January 15, 2013 was a bit momentous for me. I finished my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project 2013 with Art House Co-op. January 15 was the due date or when the sketchbook had to be postmarked and I was able to finish and send it in that day. So now this year, my little Sketchbook will go on a national tour along with a few thousand other books and then eventually make its home in the Brooklyn Art Library.
It was my first time doing The Sketchbook Project. I've been wanting to do this project for about a year.
I've had the sketchbook since May, but it took me till finally November to finally start getting ideas and putting some sketches in it.
I've noticed that a lot of the sketchbooks from the past on the website have themes that tie the pages in the books. I have to say, I didn't have one and that's OK. I'm fine with it. I also had a hard time deciding what to put in the book as well. I've never had a project like this as an artist, where I could do anything I want; it was a little daunting, but also a bit liberating. So I followed that bit of advice for writers, "Write what you know" and substituted it with sketch what you know. I know how to draw costumes and characters...so that's what I did. I drew ideas for characters that came in my head, nothing spectacular, every day people is what I ended up drawing.
I enjoyed the project so much that I would like to do it next year, maybe next time with a theme.
I'm proud and glad I did it. I did this whole project to challenge me as an artist in order to see what do I like to draw for fun. Good question. Apparently Art House Co-Op had that question along with some other ones like, What moves me? What type of emotion are you conveying with your book? What do you usually specialize in with your art? What's your artist statement? They even ask some of these questions when you're filling out your online profile to describe what type of sketchbook your book is. Is it a journal? A sketchbook? A memoir? A comic, etc? I still haven't figured all of this out and I'm working on filling out that portion on my profile on the site...expect to see something in the next few days or weeks. *Crosses Fingers*
These are all very good questions that I've started questioning within myself with in the past year as an artist and a costume designer. I guess its good to take a stand for your art and be concrete with what you do. I see theatre's with mission statements, even director's, I think its time for me to have one.
All in all, it dusted off the cobwebs and made me stretch my artistic muscles and I am forever grateful for this project and for making myself do it. I guess I have some things to think over and figure out and I'm happy to do it.
*If you want to check out my sketchbook, pictures I took of my sketches and the digitizing of my sketches will be filtering in over the next few weeks. Enjoy! Courtney's Sketchbook Project Page
