Angela's entry, Mary's book

Inspired by lyrics from a Modest Mouse song

Chip - 7th Entry Lydia's Book

Theme: Choosing a letter and random words beginning with that letter. In English the "ch" sound is 2 letters, but in Czech where I live the "ch" sound is one letter "c" but with a hook over it and that was the letter I choose. The fun part was using English words but with the Czech "ch." For the words, I wrote a long list down randomly and selected the wackiest combination of them.

Chip - 6th Entry Angela's Book

The theme for this book I think was a "go with the flow," stream of consciousness kinda thing. So that's just what I did. This sketch gave birth to a term I invented and began using, "Vizo-Babble."
What "Pyscho-Babble" is as a descriptor to poetry, so then is "Viso-Babble" to visual expression. Don't get confused though, I consider "Vizo-Babble" to be at a slightly higher level then the discipline of "Doodling" as "Vizo-babble" has a higher consideration of the elements of design and composition. ("Is this guy serious?")

Lydia's Book complete!!

Dear All

I just received my book completed! Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful sketch book for me to keep! I found this project inspiring, challenging, frustrating, overwhelming but extremely satisfying. It has kept me creating for creation's sake, pushed me to try new techniques, to buy a few art materials (which I haven't done in years) and have a bit of fun exploring ideas.

Happy sketching!

Lydia

Lydia's entry into Petr's book

I'm going backwards in entering my pages to this blog, but thought I may as well. This entry depicts a real 'nightmare' event that resulted in subsequent night time nightmares. One evening a friend took my 10 year old son along with her own boy to a new club in the city. I was scheduled to collect them and take them home when the session was over, only I had never been to the place and couldn't find it, leaving our two little boys waiting and wondering in the dark and me in a terrible panic. Maps, no-through roads, one way streets and motorway slips roads haunted me for many nights after.

Lydia's entry into Angela's book

Angela seems to have inspired a very fluid book in which anything goes and everything happens. This sense of freedom gave me the confidence to let my ideas flow and evolve, working directly into the sketch book rather than trying out hundreds of options before committing a mark in the book. It being the last few pages of the book, I felt Angela's beginnings needed an ending, or do they?

Lydia's entry into Liv's book

Liv's sketch book has such a nice, laid back 'Sunday feeling'. I can imagine you lazing about in your outdoors spaces, watching the crickets bounce about the undergrowth among the flowers, or, in Chip's case, parping his pipes and making merry music. My last few Sundays have involved people, visitors to be exact, and many of them. In fact, during this past summer break every day has felt like a Sunday and it has been packed full of our favourite people. Each group that has come to our home in France has brought a different quality to our experience here and it builds memories that make it a special place to be, even after they have gone. My page is a reflection of a few of the most recent folk to 'stay and play' for a while..

Chip - 5th Entry Liv's Book

"Things I saw on Sunday."  One of the things would have to be my Scottish Small Pipes.  Recently, Sundays have been rehearsal days for the two bands I play in, so this is a view I see a lot.  In choosing this as my final idea, I wanted the composition to be as dynamic as I could make it.  I'm really crazy about this picture because it represents me both as a visual artist and a musician.

Lydia's Book / Petr's Entry

I loved watching Lydia's book growing on the blog and I just couldn't wait for it to come my way. And when the book came with all the cuteness in it I felt I'd like to take it a little different direction.
This piece feels like if a boy just came to a playground full of girls and interrupted their game. My passion for comics and its aesthetics surely influenced this piece. It was a joy to work on this entry and in this awesome book!

"BRUTAL BOMB BLASTS BRING BRILLIANT BLAZES AND BEASTLY BEHEMOTHS BREAKING BEYOND BARRIERS"

Angela's entry into Colleen's book



For this entry, I was inspired by some pretty groovy music.
Tom Wait's song called Fish and Bird provided the mental imagery and Lykke Li's I Follow Rivers helped me figure out what I wanted the animals to say. It's one of my favorite entries so far. Thanks for the ride, cohorts!  



Colleen's book is nearly complete!

Lydia's entry into Colleen's book

Chip - 4th Entry Mary's Book

I'm a fisherman, and when I saw Petr's picture with his face bobbing in the water I couldn't help but to think of how a fish would see that from his view point from below the surface - FOOD! The Large Mouth Bass is my fish of choice and they are known for attacking the surface very dramatically, so here you have "Petr the Morsel." Pen and Ink, Watercolor. (Mary's book theme - water.)

Angela's entry - 4th addition to Petr's book

I have used a jumping deer or gazel-like animal in other artworks, and thought Petr's theme a welcome opportunity to revisit the image. To me it symbolizes longing and/or freedom, the stuff of which dreams are made. 

Angela's entry into Chip's book

At first when I received this book I felt cautious or somewhat intimidated, but by the time I had finally sat down to begin, I felt ready for this entry! Spring Break was upon me and the sense of freedom helped me to just jump in!  I mushed together random imagery as I often do: a knotted twig/root, a squirrel image from a Russian chocolate wrapper and my own silhouette from the sunny day spent with inspiring friends.  Everybody should be so lucky as to spend a relaxing afternoon with the O'Neills being creative, sharing good food and conversation on a bright Spring day.

WOW

Yesterday I returned home from a much needed vacation and decided to check out our blog first thing this morning. I am so thrilled by all our efforts!! In just a few months, we have really created a fantastic body of work. Thanks to you all for participating and for the fresh ideas and inspiration. Much respect, Angela

ANGELA's BOOK / PETR's ENTRY

For some reason I got 2 books at a time and having holidays and 2 of our 3 kids off to stay at grandparents I just really got into it ...

Oh Angela, your book was like a blessing to me ... totally liberating!

So far i always took so much time and care to develop the concepts of my previous sketches, and also bringing the technique and lookalike to perfection ... and your book just let me go with the flow! And so there's a mixture of stuff here to do with ocean, creation of life, water, blood, flash and more and more ... i just loved building this up!

Thanks for the opportunity!

LIV's BOOK / PETR's (and Colleen's) ENTRY

This piece just came to me ... i saw the grass hopper that Colleeen did and a bunch of stuff just popped in my head - how little kids tear off legs and wings of insects, how anything can be turned into a pattern, how nature is full of visual forms and patterns anyway ... and that's how this piece just came to me.

Only then I read there's a theme to this book, hope you won't mind much Liv!

Mary's entry into Lydia's book

Chip's Book - entry 2 (Lydia's contribution)

Chip's work made me think about a cosy, inspiring place I like to escape to at the weekend, to read, drink coffee and feel part of cultural Basel. Zum Roten Engel is a little cafe tucked away in the back streets of the old town, in a tiny square with a quirky fountain and funny looking(and slighty manky) crow sculpture suspended in a tree. I have experimented with coloured pencils in response to chip's technique.

Chip - 3rd Entry Colleen's Book

"At the Cathedral Pub" Color Pencil. 24cm x 16cm.

The theme for Colleen's book is the color red and my favorite color is alizarin crimson.  The tablecloths in one of my local neighborhood pubs are a crimson and they happen to be the cloths of my favorite Czech beer - Gambrinus.  The problem though was that the tablecloths aren't transparent like alizarin crimson so my solution was in the consideration of stained glass.  Bingo! -  stained glass windows of a cathedral.  A marriage of two opposites! - a pub scene (with alcohol) in an iconic church/religious platform!  Should you drink or should you pray?!

MARY's BOOK / PETR's ENTRY

Mary's book on WATER is absolutely amazing. It is so clear and crisp that I was almost afraid to get into it. I totally dig her initial piece, something I couldn't do.

And so I wanted to keep it crisp, gentle and soft and here it is. I worked with 4 layers of tracing paper stuck on top of each other to bring some depth to the simple circles in water, which is something I love watching (along with flames and dying fire).

The digital image somehow doesn't capture the depth. The original piece works better.

peace, p

Lydia's sketchbook ... 3rd Entry

...crashing into cloverfields and cute cherry cupcakes... I had so much fun with this... despite a couple of mistakes I am kinda happy with how it turned out...

Chip - 2nd Entry Petr's Book

“…And His Name is Winter Morning.” To me he is the most miserable of creatures, yet how I survive him I cannot say. He just sits there every weekday work night, waiting, watching, haunting me. His enemy though now comes to my aid to help rid of him…and her name is Spring.

Petr / 2nd Entry to Colleen's Book

...and than the world turned red

Liv - entry two into Angela's book

Angela - 2nd entry Lydia's Book

I definitely had fun using Lydia's word idea.

Liv's book - entry 1

Chip's Book, Entry 1

Hey youz all.  I'm glad to finally be on board.  Was just tryin' to showcase some mixed likes here: candles and fire, celtic, medieval, gothic.  Medium is color pencil and pen and ink.  I'm lovin' seein' all the different ways everyone chooses to express themselves.  Cheers, Chip  

Petr's Sketchbook Entry 1

The theme for mine is Dreams (dreaming) & Nightmares.

I'm happy about the first piece no matter it came out very different from my initial vision. The monster crawling from under the bed was meant to be more cute initially and I envisioned it done neatly with pen and ink originally. I'm happy my mind got changed throughout the process and that the collage came to be!

I really enjoy this!