The Exploding Sketchbook Challenge

 

Sketches from my exploding sketchbook.

 

One of the artist groups I joined recently, the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists, usually inspires us by presenting a challenge to work on each month. Last month's challenge was to create an exploding sketchbook or scrapbook, with links to instructions on how to make one on a couple of different websites.  One of the websites had a video showing the process, thank heaven--it would have been much harder to figure out how to fold and assemble this from only a verbal description. 

The concept was interesting, and the choice of paper as well as the size were up to each artist. I've recently become involved in keeping nature journals in the form of sketchbooks, so I thought it would be fun to create this unusual sketchbook as a challenge.

 

Fully extended sketchbook

 

I cut some old Waterford & Saunders watercolor paper that had been stashed in my studio for ages into three 15" squares, folded and glued them together per the instructions. The covers took longer to finish because I needed to find some decorative papers for the cardboard that would be large enough to cover the two 8" squares. The only decorative papers I could find large enough to allow me to have an extra 3/4" all around to fold over the edges were made in India--I ordered them from Dick Blick.

 

Front Cover of sketchbook.

Back cover of sketchbook.

The assortment of decorative papers had only one sheet of each pattern, so the front and back covers are different, but I think the whole thing looks elegant enough. Putting the ribbons and gluing the covers to the sketchbook was the last step. My sketchbook is now finished but not complete--it needs to be filled with sketches!

I've started filling the book with small watercolors and drawings. In the first section on the left, I've painted some Hellebores, crocuses and early spring flowers from my garden, and one of my orchids in bloom. I'll continue filling those pages as the season progresses. The center section will be devoted to summer flowers, and the last section on the right will have fall-blooming plants. Hopefully, once I've completed my sketches the exploding sketch book will constitute a unique work of art in and of itself, a record of flowers from my garden.