Collaborative Sketchbook Project

It can be tough living away from family especially during the holidays! We've been lucky in that we have been able to see most of our immediate family each year but the goodbyes can be rough! I try to keep in contact with my nieces and nephews throughout the year and this year I thought of a great way to do that even though there are many miles between us!

My youngest niece is just one in the family who loves art as much as I do. One evening, just after they had left, I was sketching away with my new sketch pens from Santa and a light bulb went off! I should start a shared sketch book with my niece! I'll sketch some then mail it to her, then she'll sketch some and mail it back and so on. It has yet to be determined what the "rules" are as I'm leaving that up to her. Do we add onto each other's sketches? Or is there a "hands off" rule? Once she has created her bit my sister will be posing that question to her. I'm quite interested to hear what she says. As artists it's hard to let others jump in and poke about at something you've created, however we could learn so much if we could relinquish that control for just a bit and see what happens.

We Heart Art!
Inside cover of the sketchbook.

I decided to personalize the book and add some hot pink construction paper for a bit of fun. In hind site I wish I'd hand drawn our initials as my craftsmanship is very poor there with the cut and paste method. Oh well, this is about letting go and having fun right? We'll see if I can leave that alone when I get the book back…

Darlene Sketch #1

And here's my first sketch contribution. I thought I'd do something which would appeal to my niece, a cartoon horse with long eyelashes. Again, we'll see if I can avoid going back to touch this up. I was riding in the car when I did this one so my hands weren't as steady as I'd have liked.