Tuesday 31 January 2012

2012 Sketchbook Project

Welcome to my first post for 2012! Today, I finally posted my Sketchbook Project sketchbook to the Brooklyn Art Library which will arrive along with thousands of others from all over the world. I made sure the postmark was today since that's the official cut off, so technically, it's done and dusted. The only disappointing aspect for me is that I didn't get to complete all 32 pages of the book. I had grand plans for it when it arrived in my letterbox over a year ago but a few other things in life got in the way and it didn't quite turn out the way I imagined. It didn't help that my little booklet was slightly doomed! It went missing for a few months under a pile of stuff then, worst of all, it got damaged by oil after sitting alongside an oiled sheet of paper used for screen printing (see previous entry) which, in turn, left the barcode and sketchbook details blurred and unreadable! Not a good start.

I still carried on with it all the same as I felt I needed to fulfill a personal challenge. I ended up completing seven original comics and started a longer story which I ran out of time to complete due to other circumstances. So, although I'm partly disappointed with myself for not achieving the deadline set out for me, I'm also pretty impressed with the things I did achieve during a tough few months this year and last year. Below are a couple of samples of what I did get done and I hope to finish it all in my own good time! Enjoy!

The cover - A bit on the dodgy side! You can see the oil stains on the back cover which destroyed the text on the barcode sticker. Hopefully it can be replaced once it arrives. The cover would have been a lot more slick and refined had I given myself more than an hour or so in front of the telly...
 
Here is a sample of one of the stories inside. In the sketchbook, they're just black and white but I've scanned them all and added colour in InDesign. I just didn't have time to add colour to the images in the sketchbook and I'm not sure I could have done them justice if I tried anyway.


Finally, the last page in my sketchbook, the grovelling apology as to why my book is less than half finished :-(