Sketchbook Project 2013

January 19, 2013 by anika | 9 Comments

For the first time I had a sketchbook project without a theme. When I signed up the themes were very generic such as “sketchbook,” “chap book,” or “travelogue”. I assumed “sketchbook” would be the most fitting, but since it was an option, I chose, “undecided” so I could decide later. Before I sent off my book, I noticed that they added several more options for themes that were more like the themes they’ve offered in the past. Some of these are “dwellings,” “creatures,” and “lists”. Of the options offered, “diagrams” felt like it would fit the most as an after-the-fact choice, but it also didn’t feel quite right. I wonder if they’ll let me keep it as undecided?

As with the Sketchbook Project Limited Edition that I completed in 24 hours, I was down to just a couple of days until the deadline before I had a chance to start my 2013 submission. As luck would have it, I decided to use block printing as my technique for January’s daily patterns, so the choice to use the same stamps in the sketchbook was an easy one! This technique was even faster than the collages I created for the Sketchbook Project LE, and over the course of 2 days, I leisurely filled my empty book with lots of color, pattern and texture.

The cover was created bit by bit as I worked with various colors on the main pages of the book. I feel lucky that the composition turned out as balanced as it did!

The inside front and back covers were embellished with paint marker since I didn’t have time to carve stamps with all the letters or words I would have needed!

I named the project “Block & Print” to match up with the title pattern that started with “Lines & Grids” and “Cut & Create” of my last two Sketchbook Projects.

The inside back cover shares a hint of things to come. Notice I direct people to check out anikastarmer.com. There isn’t actually anything there at the moment, but there will be! More news to come about that soon!

Most of the pages feature several colors and two or three different stamps, with printing on both sides of the spread. Often I printed the stamps quickly and then smooshed the pages together to make secondary impressions on the opposite page. Sometimes those secondary marks were pretty subtle, but they lend another layer of texture to the overall composition.

A few pages seemed “just right” after I finished up using one stamp with one color.

There was really only one spread that I felt was a little less than successful, and yet it is also one of my favorites in some ways!

I really love the way the pattern on the right of the stacked triangles turned out, and the bolder yellow print on the left would have been a good fit as its pair, but oh how I wish I hadn’t smooshed the wet yellow paint onto the triangles. The yellow smudges are a visual distraction that muddies up the bright pattern, and it would have been stronger without that extra element. That said, I recognize that this entire sketchbook really was a collection of printed sketches and experiments, and although in my mind this isn’t exactly “perfect” I can still appreciate it for the overall experience!

Take a look at the video of the entire book, with a little explanation of my process and some of the stamps!

Art House Co-op is restructuring the way they are going to do the next installations of the Sketchbook Project, focusing on specific tours with a certain number of spots available for each. I’m not sure if I will participate again or not. Maybe if a tour title “speaks to me” or something.

Have you participated in this or other Sketchbook Projects? Do you think you’ll participate in the future? If you have your 2013 book online, I would love for you to share a link in the comments!

Nature and Sketching

October 31, 2012 by anika | 6 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the woods lately. If you follow me on instagram, you are probably aware of that fact. If you want further proof, check out my SW adventure blog, Southwest Direction.

Sometimes I don’t walk very far, even if I’m gone for a long time. The environment is so different here that almost everything I see is new and exciting and catches my attention. Then I must stop, look, maybe take a photo, and maybe collect a few rocks, flowers or leaves.

I’ve started to take photos of some of those collected treasures once I get back to the cabin.

When I collected several oak leaves, the wind was too crazy to even think about making an arrangement to photograph outside, so I drew them instead.

I take many more photos than those that I post onto instagram or my adventure blog. Sometimes the beauty I saw in person just doesn’t quite translate to pixels on a small screen. One photo that I was particularly enchanted by was a “miniature landscape” that I found along the shore of Luna Lake.

One night when I couldn’t sleep, I decided to try sketching the mini landscape to see if I could capture some of the magic that had initially captivated me.

Part way through sketching, I took a quick photo of the drawing before taking a break.

A little later I finished it.

It’s amazing to me how different the two stages of the drawing are. The final is more finished and anchored on the page, while the first stage feels looser and airier. I don’t know that I have a favorite, but I thought the change was interesting!

I think I’m also soaking up inspiration in a less direct way. I’ve been doodling a bit everyday.

I was particularly drawn to the upside-down V shapes on the left of the page, so I did a more complete pattern on another page in my sketchbook.

I wasn’t consciously aware of the inspiration source, but someone on instagram mentioned that it reminded them of tents or a forest, and I think that’s just perfect! The surrounding nature is definitely starting to knit itself into my subconscious, and I for one am glad for it! I can’t wait to see what will come through next!

Pattern a Day September

October 1, 2012 by anika | 9 Comments

Last month I did a doodle a day. I had a lot of fun with it, but I knew I would be busy and traveling in September, so I changed my daily challenge slightly to be a pattern a day without any particular theme. I used a sketchbook I got from my friend, Beverly, and my only “rule” was to use a set of IKEA gel pens for each pattern.

There were a few days when I didn’t have internet access, so I couldn’t upload a photo of that day’s pattern to instagram, but I’m proud to say that except for one very long (18 hours+) Sunday where I was helping my mom at a trade show, I did draw one pattern everyday!

After drawing so many floral and organic doodles in August, I was ready for some angles. The fact that I was using grid paper also contributed to the geometric styles that showed up in my patterns throughout the month.

There were also a number of patterns that I created where I used the grid for the structure of the pattern, and looser lines and quicker strokes for the drawing.

Although I had fun exploring line and texture within geometric forms, nature-inspired patterns weren’t entirely left out this month!

You can see all the other patterns from the month in the flicker set.

This was the perfect challenge for my busy September. The only thing I missed from the August challenge was the camaraderie that came from doing a doodle a day along with other artists on instagram. However, because drawing a pattern a day is sustainable for me, and it’s a good way for me to be creative and keep the ideas coming, I’ve decided to do another month of patterns! One of my instagram friends, Dina Thanki (@dinathanki on twitter and instagram), has even decided to join me for the month!

If you are on instagram or twitter and care to create a pattern a day too, use the tag #patternadayoct to play along. September was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to more daily creativity in October!

Patterns & Paws: Update 2

August 19, 2012 by anika | 9 Comments

I got word a few days ago that Jessica Gowling received Patterns and Paws in the mail again, so now it’s her turn to respond to the pages I started, and add a couple new ones for me to see when she sends it back to me. Are you familiar with our collaboration? If not, check out the two other posts I wrote about previously, or visit Jessica’s blog and see her side of the story.

First up are the spreads that I started and Jessica finished up during her last turn.

Aren’t the birds fun? I love the way the colors and dots match the page I created.

When I first saw the next two spreads, I admit that I was a little mystified.

I thought the shapes and the gray tones matched up well, but the meaning wasn’t clear until I read Jess’s description. Once I read her thought process, I was totally over the moon, and now they are some of my favorite pages in the book! Her explanation is definitely worth a read, so be sure to pop on over and check it out!

When I created the full spread for Jessica to add to, I covered the entire page with a pattern as a sort of challenge. I didn’t expect anything in particular, but I felt we’d been a little too “polite” about the marks we each were making on the previous shared spreads, so mostly I was curious to see what she’d do without any “white space” to work with.

Her additions are totally brilliant in my opinion. While maintaining the symmetry of my pattern, the little paw prints add contrast and motion to an otherwise static image. Suddenly the pages seem like maps or landscapes with animals crisscrossing them in their travels.

At this point I want to mention that I received the book back in record time. I’m notorious for taking months and months to send the books back, but I got the sketchbooks back within just a couple of weeks. I was inspired by Jessica’s lightning fast response, so I kept that in mind and decided to work spontaneously during this turn, and most importantly, not over think it!

I was so inspired by the shared spread that Jess started, that it was no problem to get it done quickly. I saw the pencil drawings and collages and immediately knew I wanted to incorporate text somehow.

I was so inspired by the images of the eagle and the lenticular sticker of the eagle claw that shifts to a human foot, that a couple of phrases literally popped into my head. I was a wee bit hesitant to add words to our until-then wordless sketchbook conversation, but I couldn’t ignore the idea once it was there, so my graphic designer self got a chance to shine. I was pretty excited when I realized that both spreads would have the words “Before You” in the colored boxes! Synchronicity!

In Jessica’s post that introduced the following pages, she made a prediction about what I might be inspired to add, “I predict soft colours and the circular motif to surface in Anika’s response.”

At the time I saw her prediction, I had already created the above two responses, and I thought Jessica might be surprised! Looking at it now, the shapes I created were relatively circular in shape, and the colors might be described as “soft” so maybe Jess was right after all!

The colors and textures Jessica used in the next two spreads reminded me of a rainy day, so I knew I wanted to make my additions relate to water in some way.

Because parts of of the dogs cut off at the center seam of the spread, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to continue the shapes, and incorporate them into my drawings.

The remaining three spreads are those that I started, and will be added to by Jessica during her turn.

I’ve been working with a lot of black and white lately. As a nod to my recent explorations, I created a couple of black and white patterns using chisel and brush tipped markers.

After using only black, I decided to inject a little color into the next pages.

Around this time, I created a step by step “Creative Insight” of my painting process for Joanne Hawker’s blog, and it seemed like the perfect type of image to add to Patterns & Paws. This might just be me, but the top image kinda sorta reminds me of a cat, and the bottom one a bat.

For the last two spreads, I was back to black. I had gotten some acrylic paint markers, and was curious to see how they would look in the sketchbook, and to know how the paper would react.

The answer is: they work great! The lines are a very rich black, unlike felt tip markers that can sometimes look a little washed out. It’ll be fun to see if Jessica decides to keep this a one-color composition, or if she’ll decide to liven it up with color.

I made a long comment on one of Jessica’s Paws & Patterns posts:

To me it’s highly interesting to see the different creative paths we take. Last night I was thinking about how when I start the pages for a particular spread, I might have an idea or two about what you might add to it. When eventually I see your response, I’m surprised EVERY time! That is what is so fantastic about this project. Not only doing it, but thinking about the possibilities about what I could do, what you could do, what I think you could do, what you think I could do, and so on. In the end, something gets put on the pages. So far it always seems to be the PERFECT addition to complete a set of pages while keeping the momentum going and inspiring what will come next.

I still feel the same way! One of the things I love most about this collaboration is the constant discovery, inspiration, and surprise. Any guesses on what Jessica might add to the pages during her turn?

Sketchbook Project in 24 hours

May 2, 2012 by anika | 16 Comments

Last Friday I received an email from the Art House Co-op with a friendly reminder that my submission for the Sketchbook Project Limited Edition was due to be sent in 3 days. In the back of my mind, I knew the deadline was approaching, but it hadn’t really sunk in that April was almost over.

With a full weekend already planned, I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to start working on my sketchbook until Sunday afternoon. I hadn’t started it at all before this, other than the myriad of ideas that had swum through my head over the past few months. Now I had just about 24 hours to figure out what I would do, fill up the sketchbook, scan the pages, and still make it to the post office before 5pm on Monday.

I had to be strategic. All thoughts of taking photos, printing them out, pasting them to one page, and somehow creatively responding to them with a drawing or painting on the facing page flew right out the window.

Somewhere amidst the cobwebs in my mind, and little idea resurfaced. I remembered an old watercolor instruction book that I had discovered among some of my Grandma’s old art supplies. The instructions were a little outdated, so it was earmarked for the recycle bin. Although all the examples were printed in black and white, and therefore maybe not so helpful with waterCOLOR, I did enjoy the texture and values of the different images, and set the book aside for use in future collages.

Only one thing: somewhere along the line I decided that I suck at collage. Part of me never really expected to use the images in the book, but thought they might come in handy for art swaps at the very least.

In my time of need, I revisited the initial inspiration to use the book for collage, along with internal comments such as, “yeah, but you don’t do collage” followed by other thoughts of “well, why not?”

As Sunday afternoon approached, I settled into the idea more and more. Maybe I could do collage after all. Maybe I thought I sucked at collage because I was trying to collage the way other people collaged. Maybe I needed to find my own way of doing it. Maybe just start cutting and tearing up paper and see what happens.

So that’s what I did.

I’ll admit to feelings of frustration and almost giving up because I wasn’t totally sure of what I was doing. I also admit to the fact that part of what kept me going was knowing that if I didn’t finish this, I wouldn’t be in the Sketchbook Project Ltd. book that I’ve already paid for, and that would really bum me out.

In order to help me meet my goal and overcome uncertainty and frustration when it came up, I set one important rule for myself: don’t over think it!

That became my motto. Whenever I started to fiddle for too long, I would remember my motto and I’d either have to make a decision right away, or move on to something else. This was the best rule I’ve ever come up with! It was both freeing and challenging. I’m used to taking my time, thinking about things for days before making a decision. I didn’t have that option with this project, and in the end it was so much fun to simply have an idea and go with it. If in the short term, the idea didn’t pan out, I had the option to move on to something else, but I had to keep going. It was truly a revelation!

My first two pages came together with very little thought or deliberation. I was drawn to a few scraps of paper that were “leftovers” from more purposeful tearing and cutting, and the composition practically assembled itself.

Don’t you love when that happens?

Not all of the arrangements came together quite so smoothly. I fiddled with the layout of the shapes on pages 17-18 the longest out of all the pages. I kept to my rule of not messing around with any one idea too long before moving on, but I kept coming back to it, knowing I wanted to use the triangles in some way.

In the end I drew inspiration from previous drawings I had created for another set of sketchbooks. It was fun to work out a similar composition with the restriction of using pre-existing shapes.

To choose one single spread that I like the most in this book might not be possible, but I do have a favorite in terms of how it came to be. Pages 11-12 are the epitome of my “not over thinking it” process.

I found two scraps of paper (the ones you see on the bottom left of each arrangement) that were very similar in shape, even having the same bit of extra paper the folded over to the front. When I discovered them, I knew they had to go in the book, so I looked to see if there were any more like them. There weren’t. Just those two. In the spirit of not over thinking, I said to myself, “ok, you just have the two pieces. now figure it out.” So I did. Step by step I made decisions to get the composition to where you see it. It was a new way of working for me, and it was so cool to see where the process took me. Every time I look at this image, I get a strong feeling of familiarity. I’m not sure why or where it comes from. Maybe it has to do with going with the flow and doing what needed to be done in the moment, and therefore creating something that was “just right”?

As I continued to work, a theme seemed to develop for my sketchbook on its own. Many of the compositions are a comparison of different shapes and textures that I arranged in a manner that emphasizes their similarities. Perhaps another title for this sketchbook could be “Similarities in Difference”. Pages 15-16 are a good example of the discovered theme.

Despite the fact that each individual shape is unique, they fit together in small groups and then as a whole pattern in a harmonious way. Their similarities are notable, as are their differences!

For most of the pages in the book, I arranged the compositions of pieces of paper, deciding on the final arrangement before gluing them in place. With pages 21-22, I quickly realized that wouldn’t be possible.

The individual pieces of paper were too small, and overlapped too much to work out the design beforehand. With a general idea in mind of what I hoped to accomplish, I worked by tearing the pieces and gluing them right to the page. I wasn’t concerned with a perfect composition for this spread. I knew these pages would not be about achieving a perfect composition but about the creative process. Happily, I was completely satisfied with the end result. I love the overall texture of the larger shape, and the pencil details I added to the smaller shape have given me ideas for future work!

I would love to show all the images here, but this post is already about a mile long. I’d love for you to check out the rest of the pages on flickr where I spent a little time writing descriptive insights about the process of making each set of pages.

Did you participate in the the Sketchbook Project Limited Edition? What was your theme? Did you finish and send your book off in time?

I hope you enjoy this new style I discovered as much as I enjoyed making it! It was a 24 hour whirlwind, but probably one of my best days ever!

Patterns & Paws: Update 1

April 13, 2012 by anika | 10 Comments

After many weeks… well, ok, after many months, I finally finished up my second round with the Patterns & Paws sketchbooks that I first posted about waaaaaay back in September. If you don’t know already, Patterns & Paws is a collaborative project I’m doing with fellow artist, Jessica Gowling (@jessicagowling on twitter). If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of this project, it does have a few “rules” that we both follow about the order and placement of our art within the two sketchbooks. You can find out all about the project in Jessica’s thorough introduction on her blog.

I think the holidays got in the way a bit, not to mention a lot of freelance web design that came my way, but excuses aside I finally managed to finish up my turn and send the books back to 100 Mile House, BC to reunite with Jessica. I would also like to mention that my tardy reply had nothing to do with lack of inspiration. Jessica added some real gems to the books that left me overflowing with ideas.

First I want to share the pages that Jessica completed after I’d started off the spreads.

Patterns & Paws Vol. 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

Aren’t her additions awesome!? I was so excited to see how my drawings inspired what she chose to add. Each spread was such a delightful surprise to discover.

The next images show the pages she started for me to complete. When I got the sketchbooks, I worked on these pages first, taking inspiration from Jessica’s compositions.

Patterns & Paws Vol. 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

Jessica started off these spreads by creating a checkered pattern filled with various fur and skin textures. I immediately knew I wanted to somehow weave an image through the “open” squares, and since her textures reminded me of little critters, my mind eventually wandered to snakes eating those little creatures, and an idea was born. I actually did quite a bit of sketching to work out the composition of this one since I really wanted the illusion that the snakes were under the pattern to work. The colors of the snakes were inspired by the washi tape Jessica framed the pages with.

Patterns & Paws Vol 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

I was super inspired by these pages. I love the collage-iness, the stamps, the inkiness, and the colors. I initially intended to use rice paper for the collaged elements. When I drew on the rice paper, I laid it on top of grid paper to use as a guide. The ink bled right through the rice paper, and I was delighted to discover the blotchy drawings on the grid paper. They harmonized so much better with Jessica’s collage that I didn’t give the rice paper a second thought. The shapes I used were inspired by the environments of the deer and walrus, as seen in the stamps. I added colored lines to connect the shapes which created a greater sense of atmosphere and helped balance the left and right pages with each other.

Patterns & Paws Vol 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

It’s hard to say that one set of pages is a favorite, but boy do I love these. I’m going through a significant gray phase in my art lately, so when I saw Jessica’s monochromatic pencil drawings with a bit of collage, I knew I wanted to capture the feeling of her drawing while maintaining the simple palette. I painted radiating patterns with gray gouache. I worked intuitively, not sketching beforehand. Well, I admit, I had done a few similar paintings before this, but each always turns out so differently. I was really excited about the added element of surprise as I focused on the feeling of Jessica’s drawings while I painted, instead of thinking about form or composition. The end result are two spreads that harmonize incredibly well. I feel happy and soothed every time I see these.

Lastly, here are the pages that I’ve started for Jessica to soak up and find inspiration from.

Patterns & Paws Vol. 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

Finally I had a chance to use rice paper! I drew graphite lines on the translucent rice paper sheet and used it as a background frame for the colorful blob prints. I made the prints by adding little globs of gouache to the surface of some card stock and smushing another sheet on top of it. Voila! Two prints! They are mirror images of each other, but I flipped one upside down, just cause.

Patterns & Paws Vol. 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

It’s no secret that I love triangles and lines. I had these images in my head for a while, and I sketched some of them out in a separate sketchbook. I chose a couple that I liked particularly well as a starting point. I first drew the shapes in the Patterns & Paws books with pencil, then went over the lines with pen, and finally added the line texture with pen as needed.

Patterns & Paws Vol. 1:

Patterns & Paws Vol. 2:

These final two spreads are the pages where Jessica and I both create in the same space. On the previous similar spreads, we both left a lot of space for the other to work with. While these were all successful pages, I wanted to push things in a different direction. As you can see in the images above, I created two drawings that pretty much cover up both pages. I’m hoping it’ll push Jessica to cover over parts of my drawing, or just find a new way to interact with what I gave her! I’m very interested to see what she’ll add!

A little birdie told me that Patterns & Paws may already be on its way back to me, so I won’t have to wait long to see how this project continues to evolve.

Do you have a favorite spread so far? Is there an, as yet, incomplete set of pages you’re particularly interested to see complete?

I’ll share more as soon as there’s more to show!

portrait : landscape

March 11, 2012 by anika | 10 Comments

A few months ago I signed up to take part in a very cool collaborative traveling sketchbook that Kimi Kobashi was organizing. The name of the project is “portrait : landscape”. The basic idea is that each artist gets a total of 4 pages (2 spreads) in the sketchbook. The first set of pages are for a self portrait, and the second set is for a landscape of the artist’s town or neighborhood.

My turn finally came when the sketchbook arrived in my mailbox after Carol SilverFeather had finished her pages. Of course it arrived just when life was getting busy, so I took a little longer to finish it up that I probably should have.

Portrait Pages

Landscape Pages

Here’s a little secret: I really do not enjoy drawing self portraits. Just the thought of it makes me nervous. To save myself some grief, I instead decided to include a couple of self portrait photographs I’d taken with my iPhone.

For the page facing the photos, I unabashedly stole an idea from Paulette Beete, a talented poet and writer I’ve gotten to know, thanks to the magic of the internet. I had read her post Portrait in objects? back in January. What she wrote has stuck with me since, perhaps because a list of objects naturally has a visual element to it? A list of objects can tell a story without giving away too much, and so, leaves quite a lot to the imagination which appeals to me.

But I digress; when considering what to include for my portrait pages, I sat at my messy desk and realized I should write a list-poem, so I did. I wrote down the objects in the order in which I noticed them, which in my mind adds another layer to the “story,” but maybe that’s just me. You’ll have to determine for yourself what my poem says about me.

If the writing is too small to read in the photo above, view this image a little larger on flickr.

I gave the landscape pages a lot of thought. I don’t live in a city or town. I live near cities and towns, but my immediate surroundings are very neighborhoody with a few farms scattered here and there. The more I thought about how to portray this, I realized the best thing to do would be to capture the feeling. One afternoon I sat on the steps of the back deck and sketched my view.

My sketch turned out a little odd, but I was inspired by the shape of the hills that I’d drawn.

From there I decided to simplify the drawing and make an abstract interpretation of the view. I created texture and pattern to symbolize trees and fields. I drew the hills with marker only and used watercolor for the sky.

The sketchbook is now on its way to the next artist on the list, Anna Jane Searle, in the UK. From there it will travel through many countries and eventually make its way back to the US where it will live with Kimi.

There are already so many different styles and scenes in the sketchbook, that I’m eager to see how the book will evolve from where I left off. If you’d like to take a look at the other pages that have already been added, view the portrait : landscape project page on Kimi’s blog.

New Year, New Sketchbook: Winners

January 11, 2012 by anika | 3 Comments

Thanks to everyone who entered the sketchbook giveaway! I really enjoyed reading all your inspiring New Year’s Resolutions, so I thought I’d share a few of my own.

Last year I started a daily photo project, but I only made it to August. I thought about doing a similar daily creative challenge, and in a way I suppose I’m doing one, but it’s less specific: everyday I’m doing SOMETHING to make progress toward my creative goals. The first few days of the year found me doing a major clean up and overhaul of the studio. Now that I have a beautiful space to work in, I’ve been sketching everyday since then. A few creative goals I have are to create more patterns and make at least one large scale painting or drawing. I have a big 3′ x 4′ canvas waiting for me, as well as a huge 4′ wide roll of cotton paper. I also want to get more familiar with Corel Painter, which is a powerful program that I’ve only fumbled around with a few times.

My web design goals are to learn more about javascript so I can write my own code, at least for simple functions, and to make more websites! My health goals are to be able to do at least one “real” push up, and to continue eating healthfully (no more sugar or flour for me!).

Those are the basics of my resolutions for the year. I plan to keep the momentum going throughout the year, that I’ve already built up in these first few days of January, and continue to make progress and have fun with it all!

Ok, ok, so enough about me, and on to the good part.

Chosen by random number generator, the winners of the sketchbooks are:

Pink Sketchbook: Azizah A. (@GourmetPens)
Blue Sketchbook: Sarah – The Second Magpie
Purple Sketchbook: Maggie

If you’ve won, please contact me with your address by next Wednesday January 18. If I don’t hear from you by then, I’ll choose another winner.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and shared their resolutions for 2012. Here’s to a prosperous and productive year for all!

New Year, New Sketchbook: a giveaway!

January 1, 2012 by anika | 28 Comments

While I was out shopping for Christmas presents this year, I found it hard to avoid temptation to pick up a fun item or two for myself. Especially when I went to IKEA, because I discovered that they had brand new sketchbooks! I was so excited that not only did I pick up a few for myself, I also got one of each color to giveaway to 3 of my blog readers!

That’s right! I’m giving away 3 sketchbooks! I’ll give 1 pink, 1 purple, or 1 blue sketchbook to 3 lucky winners.

I made a quick video to give you a better idea of what they are like.

Please note: I don’t usually pronounce pink as “peenk”. Not sure where that came from. Also, when I say the purple is more purple, I meant that it’s more of a warm purple, not as blue as it looks on the video!

As you can tell from the video, they are filled with blank paper, but they have a nifty ruled plastic insert page too.

I love the size of the book–feels very comfortable to hold on my lap and sketch. Truthfully, it’s not the best quality paper in the world, but it’s perfect for basic sketching.

If you’d like to start off this new year with a new sketchbook, then leave a comment that tells me which is your favorite color of the 3 choices (I’ll do my best to give the winners their favorite, but I can’t make any promises!), and let me know what your New Year’s resolution is if you have one!

I’ll pick the winners at random. Comments for this giveaway will close in 1 week–Next Sunday January 8th (at midnight!) with the winners announced Monday January 9th.

Good luck!

Patterns & Paws: Collaboration with Jessica Gowling

September 4, 2011 by anika | 25 Comments

I have always been interested in the idea of collaborating. Not with the enemy, but with other artists. It just seemed like such a cool concept to work with another person to create something unique & unexpected, but I never really knew how to go about it since I’d never done one before.

Then along comes the ever so talented Jessica Gowling. I met Jessica on twitter months ago, and shortly thereafter we started exchanging mail art. Much to my delight, one day she invited me to work on a collaborative project with her!

Well, when I say invite, it was more like, “I’m sending you a project for the two of us to work on, and I’m not telling you what it is so it will be a surprise, and you better say yes!”.

Haha! How could I refuse?

Seriously though, I was super excited at the prospect of working on my first ever collaboration, but I was also really flattered that such a talent would single me out for something like this.

We had to wait for what seemed like eons for me to finally get the project. I didn’t even know what I was going to be getting in the mail since it was a secret. We were both worried it had gotten lost on its journey, but it turns out there was a postal snafu, and after they kept if for about a month, they sent it back to Jessica because it was missing mere pennies in postage.

Once it was sorted out, and I got it in hand, I was amazed by the drawings and the print she’d started off the project with. I was also really impressed that this was going to be an ongoing collaboration–such a great idea. I love the fact that it will continue to evolve with each exchange, and that we can both look forward to being surprised and inspired in new ways each time!

The pattern we’re following for filling in the sketchbook is as follows:

Jessica starts off the collab with paws on the first 2 spreads on the RIGHT pages only.
Anika fills in patterns on the LEFT pages of the first two spreads, taking inspiration from Jessica’s images that are on the RIGHT.
Anika fills in patterns on the LEFT pages of the next two spreads, which can be anything, leaving the RIGHT side blank. When Jessica gets the sketchbooks back, she will fill in the empty 2 RIGHT pages with images inspired by the patterns on the LEFT.
Anika fills in the following spread on both RIGHT & LEFT sides. Jessica will also add to this spread on both RIGHT & LEFT to create an intermingled collaborative spread.
Jessica will then fill in the RIGHT pages of the following 2 spreads with paws, leaving the LEFT page blank for Anika to fill in.
Jessica will then skip 2 spreads, and on the 3rd spread add paws to the RIGHT & LEFT pages for the next mixed collaborative spread, and so on.

Probably sounds complicated right? Well, it’s really not! Take a look at the images below, and maybe that will give you a better idea about how things are arranged.

First up is Volume 1 of Patterns and Paws, which I believe is the volume I’ll be keeping.

My creative process usually involves taking in inspiration and letting it simmer for a few days, but it wasn’t long before I had my first ideas, and the rest flowed easily from there.

Isn’t the chipmunk Jessica drew the cutest? When creating this pattern I thought about directional movement, gathering, piles, and nooks and crannies.

This “paw print” is one of my favorite prints of Jessica’s, and I was super excited that she included it for the second spread. I really love the shape made by the paws, and I also love the dimensional quality of the print framed on the page. I decided to work with collage using thick bristol that really pops out from the surface, and created a very abstract interpretation of the shapes of the paws. Do you see it?

This was the first spread where I could do whatever I wanted. I think initially I’d planned to paint this design with gouache, but I was so engrossed in the process that I started using colored pencils before I remembered my original intention. As it turns out, I really like the texture of the pencils, especially for the lines that are hanging down and taper slightly at the ends. This is based on a motif of swooping lines that I’ve created before, but the variety of colors, and the use of colored pencils add a new feeling to this pattern.

This is a new style of pattern that I created for the collab. Is it wrong to admit that I’m kind of in love with this idea and pattern? Because I am! After completing the previous spread of swooping organic lines, I wanted to do something a little more geometric, while maintaining a hand drawn feel. In a way it’s a simple drawing, but I find the slight variations in color and thickness of the lines work together to create a really appealing design.

I found this spread to be a challenge. I actually had the idea for this pattern and its shape in my minds eye, but had to do a bit of sketching outside this book to work out the details. Because I knew Jessica will be adding paws to this spread, I thought it was important to maintain some whitespace for her to work with. After seeing some work by Anna Jane Searle, and a comment Jessica made about it, I realized I could have filled the page with pattern, because Jessica would still have the opportunity to alter it by drawing, painting or collaging over whatever I created. Learning as I go! The concepts I had in mind when creating this pattern were mountains, caves, slow growth, endurance, cycles, formations, crystalline structures, energy and flow. I’m really interested to see what Jessica will add to this!

Next up is Volume 2, which Jessica will be keeping, if I have it right.

The first spread is similar in that Jessica created another pencil drawing, but the composition and the feeling is quite different and features a marmot instead of a chipmunk. I created a pattern that was loosely based on the composition of the drawing, while keeping in mind these concepts: connection, same and different, approach, warning, surrounded, unexpected, and continuation.

I used the same basic idea for this spread as for the one in Vol. 1. As you can see, the orientation of the paws is flipped, so I flipped my composition as well to relate to the shape of the paws.

I also used the same idea for a swooping pattern on this page, but I’ll mention that I chose colors intuitively for the individual volumes.

I approached the same idea for a pattern here as well, although the colors are different, and each of the three designs are a little more substantial than the similar spread in Vol. 1. Why? I’m not sure, it just felt like that’s how it was supposed to be!

I used the same idea for both collaborative spreads as well, but again chose colors as I was working, for a result that has quite a different feeling.

So there you have the first round of my very first collaborative project! Isn’t it exciting and awesome?!

If you have a little more time & want some more info about this collab, I highly recommend checking out the very first post about it that Jessica wrote after I’d finally received the sketchbooks in the mail. She took actual photos of the sketchbooks, and also discusses the originating idea for this collaboration intelligently, so it gives you a good idea of what the books look like and the intention of the project. Plus you can see the other goodies she sent along with the project!

Currently Jessica has the sketchbooks and is no doubt coming up with awesome art to add. I’ll be posting about this project as it progresses, and I hope you’ll follow along!

**edit** Since posting this, Jessica has also created a post for this stage of the collaboration on her blog. She again photographed the books side by side, which offers a unique view of how the books relate to each other. I also just think it’s fun to see the corresponding pages/diptychs next to each other.

a is for anika

making art and writing about it.

Category Archives: sketchbook

Sketchbook Project 2013

Nature and Sketching

Pattern a Day September

Patterns & Paws: Update 2

Sketchbook Project in 24 hours

Patterns & Paws: Update 1

portrait : landscape

New Year, New Sketchbook: Winners

New Year, New Sketchbook: a giveaway!

Patterns & Paws: Collaboration with Jessica Gowling