SP11 - Birthday Party Time by akiko
akiko

SP11 - Birthday Party Time

by akiko in Illustration

For the past few years the Brooklyn Art Library has been hosting a project for artists worldwide called 'The Sketchbook Project'. Basically, you spend $20 (yes, just $20) and they send you a moleskine sketchbook to you to fill with arty goodness. You then send it back to them, and they take it on a tour of the US. Awesome idea, right?!

After thinking to myself 'that can't be that hard to do!' (and with a 4 month deadline), I took up the challenge, and to be honest, it was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be.

The little guy in this piece is a robot named Kyo. I decided to base my entire sketchbook around adventures involving him, as my theme was 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' - a name a bit too ambitious for me normally, but it was a good starting point.

I spent my entire Christmas break in Dec 2010 / Jan 2011 (while it was raining, just to make my life even harder) learning the very basics of what watercolours are capable of doing.. and I can't remember ever having so much fun, artistically speaking.

I can't say that I wasn't taking the project seriously, but I had complete freedom in what I was doing. If I wanted Kyo to take the 11th Doctor Who's bowtie, and the 10th Doctor's suit and overcoat, or maybe even have him dressed up ready to go to a Liverpool FC match? Maybe I wanted a splattered effect to make the sandcastle look more realistic and sandy? Of course I could do it!

I plan on participating on the project again next year as the Australian portion of the sketchbooks (plus a few more as a treat, I hope!) are actually traveling to Melbourne for one of the tour dates! It truly is a wonderful project, hopefully some of the artists here will take up the challenge as well! =)

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