Niniji's angel, our Moly_X_3 guardian angel and I, wish you happy new year!
Barbara

Merry Xmas, Buon Natale, Nadolig Llawen

Hello guys,

I see that there have been no postings since October... and I haven't seen a book since I sent two onward on 3rd February. Maybe my expectations were wrong... I expected this to be a project that might be reasonably fast-moving-- each person hanging on to a book for a week or two or may be a month at the most. Or if they have too many other commitments, then doing something spontaneous the day they get it and keep it moving.... ah well.

Have a great Xmas and a Happy New Year everybody,
Rowland

Jenn's entry - Jan's book

Well this took longer than anticipated.......

I had a great deal of difficulty following Barbara's entry.....so beautiful, delicate and full of meaning. Seemed anything that I tried to do was shallow in comparison.

It's mostly gouache with felt pen over it. The purple flower (columbine) was done on watercolor paper and cut out.

Will mail asap.

Hope all are well.

--Jenn

oO update

Hello,

This is just a quick note that I'm back in action and should be able to finish and send the 2 moleskines that I currently have in my possession and send then along to Australia.

A lot of stuff has been happening over the summer so the whole sketching thing, or at least the MolyX component of it, had to take a back seat. I've recently decided with my business partner to close down our mobile technology consultancy, and I just started a new position in a film studio in LA. I'm the new Director of Technology at Method Studios, and that in itself is keeping me pretty busy.

I'll send you an update when I can, but something every interesting happened with my sketchbook recently. Actually it all started at the beginning of the summer. I was sitting on a bench in Chinatown, sketching and drawing away, when I was approached by someone that was very interested in my sketchbook. I let him look into it, we talked for a little while and exchanged business cards.

Last week, that guy called me back, and told me he was working with a gallery in Chinatown to organise a sketchbook exhibition, and was I interested in showing some of my work. So I gave him my 3 most recent sketchbook for the show. I'll send more data as soon as I know when the show start, but we are planning for october in LA's Chinatown.

Rowland's book, ready to travel again.

a quick note of the media:
diluted craft glue for the lace, red & a tad bit of brown acrylic for the heart.
pencil and watercolor-pencil for the fox.
some iridescent watercolor over the business card.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Memories from an English Summer

now I am back in California.

Working on... almost done with Rowland's book. I tried following this "stream of consciousness" trend just to see where it'll take me. I hit several dead ends before coming to this composition (or lack thereof). I've been in a collage-y mood lately. So I started out by pasting a couple items to the pages (and they are: a piece from a lace ribbon bought from a haberdashery in London, and a business card from a garden gift shop) hoping some inspiration will come soon after.
Well, ideas didn't come gushing but I ended up looking through my tourist photos and found this gigantic straw fox I saw from the bridge at Waterloo and decided to make a drawing of it.
I still need to give it some color (or colour?) and then the book will be ready to move on to o_O. (btw, I passed by a Japanese restaurant called "Ozu/小津" near Waterloo and thought of o_O for a second.)

EWian in Rowland's book

Got a bit of reflection. Lots of play and mediums going in to this entry.

Mediums used: Pencil for sketching. Medallion pen for lining. Promarker for the face colour. Phebo gesso for the sock and hair base. Colouring and pastel pencil for the eyes and hair form Faber-Castell and Derwent. The pink and blue is a vinyl paint, it gives a beautiful matt finish. The yellow, orange and green is Galeria acrylic paint from Winsor&Newton. The hair tones are colouring pencils, pastels, charcoal, and a bit of acrylic paint. The red mouth is uni posca pen. The greens on the pullover is a mix of the vinyl paint and Galeria acrylic paint from Winsor&Newton on top.

If you have any suggestion on a song that is under the Creative Commons licence and that is between 6 and 10 minutes let me know and I'll put together a video of the illustration process. I know http://www.jamendo.com has a lot of songs but it take time to listen through, so if you have a suggestion it will be appreciated.

an angel come by...

An angel came by.... to bring me a poem called brilliant years written on ... a wonderful shirt !!!
Here is a picture of the angel !

Here is a photo of me with the shirt on a Flickr Portrait party meeting. I will make also some more detailed pictures.
Thank you so much Niniji !!! I LOVE this !!! And the size is PERFECT !

barbara

Monster inspiration

Bet you all were wondering were Emma's book disappeared to......I've been staring at it for ages! Happy to report that I am finally done. I adore Emma's monsters.....these are my Emma inspired critters. Had great fun doing them.

Jan, your book is next in line, but you'll have to be patient for a bit longer.

Brilliant Years

I had a lot of fun working on Barbara's book; in fact, a little too much fun perhaps so that half of the work doesn't even belong physically on the notebook (nor in a video). Exactly what is it? It's a surprise for Barbara to find out. On my next trip to the post office either tomorrow or the day after, the two "parts" will head toward two different directions: the book is going to oO and the ___ is going to directly to Barbara. (I'll need to confirm with Barbara about her mailing address, Barbara can you check your flickr mail please?)

Anyhow, so with the notebook part...



this little sticker says 尋夢 which means chasing dreams.


I bought this postcard from IKEA years ago with pictures of all these different par avion/ airmail stickers.
Have you guys ever posted things and wonder if it ever reached the person to whom you meant to send?




"continuing toward the end of this heat haze
I wonder where my thoughts have gone
your footprints have disappeared
and you cannot be reached
again I want to see you…"
I have inserted into Barbara's little "Memories/Souvenirs" envelope a melancholy little song "Brilliant Years". The translation to the rest of this song is the part that's going to Barbara which she'll see first.
By the way, I LOVE this stamp from Barbara (can I use one and hold the other one as hostage?). But I have no idea who this person is on the caricature though.

Girl in a BearCat suit

I just came back from the post office, and Jennifer's sketchbook is now on its way to Australia. With my little additions. These are not really inline with the "pretend" theme, with the exception of the girl in the bear/lion/tiger suit.

Hopefully there's enough blank space and textured paper to inspire others to multi-layer other details in.

I feel better not leaving a sketchbook behind as I take my own sketchbook to Paris for a week for a quick getaway, the excuse being that my grandmother is turning 103 (one hundred and three!!!) this weekend, and that seems like a good enough reason.

oO

BearCat

Would anybody like to join them for a game of hide and seek in the shrubs?





I may paint one more picture in O's book before I pass it onto Jan. I hope you don't mind Oli, I'm having too much fun with your book. Does anybody call you Oli?

Work in progress: Olivier’s book

Since Olivier's book has watercolour pages, I've decided to bring out my watercolours for his moly. It's been awhile since I've painted.

While flipping through his book for ideas, I kept coming back to the lady with the look alike bear ears. So Oli....I give you....a bear, some leaves and flowers, and a cat sticking out of this shrubbery madness!



I've started adding colours...will post more pictures when I'm finished.

Barbara's book

Here are the entry for Barbara's book.

As mentioned yesterday, I had a lot of trouble finding the right motive. I ended up with a dragon inspired by the Norwegian stave church (Wikipedia) On it's back it has a girl. She is playing the flute. The clouds are super iridescent, do not show up in the photo though.

Progress so far in the book.

Medium used: pencil, permanent marker, velvet decorative tape, promarkers, gel pen, iridescent watercolours and acrylic paint.

Barbara's book - sketch

I had a lot of trouble finding the right motive, Jennifer's cat is such a strong statement. I think I have tried out 8 or 9 different things before I found something that I though would work. This is my final sketch. I'll go make the actually entry now.

Luna Sea Octi

Octi is all done. I shall miss him I think....but he's swimming off to Karena now:)

Work in progress: Niniji's book

Hey all! I took out Niniji's book today and put on her Luna Sea soundtrack. Played it from start to finish...and sketched out my idea of a mysterious Luna Sea.







A smiling octopus, floating cherry blossoms, and very strange seaweed plants! Deciding how I'm going to tackle this image now with colours. I will post pictures when I'm done.

Happy Easter everyone!

Leaving for Australia

OK. Here's EWian's sketchbook getting ready to leave for Australia. I ended up just adding various doodles, pretty much using the sketchbook as if it was my own. This one is going directly to Karena, I'm so happy that she's back in the loop.

Voila, I'll try to go to the post office during lunch.

oO

Finished & ready to pass on!

Hi all! I'm sorry I'm so behind with finishing up Olivier's moleskine. On top of having a busy workload, I've been having trouble with my eyes for the last few months, so any chance I get to rest them rather than draw/paint/sit-at-the-computer, I've been taking.

I'm unsure who gets this next, so if someone could please contact me & let me know, that would be much appreciated. I also have my own moleskine that I have to send to someone. I'll get that done asap & send it to whoever is supposed to get it!

I hope I haven't caused too much inconvenience!!!

PS. I don't use Blogger & just had a devil of a time trying to get my pic the right size.

Work in Progress: Mathilda

I thought I'd post a quick update. We had a beautiful day in Santa Monica today, so I sneaked out of the office early (well, let's just say I never came back from lunch) and sat in the sun all afternoon, reading and sketching on a number of sketchbooks, including Ewian's Waltzing Mathilda.

oO

book on the move

Just a quick note that I mailed Niniji's book, reunited with her playlist to Australia last week. I forgot to take pictures, but I ended making a few little changes as well. I guess it'll be a surprise.

Right now, and unless we hear back from Karena (magic jelly) I'm passing her over and sending the books directly to Helena (little mo & friends). I'm still trying to decide if I should create a new sketchbook for myself and send it along or assume that Karena will eventually re-appear and send it along for the rest of its journey around the world.

oO

p.s. I've started working on Ewian and the other book in my possession, and will probably send both of them along shortly.

Things on my desk - Rowland's book

I really like the 'stream of consciousness' feel from Rowland's book. I let the things that I keep on my desk for inspiration / distraction guide me.

And here are the things on my desk.

Jan's book leaving to Jennifer

Jan's book is leaving to Jennifer.

Jan's drawings in the beginning of his book, with great looking people, and Emma's fairy tale drawings, inspired me for this drawing, but also another fairy tale book, and my wonderful grandmother who left me last week.
Grandmother, symbolising all who is dear to us, is gone but keeps watching all over everyone to make sure life is going all good for everybody :-) keeping the good memories alive.

"Ik ben niet echt dood, moet je weten
het is maar een lichaam dat ik achter liet
dood ben ik pas, als jij mij bent vergeten" ¨[Bram Vermeulen]


"I am not really dead, you know,
it's only a body I left behind.
Dead, I will be only, when you will have forgotten me"

Peter's Leeks (in Jennifer's book)

I used this hexagonal tessellation pattern in the background because they remind me of daffodils.


Instead of calling this a time lapse video showing my work in progress, this video is actually the work itself. While the girl and the cat are fixed in one position permanently in the book, I have tucked the rest of the cut-outs I made for the animation into the back pocket of Jennifer's book. Anyone can take them out to play... (or use, if you want).



(the texts don't really appear in the book; they've been added on using photoshop.)
girl: I am a garlic.
cat: Aweeeei~


There is an old Chinese saying that when a daffodil doesn't bloom (水仙不開花) it is pretending to be a garlic (裝蒜).


p.s. a tour guide once told me that the Welsh term for daffodil is Cenhinen Bedr (Peter's leek), hence the title to this entry. (hats off to Rowland~)

Days of Repetition

my work in progress in Jennifer's book of "pretend"...


how it is going to tie-in with the theme and how it is going to finally look like is still a big secret ;-)

p.s.:
to me...

Japan is like an older sister to Taiwan(my home country),
people say we look alike sometimes.
She use to be bossy and annoying when we were young
but we are in good terms with each other now that we're all grown up.
When she is in pain,
I feel her pain too... almost as if it were my own.

May those whose lives have been severely affected by the quake and tsunami soon return to normal.

Moly_x_3 Jennifer's book

Well I have misplaced the SD-card so no video yet. Jennifer's book is in the hand of to the next in line, niniji. I love collaborative projects, they are so much fun!

next!

Once a jolly swagman sat beside the billabong (Huntington Beach, California),








and I got Jen's book from EWian today ♪♫ :-)