The Sketchbook Project 2011

It is official, my sketches have been uploaded online at The Art House Co-op, www.arthousecoop.com through The Sketchbook Project 2011, www.arthousecoop.com/sketchbookproject2011 and are on tour across America for everyone to check out. This was a journey that my husband and I set out on together. We thought what a great idea to join a sketchbook project together and once or twice a week we could put a movie in and sketch together like we use to before we had kids. Well... we lasted about three weeks before life got away from us and we seemed too busy to work on them together or at all. My husband succeeded quite well and completed his book although I am a tight illustrator and completed a total of twelves pencil drawings. 

"Happy Thoughts". When my little red sketchbook arrived it was assigned the theme happy thoughts and I thought how perfect but it wasn't as easy as you would think. I spent several months just trying to think about what makes me happy and considering the rough year that my family and I went through it simply made it even harder. One day when I was thinking about "happy" I found my fingers flipping something in my coat pocket and what I pulled out was a small silver star engraved with the word smile. It warmed my heart knowing that my great friend Amy Young Myhre had given it to me to remind me everyday to smile. So I decided I would set out to draw some of the Happy Little Thoughts of my life that carry such a special meaning no matter where I am.

The most exciting part is that I have had people take a journey through my book as the pull it off the library shelf and stroll. I have someone who has marked me as a liked artists and that is super cool too but by far the best part is having a book a real book in The Brooklyn Art Library with a real call number; 018.7-10. Please if you ever get a chance once the book tour is over go look for me in Brooklyn. Maybe my illustrations and you can have a cup of coffee together. 

If you want see the drawings on-line here is a link to visit my book, www.arthousecoop.com/users/lyonlingo/artwork. I'm also posting a bigger picture of one of the small images. This was such a fun project and it is open to anyone even children so why not order a few and get the family drawing. My kids have summer journals and sketchbooks but a book like this one is so real and official that I think my kids would enjoy it just for that alone. Do you do long term projects like this or are more of a quick fire challenge type of person who sits down does a speed sketch and then moves to the next thing? Let me know what you enjoy to do with your kids short or long term.

The sketchbook page pictured shows a cake the size of a quarter that I made with Fimo dough for our dollhouse. Sometimes the kids and I really enjoy sculpting tiny replica objects just for the challenge of it. The hardest part was trying to sculpt those tiny roses on the tip of a pin. Pictured on the right is a quarter. My son is into earning money and I had just spent the morning trying to scrape up $1.00 for the weekly allowance. Success came in four quarters and one become a size relation for my tiny cake.