, and then scan the finished pages before I mail it off.

For now, here's a few of the spreads...

Studio Sunday...

...also known as, I only have about 2 weeks to finish the book for the Sketchbook Project! I locked myself in the living room this Sunday and got all of my watercolor washes done... tomorrow comes the collage part! Hopefully all will be done (and dry!) to mail on the 15th!

[Short] Studio Sunday

It's been awhile since I had enough time for a Studio Day! I'm just trying to keep things going a little bit at a time, so I thought I'd go back to the Sketchbook Project.

Today I spent the afternoon playing with glitter and metallic crayons from Crayola. I'm using these to draw shapes, symbols and random markings on each of the pages that will act as a resist for the watercolor washes I hope to do sometime soon.

Here's a peek at the Sun & Moon pages...

Hope you are finding time for art & inspiration as the busy holiday season begins!

Studio Sunday - Binding!

Today I put the Sketchbook Project (SBP) book back together... armed with a paper piecer, some embroidery needles and some metallic thread!

This was definitely not as easy as I thought it would be! At one point I almost thought I ruined it, but then I found a work-around. I started out marking my holes on a sheet of watercolor paper cut to the same size as my pages, and pushing through them with the paper piercer.

Being that I had a cover, two watercolor inserts and all the blank pages, you'd think I'd remember to keep my punching template in the same direction for all of them. Apparently, I must have flipped it when I did the cover! Luckily, it ended up not being a big deal... I flipped it the correct way and you can't even see the extra holes.

Next, I took my needle and thread and worked it through the holes, going in and out so the spine outside and inside was fully covered by the thread.

I left a bit of fringe hanging out over the edge...

And then cut several lengths of the different colors of metallic thread to tie around the binding.

Now I have lots of metallic fringe hanging over the edge of the book. When I'm done filling all the pages, I'll add some sun, moon and stars beads to them.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do next week yet... Check back and find out!

Studio Monday!

More watercolors today! I wanted to get the other sides of the watercolor inserts painted before rebinding the journal. I may use more watercolor inside, but probably just light washes, as the paper is pretty thin. I have my pages all planned out in my sketchbook though, so I'm ready to go!

I'll be working on the reverse side of these two panels. The first watercolor insert will have the Sun for the first page, so I went with a sunny yellow. The other side will be a page for Full Moons, so the yellow will work for that as well, although I may end up lightening it later on.

The Orbits centerfold will fall between the pages for Neptune and Pluto, so I did a dark ocean green for Neptune's side and a dark red for Pluto's.

All that's left to do now is let them dry, and then I can rebind the book.

Slowly but surely, this project is coming together. Just goes to show you what you can do when you break a big project into a bunch of smaller steps!

Next week will be binding the book back together with some metallic thread, beads and charms!

Studio Sunday - Starry Cover

It's one of those days where I didn't feel like doing much of anything, but I'm glad I made myself anyways. I have anxiety, and today I didn't want to do anything but curl up in my chair and not move all day! But after having a weekly studio day for so long now, I knew I'd feel even worse if I skipped it, so I compromised: I brought my painting box downstairs and did everything from the comfort of my living room chair!

First, I removed the staples from the sketchbook and separated the pages from the cover...

Then I took some removable, double-sided scrapbooking tape and covered up the Sketchbook Project barcode label so it wouldn't get painted over.

After that, I did my watercolor wash in dark blue to match the centerfold I did last week...

And then I added a spattering of the Iridescent Bronze, Silver and Pearl fluid acrylics, misting the cover with my Mini-Mister to diffuse the metallics.

After the front was dry, I flipped the cover over and did it all again.

I put a sheet of paper towel underneath, just in case there were any wet spots on the other side, and afterwards I ended up with this:

That may come in useful for something else someday! Here's a close-up of the front window:

Next week I'll be working on the other sides of the two watercolor paper inserts!

Studio Sunday - Orbits!

I love back-to-school time, because you can find all manner of things on sale from July to September. Case in point, the cosmetics case that I have turned into my new watercolor travel kit! Since my attic studio is mostly too hot to work in during the summer, I figured this would work well to keep my supplies organized and portable.

It's one big case with 3 smaller cases inside... the top left case holds my tube watercolors and metallic/iridescent liquid acrylics. The top right has an eraser, my mini-mister spray bottle, and a new box of Crayola crayons (also on sale for back-to-school!). The bottom has my Koi 18-pan watercolor kit with waterbrush, two new boxes of Crayola colored pencils (regular and metallic), a mechanical pencil and my watercolor brushes. The case is also big enough to hold a thin 5x7 watercolor pad in the back and a postcard-sized watercolor pad on top.

Now for the studio stuff! I did a little prep work last night on my watercolor paper centerfold that I cut last week. I drew lots of circles and stars lightly in pencil; I'd decided awhile ago that the theme for the centerfold would be orbits. Then today in the studio (hubby's computer room again!), I drew over top of my pencil lines with a white crayon.

Next I took the gold and silver colored pencils and scribbled in random accents, tracing around some of the shapes. Part of the fun of the Sketchbook Project for me will be trying out new techniques, so this one is basically to test out different resists. I'm not a fan of masking fluid, and gesso works well but can be hard to draw with. If your colored pencils are wax-based, they should resist the watercolor wash.

Next comes the wash... As you can see the crayon was a good resist, but it's hard to tell the strength of your marks when you're drawing with a white crayon! Some areas turned out stronger than others, but I'm liking the imperfections here. The silver colored pencil is nearly invisible, but the gold lines still peek through here and there.

Then I spattered over top with Iridescent Silver, Bronze & Pearl fluid acrylics. I let the watercolor dry a little longer before the spattering this time, as I didn't want to completely obscure my resist lines.

And here's a close-up of Orbits...

Next week I'll be doing the cover!

Studio Sunday - Starscape!

Again the heat forced me to improvise... Still too hot for the attic, so I worked in my living room for the prep work and my husband's computer room for the painting, as it's the only room not carpeted yet!

Today I cut the watercolor paper I'm going to insert into the sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. To start, I just laid the open book flat on my watercolor paper and traced around it...

Then I cut just inside my pencil lines. It may not be exactly the same size as the sketchbook paper, but I can always trim that down after I rebind.

One page is going just under the cover, and the other will be my centerfold. I folded each sheet in half, using the handle of my wash brush to make a nice crease.

Then I used a decorative punch (from Fiskars) to give me more cleanly rounded corners and a neat little arc design in each corner. I also painted some lines and stars on the watercolor sheet with white gesso. It won't be a perfect resist for the watercolor, but it will let little stars and shapes randomly peek out from underneath. (I used to get a similar effect with white-out about a decade ago, but they've changed their formula since then; it will ruin your brushes and stick to your skin like super-glue now! I learned that the hard way a few months ago!)

Next comes the starscape... This is a very fast process, as you don't want any of the watercolor to dry until you're done, and I had a larger than usual area to cover. My old starscapes were much smaller pieces.

I quickly laid in a bunch of different colors in random strokes, with Prussian Blue being the dominant one. Once the page was filled, I took some Golden Iridescent Bronze & Silver, and loaded up my round brush with water and paint and flicked it all across the surface. The iridescent acrylic has a similar visual effect on the watercolor to throwing salt on it; it merges the colors together in shimmering puddles and also adds a metallic spattering effect.

And here's a close-up...

Next week, more watercolor starscapes! The other side of this page will need done, as will the centerfold and the cover, which I'll also be adding text to.

Stay cool! (Literally! I love summer but this excessive heat wave needs to end!)