Each artist has four pages with which to communciate about their world.  The first is a page about themselves and the remainder can be about anything the artist chooses as long as it remains true to the theme of location.  Our collage pages (made from re-used and re-cycled luxury magazines) concentrate on the USA and President Obama’s recent win, the green spring of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the inspiring art community of Old Town Alexandria.  We’ve posted them here.  Look for more information about The International Sketchbook Project in the days to come.  

For paper and book arts enthusiasts everywhere, not to mention collage artists, we want to give a very special endorsement to Winsor & Newton’s All Purpose Varnish For General Purpose Arts & Crafts.  A beautiful clear gloss varnish which provides permanent non-removable protection of craftwork is ideal for a variety of surfaces including wood, metal, paper and modelling materials.  What I first thought was going to be a DISASTER when initially sprayed, turned out more beautifully then I could have ever imagined when dried.  I am completely SOLD on this product.  (Thank you for the recommendation, Alex!)

http://indiefixx.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/sketchbooks.jpg

We are thrilled that the International Sketchbook Project is launching April 2, 2009.  The brainchild of Kenya Bevans of the B Side Design firm, the International Sketchbook Project identifies 50 artists who will be asked to prepare for publication original and creative sketches which are pertinent to their home country or locale.  Learn more at http://isketchbookproject.com/ and the blog http://thebsidedesign.wordpress.com/.

Lange raised her hand early on in the project’s development and even contributed to publicizing it within various sketchbook groups in www.flickr.com.  Lange is an entirely self-taught and late-emergent artist specializing in sketchbooks, visual diaries, artist journals and paper and book arts.  She also runs a full-service art advisory and design studio in the Washington DC area and is helping her commercial and private clients gain ground within the art world. 

Participating artists are also being asked to design some sort of postage stamp on the outside of the book.  Each artist will be given 4 pages in the book (2 pages, front and back). The first page being a hand-written introduction, the second, third and fourth pages will be used for the composition. 

Urban Sketchers is a loosely knit band of Flickr bravehearts who spend their days sketching urban vistas, landscapes, and city-based reality.  The group recently expanded out to a blog. I’ve attached two recent examples from Atlanta’s Ester Wilson.

Group Administrator Gabi Campanario says, “This is a group for all sketchers out there who love to draw the cities they live in or visit, from the window of their homes, from a cafe, at a park, standing by a street corner… always on location, not from photos or memory.”

Here are the rules:

1. You did the drawing on location, not from photos or memory. Adding color or a few details later is fine. On site doesn’t necessarily mean outdoors, you can draw from a coffee shop, pub or grocery store or any other city building. Just make sure the subject is urban. Computer manipulated images are not acceptable.

2. The subject of the drawing has to be primarily urban. The word urban comes from the latin urbs, which means city. So drawings here must have city elements: streets, buildings, houses, traffic, city parks, shops, stores, churches… you get the idea.

3. Drawings of people are okay as long as they are in an urban setting: walking on a street, at a coffee shop, on the bus, subway or other way of public transportation.

4. You should state in what city you did the drawing. Even better, place the drawing on the map. That would be helpful for other sketchers who may want to draw from the same location when they’re in your city.

Campanario writes: It’s been a while since the group started and I thought it’s time to have an ‘official’ welcome. Thanks to everyone who has joined and contributed so many wonderful city drawings!  As for myself, I live in Seattle but I’m originally from Spain. My first memory of sketching out and about is from 1986, when I was a teenager. If only Flickr had been around then I wouldn’t have lost so much time when I could have been drawing more often. But it’s never too late and in the recent years I have gradually become more confident and now I draw in the city any chance I have.