sketchbooks
I usually decorate the covers of my sketchbook when I'm about half way thru them. I draw on them, paint on them, collage stuff to them. I've ruined a few, too. I'm not fast at filling them so they have to take a real beating being carried around for so long. The cheerios sketchbook lost it's cover, Ill put another cereal box cover on it someday. The moleskin didn't lend itself to decorating and it had crumby paper, so I abandoned it. The Mulberry has a wallpaper book cover that alls messed up and not worth putting on here. But the rest are the covers as they are, for now.
I usually have an envelope or pocket glued onto the inside of the cover of my sketchbook. I cut out and save images I like and try to use them in the book somewhere. I had a bunch of old stamps and tickets so I just glued them on the front. I'm not keen on how it came out but I didn't want to throw them out. The papers inside are a mix of brown bag, wallpaper and heavy white. I like it so far. I'm about half way thru it.
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feb. 2015 - mar. 2016 (8 1/2 " x 8 1/2 ")
monkey-wrench sketchbook
This little tiny sketchbook has brown paper in it. I loved it. It was smooth and heavy, laid flat and stood up well to everything I did to it. The dots were kind of ugly but it worked well enough when I added the Beatles. Everything's better with the Beatles. I did several of my Daily Dickens in this little book.
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jan. 2015 - feb. 2015 (4" x 6")
hole in me pocket sketchbook
I saw someone take an old book and paint little masterpieces on the pages. It must have been a different sort of book with better pages because this one was a nuisance. I had to take out every other page and glue two pages together of each of the remaining pages. That worked after a fashion. I never suffered blank page syndrome. And I wanted to loosen up and experiment with my Daily Dickens and this book really helped me do that. I felt very free to create anything and was able to give myself permission to make some pretty bad drawings. And some of them were pretty bad but as a consequence, some of them were pretty good.
july 2014 - june 2015 (5 1/2" x 7 1/2")
funk & wagnells sketchbook
This is one of my wallpaper books. Pictured, is the inside back cover. I make the Cat in the Hat here as a reading club name wall. Each of the kids who participated in the summer reading club would put their name on a dot then I would tape them up on a back background. About half way thru the summer the kids started figuring out what the picture was of.
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nov. 2011 - june 2013 (10" x 10")
cheerio sketchbook
The skateboarder on the cover is not mine. I can't find the artist's name to credit them. I'm sorry. If it's you, let me know. I think is a wonderful little drawing. The paper in it was blue, yellow or green. The green was on the dark side (tho not talking evil) for my tastes. I'd set it aside, and probably would not have finished it, but it seemed like a good place to start with my 100 Dickens. I didn't expect them to be any good. But I liked them and
felt more confident after I had a few under my belt.
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aug. 2011 - jan. 2015 (5 1/2" x 8")
this end up sketchbook
This is another wallpaper book. It's the biggest. I used a lot of it for figure studies. I used to go to a gallery that hired a model each week and we'd all pitch in for costs. It was a nice arrangement. I miss it. The point, however is, there are numerous nude studies. Don't go there if that offends you. Okay, you've been warned.
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jan. 2011 - sept. 2010 (11" x 11")
mulberry sketchbook
This is another bigger wallpaper book. The picture is from way back when my family and I marched against the Iraq war. It has a lot of nude studies, as well, so consider that before you hit the link.
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feb. 2009 - aug. 2009 (11" x 11")
peace is patriotic sketchbook
This little sketchbook had many many different types of paper and it was good fun to fill it. It's a foam sticker of a cow from a story time project I did with the kids. I was trying to show them what could be done with a cute little thing like that.
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nov. 2008 - oct. 2009 (7 1/2" x 7 1/2")
over the moon sketchbook
Bill made the cover of this, in one of his hardware paint seminars. It's a sample panel. I just clued the little crab to it. It's a wallpaper book, mostly. I'd like to learn to make books other than with this comb binder thing. I took book binding once but I used the books I made and I can't remember how to make any more.
aug. 2007 - sept. 2008 (11" x 11")
hermit crab sketchbook
There's a blue semi-transparent cover over this book. I have trouble with books falling apart before I can finish them. I put a rainbow "julie" on it but it's a little hard to see the colors blue tinted as they are. It had a whole rainbow of colored papers, too.
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feb. 2006 - sept. 2006
rainbow julie sketchbook
This is a moleskin. I didn't like it. The paper was thin. Everything but pencil bled thru. I ended up gluing pages together to make them stronger. I glued things in and filled it but I'm not loving' this one.
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mar. 2006 - july 2006
moleskin sketchbook
I bought this lovely little blank book in England. It was so beautiful I didn't touch it for some time. But I finally started. It was okay. The paper was a tad thin but not so bad.
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dec. 2005 - jan. 2006
english lotus sketchbook
This sketchbook is an old one. I didn't start filling it till 2005 tho. I drew countless zebras for a while. I had a teacher who said you don't know what something looks like till you've drawn it a hundred times. I believed him, too. I drew so many zebras that I drew the ones on this cover from memory. Not a lot of artists take the trouble to do that. Except fantasy artists, they can do anything. I managed this, anyway. Then I did a hundred Dickens.
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oct. 2005 - nov. 2005
zebras sketchbook
I had a friend send me a card with this fellow on it. I thought he was funny so I copied and colored him and stuck him on the cover, the jester not my friend.
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feb. 2005 - may 2005
jester sketchbook
This is my favorite cover. I put the bride of frankenstein on and then I turned her into my sister. The dialog is a real one, mostly.
A woman offered me $200 for this sketchbook. But a sketchbook like this has hundreds of hours of work in it. I suppose I could have ripped off the cover. That's what she wanted after all. And it fell to pieces soon after. I bought it in Paris. Great paper, crappy binding.
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dec. 2002 - jan. 2003 (5 1/2" x 8")
bride of frankenstein sketchbook
I bought a couple of fancy blank books at some stationary store. They had ugly covers so I decorated them. This one was so beautiful, till of course I started using it, and it quickly deteriorated. Looks dreadful now. The paper was okay. I'm not as keen on white paper as I used to be but it was nice enough.
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apr. 2003 - dec. 2003 (8" x 8")
doves & snow skethbook
This was the other stationary store blank book. I did a ton of writing in it. There was a lot going on in my life at the time. I once left it in a bookstore by accident. I went back to pick it up and found the young bookstore clerks laughing over it and pouring over it's pages. I was mortified. I walked to the service counter and asked the gentleman there to take it from them and return it to me. I told Bill what happened and he said, "At least they weren't bored."
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I spelled squeamish like that on purpose but I can't remember why. Something to do with the kids in the library and a journal program I was teaching.
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july 2002 - sept. 2002 (8" x 8")
not for the squeamish sketchbook
This book didn't sit open well and had ugly black dots on the cover. I played with it and used it for a lot of practical things like designing my wedding ring and Bill's too, actually. I didn't think of this book as an end in itself. All my sketchbooks have to work but I use them differently now. I invest more in them and try to use them not just to make me a better artist and librarian but also to make me a better person. I can't say I've succeeded but they mean much more to me. I have older sketchbooks. I did a lot of drawing but I seldom filled them I almost always gave up on them and started a new one, itching for something else. With this book, I turned a corner. I gave myself permission to make crumby drawings. I try to appreciate learning more than results.
1998 - may 2001 (7 1/2" x 8 3/4")