Sweet Dreams

After the Summer theme ended in my sketchbook, I started on Sweet Dreams. Sweet being not so much sweet as a little on the scary side. Sleep has been a bit of an issue at this house. I'm sure it is with all parents, especially parents of multiple kids. When one is sound asleep, the other is restless and if both are sound asleep it's likely that I'm not sleeping well because I'm expecting someone to wake up. Sleeping more lightly tends to result in some pretty messed up dreams. Vivid as hell and sometimes frightening.

 Sweet Dreams title page. Pen.

Starting this section reminded me of the most vivid bad dream I can remember from my childhood. There were balls of tangled string gliding down tight strings and coming towards me like they were going to catch me. In retrospect that sounds pretty lame for a scary dream but for some reason it was terrifying at the time. It made an impression because I can still clearly see these balls of chaos.

 Chaos and anxiety balls. Pen.

Thinking about my childhood dreams brought me to my next sketch. My oldest daughter often wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our room. Sometimes she's scared, sometimes she just needs a cuddle. She used to sleep 10-12 hours straight so I often wonder what could be making her wake up. Perhaps it's a family of wee monsters talking too loudly.

 I curse those argumentative monsters for waking up my daughter. Pen and pencil crayon.

My dreams tend to be heavily influenced by what I read or watch on TV. Sometimes the scary dreams are hampered by a TV or movie character playing a role, making it ridiculous and unbelievable.  How can I take a nightmare seriously when Tyra Banks is telling me to go down that dark alley? I drew a few skulls and illustrated in a couple of different ways. On this spread my frightening dreams about death are illustrated it in a whimsical way.

 Skulls spread. Pen and pencil crayon.

 Skull left.

Skull right.

I used a set of very soft pencil crayons to colour in my skulls as well as the monsters under the bed illustration. Because I left a blank page next to the monsters and coloured the skulls after, it left the nicest impression on the blank page. Ghost-like and fragile. It wasn't intentional, but as one of my favourite design instructors in college would say, it's a happy accident.

 A happy, ghostly accident. Pencil crayon impression.

My last illustration in this section is of scary faces. I don't know how often I've told my husband about a dream and I say something along the lines of 'it was you, but your face was different' or 'this happened but I couldn't see the person's face'.

 Dark faces. Watercolour and pen.

The End of Summer

There are a few trees in the neighbourhood that have a touch of yellow. Kids are back in school shortly and the school supply sections of stores look as though it has been severely pillaged. The 'F' word is nearly here. FALL.

Not only is it literally the end of summer, but I have gone as far as I can with the summer section of my sketchbook. I went nearly a week without feeling terribly inspired so I knew it was time to move on to a new idea.

Here are the remaining pages from my summer section. I realize I'm not posting these in the proper order, which has either gone unnoticed or is incredibly annoying to my whopping 5 readers (Hi Mom!) Once the sketchbook is fully complete I'll post a link to all the pages in order. Plus, once it's online back at home in Brooklyn, I'll post a jumpy-clap style email.

 The title page for the summer section. Watercolour, Crayola marker and ink.

The right-hand page of the summer intro. Some tomatoes from my garden. Watercolour & ink.

 

The full summer intro spread.

 One of my balloon flowers. Watercolour, ink and marker.

What would summer be without popsicles? Watercolour with ink.

Summer sketchbook

Before receiving my sketchbook I pondered my theme (It Must Be...). When I received the book I was anxious to get started but also felt like I should plan it out first. I started toying with the idea that I should plan out each page and create sections dedicated to themes. This over-thinking and over-planning lead to some creative block. In the end I decided to let it be what it is. It's a sketchbook and I have always viewed sketchbooks as a random collection of thoughts and ideas.

I am in the throws of completing a couple of pages every few days. When I think of a theme, or what 'must be', I create as many illustrations as I can think of under that theme until it stalls, then I move on. Here are a couple of pages from my It Must Be Summer section.

I made a vow that I would not purchase any new materials for this project. Anything that goes into this sketchbook is supplied from the vast amount of bits and bots I have in my collection. I recently forgot my vow and bought some more water colour paint. I rationalized this by noting that I had tossed a load of old, hardened paint and my collection was severely dwindled. Let's be honest though, I could rationalized just about anything. So far the materials I've used are: water colour, pencil, sharpie, pen, markers origami paper and scraps of magazines.

I am getting back into water colour painting and loving it. I think the majority of this sketchbook is going to be in water colour and I'll be going back into it with a fine-tip pen. I'll post more pages as I finish them, probably in no particular order.

The Sketchbook Project

My friend Karin suggested that I contribute to an art exhibit entitled The Sketchbook Project. I was very hesitant at first, considering my regular daily schedule, but I reviewed the site and it looked like something I could squeeze in between diaper changes and meals.

From the site:

Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

Anyone - from anywhere in the world - can be a part of the project. To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme to the right.

I chose the "It must be..." theme. It was one of the subjects that seemed open ended so that I could finish the sentence and let my tone change from serious to casual.

I've already started a couple of sketches and I'll post my progress from time to time. I always get a 'back to school' giddiness with a new sketchbook, but the true test will be whether I can finish it, something which I'm notoriously bad at doing. I must have a dozen unfinished sketchbooks in my house. Wish me luck, great ideas and time.