My ‘sketchbook’, turned out to be very mixed media.

After my first few attempts at this project, I realised the paper in the sketchbook  just wouldn’t hacked it as it was very poor quality and even the slightest mark bled through to the other side.  So I set about redoing the sketchbook.    At first I was going to use some 300lbs watercolour paper which I cut to size.   As I progress and re- read the rules, I realised this wasn’t going to work .

My first page was a drawing  using a charcoal pencil and very much based on the original photo as can be seen from the image below.

2nd page was a straightforward painting  using acrylic paints and the 2nd sketch was also a painting with the same colours but swapped around

The use of the use in the foreground seemed to have made the middle object much further back  but of course although the paper is the same size the shapes are of different sizes and shape so that would have had an effect as well.   After I did the 2nd painting I was not happy with what I achieved and seem too  rely to much on the original image.

That is when I decided I need to explore it in a medium that I was more comfortable with – needle felting, hand embroidery and machine embroidery.

The last 2 pages resulted directly from this experimenting  and was done on watercolour paper, using machine embroidery and acrylic paint, exactly the direction I hope to go eventually once I get over my nervousness of using paint at the moment. I think it help the size was so small, 5.25 inches x 7.25 inches which allowed me to be fairly tight but loose at the same time.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good image of last  the painting/embroidery  but if you go to my page at the Sketchbook Project   you will get a better view and also see the sort of process I used on the back of the previous page.

If you go to that page, you will see a bit of paper on the backs of some of the work as I originally stuck them on paper and then realising that the book would be too thick to submit.  Because of the materials I used this also limited how many pages I could submit. Also I worked up to the wire for the deadline.   The last thing I did was rebind the pages (very crudely) and I also did a very free painting for the cover based on both the photos I used.    The large image I have included here, was the most successful of the pages but I think I like the cover the best, as it was very quickly done with very little actual thought. I just combined all the things I had processed from the other pages and ended up with the most flowing painting I have done for long time.

Obviously I wasn’t too scarred by the process as I have signed up for the same project but this year I will try to work with the paper provided and not leave it so late to that I am right up to the submission deadline.