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January 16, 2005

Proj: Exhibition Moleskine Sketches (Pages 25-28)

It's hard to believe — my proj: exhibition self-imposed deadline of January 15th has arrived and passed. I have the final 4 pages of sketches to reveal, as this project draws to a close. I'd hoped to complete 30 pages in total, but fell just two pages short.

I'm still quite pleased with the completion of 28 pages! 30 pages of sketches was just an arbitrary number after all. In perspective, completion of 28 pages in under 2 months isn't bad, considering my busy schedule. Besides, it got me into the groove of sketching regularly, which I intend to continue.

If you weren't reading when I started this art project at the end of November, I was invited to submit a Moleskine pocket sketchbook to Patrick Ng's proj: exhibition art show, taking place this February in Hong Kong. I picked up a new sketchbook and set a goal of completing 30 pages before I had to mail it off. The book is due to Patrick by January 30th, so it goes into the mail tomorrow at lunchtime. :-)

So, here are the final 4 pages of the sketchbook (click to see larger versions):

Page 25: Okay, okay, I drew another coffee-oriented spread! It was just so perfect that I couldn't pass up this sketching opportunity. Page 25 features a funkly Italian moka pot I've found at a local coffee house (Stone Creek). It's quite tiny in fact, just large enough to create a single shot of stovetop espresso. Being intrigued by moka pot operation, I added a small operational diagram to the sketch.

Page 26: This final coffee sketch was made on Saturday at Cranky Al's bakery. I've always admired the hand-made opn/closed sign in the window, so I made it the focal point of the sketch. To round out the drawing, I added a hand-made soy candle and Fair Exchange logo as they caught my eye.

Page 27 & 28: The final spread in the book features my analog and digital tools. I was inspired to draw this because of Jeremy Wagstaff's WSJ.com article from Friday, covering paper journals and digital lives. I thought it'd be fun to catalog the tools used to create my drawings and blogging, especially in light of their connectedness.

And so ends this phase of the proj: exhibition sketchbook. Once Patrick has shown the book at his store and eventually ships it back, I will continue my sketches and complete it, posting the results here on the weblog.

Meantime, I've dusted off my original Moleskine pocket sketchbook and will post the drawings I make there on the weblog from time to time, since I'm now hooked on these sketchtoons. Thank you Patrick for inspiring me to make this project happen — it's been a blast!

I hope you've enjoyed all of the sketches. To my readers, thanks for comments and suggestions during the process. You guys made this a much fuller experience.

January 16, 2005 10:43 PM | Sketches | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Nice sketches to round off the project Mike. I've thoroughly enjoyed (and taken some inspiration from) your work on this project, and look forward to seeing what else you come up with. I especially like the final sketch of your tools, but I'm curious as to why there isn't a phone in the sketch. Do you not carry one around with you?

Posted by: Neal at January 17, 2005 3:21 AM

Great SketchToons to round up this project. It si a pleasure to look at them. (I have actually downloaded and printed them, to give me some additional inspiration to use more sketches in my notes.)
They are so great, with the art, the layout and your personal comments and notes. Wonderful.

It's actually a pitty, that this project is over. I'm already start missing them. (Because I know this project is over.)

Well, I'm looking forward to some other sketchtoons, you will show here for sure. Right?

Thanks for sharing them and "see" you.

Best wishes from Central Switzerland,
icarus

Posted by: Rolf Gloor at January 17, 2005 8:38 AM

Mike:

Well done! I have really enjoyed the series. I do not see why people were critical of the coffee shop theme, but I would argue that it's better than hanging out in bars ;-)

Be well!

Posted by: Kirk at January 17, 2005 1:38 PM

Wonderful! You are an inspiration to this poor, poor sketcher.

I love the monochromatic nature of your sketches. Love to see digital tools sketched. Keep up the good work and I hope Patrick puts his entire exhibition on the web so we can see not only your work but the others particapating in this great project.

Posted by: Will Simpson at January 18, 2005 8:10 AM

Neal, Rolf, Kirk & Will, thanks! It's been a blast doing the project and I'm pretty inspired to keep drawing in my remaining sketchbook. I've thought it would be fun to aim for a sketch spread per week as a regular entry here.

Neal, as to no phone... I didn't feel it contributed directly to my design or blogging work. It entered my mind to include it, but it didn't seem critical, so I didn't However my phone is helpful to me.

Kirk, I think the coffee-theme teasing was good natured. I actually thought it was funny, so on this last one I made note of it. :-)

Will, welcome to the site! I appreciate your comments here. I will mention to Patrick the idea of a web gallery, but I think that was intention all along. Maybe he'll even leave a comment here himself to answer your question.

Posted by: Mike Rohde at January 18, 2005 12:46 PM

Hi Will, I certainly will put the entire exhibition on web. I guess proj:exhibition2 will certainly follows as well.

Posted by: Patrick Ng at January 18, 2005 12:50 PM

Hello Mike and thanks for your great "exhibition"!
Since I am writing (and poorly drawing) in moleskines also, here's a simple question: do you draw your sketchtoons directly into the moleskine, without any previous drafts?

greetings from zurich, switzerland
bjoern

Posted by: Bjoern Amherd at January 19, 2005 2:44 AM

Bjoern, thanks for the kind words! As for drawing these and my other sketchtoons: they are done with no drafts whatsoever. What you see scanned is what I drew out of the gate on the page.

I've found someting challenging about this — the idea of diving in with a pen and not looking back forces me to stay "mindful" as I am sketching. In a way I like that there is no undo with these. Oddly enough, I've found in this project that my errors were surprisingly low. :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at January 20, 2005 12:28 PM

Mike, I never knew you were such an artist. I was thoroughly impressed by your sketches and I can't believe you never showed the youth group your work before. I do have a question for you though: Which of these sketches are we using as the foundation for the painting of the youth room? Congrats on the completion of your sketchbook and best of luck to you in all your upcoming sketching adventures.

~Ryan Buchanan~

Posted by: Ryan Buchanan at January 21, 2005 9:19 AM