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December 6, 2004
Proj: Exhibition Moleskine Sketches
About a month ago, I participated in the Wandering Moleskine Project, adding one of my drawings to book number 3. Through that drawing, I was contacted by Patrick Ng, who runs the Moleskine Art website.
Patrick is hosting proj: exhibition, in his citysuper Hong Kong store (Times Square) in February and was looking for physical and digital pieces to show. He asked if I'd be willing to send a sketchbook with my sketchtoons to Hong Kong. Wow! I was flattered by the offer. After all, how often will I get the chance to display work in Hong Kong? :-)
Of course said yes to Patrick's kind proposal, then I bought a small Moleskine sketchbook. I've been sketching toward my mid-January deadline ever since. I have to tell you, I've found it a real blast doing this project! Patrick, thanks for the offer!!
As of today, I have 6 pages to share with you, my loyal weblog readers. I plan to have many more pages completed before the 15th of January (the day I must ship the book to Patrick). Still, this should give you an idea where I'm going.
Below are the 3 completed spreads, with some notes below each scan for some background on why I decided to draw and write about each subject (click the scan to see a larger version).
Page 1: This was the introductory page, something to introduce the viewer to Milwaukee, where I live. I sketched part of this page at the Milwaukee Christmas Parade, hence the light post and bandleader near the base of the page. I had a bit of fun pointing out some of the more unique bits of Milwaukee.
Page 2: Gail had the idea for “Milwaukee to Hong Kong”, which I completed on the right page. I found the two large Chinese characters on a poster, at a Linens and Things store. The small Chinese greeting was written by a friend of my friend Randy, who teaches at a local university. I thought it would be very cool to have a bit of Chinese in the book, since it will appear in Hong Kong. Funny thing is, I don't exactly know what the Chinese reads. :-)
Page 3: An introduction to my proj: exhibition sketchbook.
Page 4: My first page covers the popular and classic American baseball cap. The inspiration came from the beat up green cap which sits on my bedroom dresser.
Page 5: My ultra-large Starbucks mug, given to me by Andy Bauer was the subject on this page. I'd just finished a tasty home-made, sugar-free hot chocolate, when the idea hit me to sketch the cup and tell its story. Now I'm hankerin' for some hot chocolate — go figure! ;-)
Page 6: I didn't want my Ultra Mug story sit alone on the spread, so I finished with a sketch of my beat up but trustworthy MiGo stainless steel coffee mug. I drink my hot coffee from it every day, so it seemed natural to memorialize it in the sketchbook next to my Mega Mug.
That's all for now, but more will come. I may not post scans until after the book has been shipped, because there's only a month left and many pages to go. We'll see.
I'd love to hear your comments, so feel free to leave yours here.
December 6, 2004 8:03 PM | Sketches | 
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Rohdesign is the site of designer Mike Rohde, who writes about design, sketching, writing, mobile computing, technology, travel, cycling, books, music and more.
