Hi there ...

I am just back from a weeks vacation is Seattle. It was my first time there and I enjoyed it immensely! Sorry I was on vacation the week after our first mailing. I see that I missed a few questions, but other members from round one filled in nicely! Thank you.

You have created some lovely work while I was gone. Wow! Thank all of you for being willing to share your art with 11 other artist and the www. Your excitement about this project is contagious! We are going to have some fun.

Can I do anything for anyone? Clarify anything? Set fire under the arse of your postal carrier? ;) Ha-Ha.

I also wanted to say I am very pleased about the communication going on in the comments. Life is going to get in the way over the course of the next year, making some books tardy. The best thing we can do is stay in touch with one another and work on the Molys as soon as our lives return to normal.

Three cheers for FALL!!!

Another for Steve's Pocket

I'm not sure why I am making all these little sketches, but here they are. This one is called "Going by" and is done in water color on Utrech bristol, 4.5 x 6 inches. I cannot promise to make as many for future moles, as my projects very in intensity and duration, and thus, my available creative time also varies. You'll have to take your chances. The scan is a little darker than the original. Click image to view larger.

Please, Mr. Postman...

Still no sign of my next Mole :-( I fear I may become an accidental bottleneck for Round 2, through no fault of mine or Ash's. Ash promptly sent her book, but she did warn that Canadian Post is infamously slow.

Drat, everyone else is cheerfully working on their next Mole, while I remain lonely & empty-handed. Snivel!

Tweet Collaboration

Here's my contribution to Mike's collaboration page.



Here's the original before I got my grubby hands all over it.



In looking at the original, I really thought Mike's figure seemed to be trying to drown something out by clamping the headphones to his head. I took the graphic on his t-shirt as a clue, and thought the character might feel harassed by a cacophony of tweets. I chose to surround him by those tweeting birds, and went with a really typical tattoo-style blue sparrow. My thought was that while they're cute, they're really common and trite. I thought this character might be trying to escape the noisy assault of insipid distractions. And lastly, I really filled the background with a wall of color to make the contrast between the tweeting birds and Mike's character really stark, to highlight the separation this character is trying to achieve with his headphones.

So that's my thought process - I swear it was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth - the way I saw it. ;)

All done! - Aya Rosen

So I really got into this in the past 3 days and did pretty little but draw in Heidi's book. I'm really happy with the result, though using watercolor in the non watercolor sketchbook was a bit of a challenge, and in some cases I had to change my plans to not make the paint or marker bleed through to the opposite page.




This is my half page, wonder what it will look like after it's done:

For Steve's Pocket

Today is my father's birthday. He died in 1998, but every year on his birthday, to remember him, I make some piece of art. Often, I give it to a family member, but today, I am giving it to Steve, by placing it in his mole pocket.

The first is the original watercolor abstract, Mozart in Heaven, 5 x 8 on Utrech Bristol. In memory of my father, I painted it with a child's Crayola watercolor set.

The second one, Mozart in Heaven Blink, I added a color gradient in the background digitally in Photoshop. (Blink is Blue and Pink). My father loved Mozart--so do I. Click images to view a little larger. You can see these as "originals" in Steve's pocket when they come around.

Abstract for Steve Digital Variant.

The Cover of the current Aperture Magazine shows an abstract by William Eggleston, a great photographer who also does abstract art with markers. There are images inside of his work, and also on the website, though the ones int he Journal are much bigger. I was wondering if the cover image was digitally manipulated from a white original, and decided to try it with mine. (I don't claim my art is in the same style at all, mine was done in water colors, not markers.) It was just something I was eager to try and Steve gets the results in his pocket. I changed the aspect ration and am printing it 4 x 6 on photo paper.

Late,late,late!

Steve...Dude! Don't hate me...I am mailing my book out monday. I hope you will still have time to add some of your beautiful art!

quick question

I'm sure this was addressed before, but for the life of me, I can't find the answer.
I'm not quite sure how many pages I need to fill in each moleskin, I'm working on Heidi's book now and not sure where I should stop.

Also, is there a difference between the amount of pages to fill in the watercolor \ non watercolor books? I mean, the watercolor do have less pages. I don't want to do too few or too many.

UP

1)UP, first full piece in Steve's book. Water color.
2)UP, Angel Light. In Steve's pocket for Steve. (Handle with care, made on ordinary paper, 4.25 x 5.5.)

I "copied" the painting on the cover of Barbara Kingsolver's book, Small Wonder. I love Barbara Kingsolver, and have read ALL her books. The art was done by Paul Mirocha. He is much better than I am. I changed the orientation to landscape, and the arrangement of the birds and the detail and coloring of the background, as you will see if you look. Click here and scroll down. While you're there, you migt enjoy some of his other work.

Johnnynorms last batch

Heavy Light Work


Water Tower


A Cluttered Mind


Grab the Moon


"Smash that evil Art"


A Muse at Play


Last Morsel

These are my pages in Alan's book, which is now heading off to its rightful owner. That's me done for round one, and now I can lie back and enjoy watching the wonderful fruits of you round two-ers.

Please

I'm sure I missed a post or a message somewhere but I have no clue what the order is for Round 2. Could someone help a brotha out? :-)

First page - Round 2 - Aya Rosen

One of my major dilemmas in drawing in Heidi's book (I know I'm going to experience it with each book I get) is how to both do what I want, but also correspond with the other art in the book.
When I start a new sketchbook I usually give it a general name, and mosto f the pieces in the book follow a certain theme, or color pallet or just a change in me, once I start a new one, I'm often drawn to trying something new that I wouldn't dare put in the old one.

So, in Heidi's case this was pretty easy, she had a drawing of a tuffed ears owl in her book AND I notice a comment on one of my owl prints. So I assumed she's a person who likes owls. I decided to add my own version of a tuffed ears owl to her book

My first collaboration

Steve's Moleskine came through my mail slot this afternoon and I
eagerly opened it! WOW! As usual, it was way better in real life! I
so enjoyed it. I looked at his "half" picture and was going to make
monsters out of it, like his first picture, sort of, but it looked
like the badlands to me, the canyonlands.

So that's what I made: Canyonlands. I was going to put a vulture in
but I loved Steve's crows, so I made some more of them. (Or tried to.)

I used a kid's set of water colors, because all mine are at the Retreat center.

The top one is Steve's "half" of the collaboration. The bottom one shows part of his previous page.

I don't know how long it will be there, but it is featured on Molsekiner's at the moment. Right sidebar.

Round 2 - page 1 Aya rosen

Or rather, page half... I still have one project (at least) I was supposed to finish before this, but I couldn't help myself anymore, and so today, when Ned, my husband were making work phone calls at home, I went to my favorite coffee shop and worked on this.

It feels very strange to draw or paint in someone else's book. I felt like i broke into a stranger's house and eat their food from their fridge or slept on their bed.

After giving a shot to the moleskin sketchbook in this, rather then the watercolor version which I usually get, I have to say, for me, watercolor is definitely the way to go for me. This paper is coated and it doesn't take watercolor very well, I manage ot make it work, but had to use a lot more paint and less water, and some of the subtelties are lost.

I might have to use markers for the next pages.

hair nest

sorry bunny

Moleskine II Book 1

YIKES!

I received Anders' moleskine today! I am soo excited, and soooo lame!
Please help a rookie out?!
I am late to mail out to Steve (I am mailing out tomorrow) but do I draw on any of the first few pages in my book?? Also, How many pages can I draw on in Anders book?
This is going to be such fun when I get going!
Thanks,
Ellen

Ballookey's molie...

is camping with me at the American River Music Festival in gold country.

4,5

My girlfriend likes horses.



Abstract comic half page.

monsters in my pocket

Actually, they're Splotch Monster ATCs - one for everyone in fact. I chose one for everyone at random (your name's on the back) - hope you enjoy!

happy mail day!

Got Heidi's sketchbook in the mail today! it came safe, whole and in a great shape. The drawings looks so much cooler in person then online! Heidi, you did a beautiful job. I have a couple of orders on my etsy store and some other projects I have to finish, though all I want to do is dump everything else and start working on this (yes, it might happened...)

Half page

I just downloaded the photos from my camera with the last page of my book that's gone on it's way. Can't wait to see how it ends! ;)

First Round-Ash Edwards

Hey all,

Here are the first few pages of my mole. Look out Heidi, here it comes! Just a heads up, Canada Post is sometimes slow so please give me a shout when you get it. The dog sled teams can only run so fast :)

Page 1

Page 2 & 3- Spread (will need to click on it to de-tiny-ify it)

Page 4

Page 5 - Colabo (I call it Octopie, have fun Heidi!)

Collaborative Page

This drawing of needles on red threads is a reference to Claire Watkins' kinetic sculpture, Flock of Needles. I saw her sculpture at an exhibit in July. I omitted the spinning magnet, which attracts & sways the needles. Aya's magnetic art will take its place!

Mixed Bag

Top one: Oops, that tinfoil mosiac really throws a glare!

Bottom one: In Crayola markers & a No. 2 pencil, of course.

ROUND 1: My work in Steve's book

I just got Steve's book to work in from round 1, we had a bottleneck towards the end there. Also, round 1 folks, we still want to see how you finish your books, okay?

first four in my new BIG book

I'm loving my big watercolor Moleskine! Here are my first four entries, all in my book and ready for the mail. Looking forward to round two!