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Sunday, August 19, 2012

Sketchbook Project -Quandary

For my birthday this year, my younger  sister, Sarah, of the blog Sarah Draws Things (a blog everyone who reads this and likes great illustration ought to be following, by the way!), signed me up forThe Sketchpad Project . The way it works is this: You are given a small blank sketchbook to fill out and mail back to them by January. The sketchbook is then part of a traveling exhibition and becomes a part of Brooklyn Art Library's permanent collection. My sketchbook came in the mail last month along with a snazzy orange sketchpad sleeping bag, a strange pencil made out of recycled blue jeans and an information card complete with  a list of themes to chose from (see below)


  • Travelogue
  • Memoir
  • Narrative
  • Atlas
  • Almanac
  • Chronicle
  • Sketchbook
  • Chapbook
  • Documentation 
  • Photo Log
  • Dwellings
  • Strangers
  • Participate
  • Diagrams
  • Warnings
  • Lists
  • Creatures
  • Dinosaurs
  • Upstairs
  • Mystery
  • I'll classify my book later (Which I am currently singed up under)

The sketchpad has sat on my bedroom table since. Not much has happened with it yet aside from the occasional admiring glances from the residents of a nearby reptarium (an anole and a green tree frog, since you're wondering). I don't know what to do with it. I have entirely too many ideas and can't seem to commit to one. I thought maybe if  I wrote them out here maybe that would help me decide, or I could possibly get some useful feedback. So- here's what I'm thinking:

Travelogue- I'd like to do something with this, but my budget and schedule won't let me run away to Africa right now. Of course I could always do it based on my past travels (India, Guatemala, Professional touring, etc) but they aren't as fresh and immediate as I'd like. My sister is using this category and doing a beautiful book on Venice. I could always do a travelogue of a fictional place as well

Narrative- It might be kind of fun to tell some sort of visual story with the book, I just don't have any focused ideas yet. I've also considered doing illustrations for all of those recently discovered Fairy Tales they just found in Germany, but frustratingly, they have yet to be released in English.

Sketchbook- This seems the easiest option, but I'd still like it to be a little more concentrated, focus on trees or birds or something.

Dwellings:  An exploration of where different things live. Might be fun.

Diagrams- An unusual choice. I could do something in the nature of an instruction manual on puppetry, small animal care, tracking, woodcarving, or any of those myriad of other unusual and utterly unemployable abilities I have.

Warnings-This might be fun. A book of all kinds of ridiculous warning labels and signs, or possibly the rulebook for navigating Fairie

Creatures- This is probably the one most in my wheelhouse. I could do a field guide about my own versions of dragons or griffons or other mythological beasts, or a book of recently discovered species. Something like that.

Dinosaurs- Pretty self explanatory. Dinosaurs are cool.

Mystery: No real ideas for this one. Seems like it could be fun, though.

Well, that's what I'm thinking. I'd love to hear your suggestions
-J

3 comments:

  1. My vote is for dinosaurs...they are cool!

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    1. PS: I didn't get a pencil made out of jeans... you must be special!

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  2. I like the strangers theme! You are always talking about the random people you meet in your travels in such a colorful and animated way. It would be cool to see some of those people! :) Or at least illustrations that are representative of them!

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