Monday

Sketchbook Video Flip Through -- Holidays in Ink Challenge

 

Happy New Year, everybody! I can't believe Holidays in Ink is over. I'm still mentally processing everything from this challenge. Here's a video tour of the sketchbook I created during the challenge.

A note about the figurative works: Except for the dancers in primary colors, they were done during weekly figure drawing Zoom sessions that I do with a few friends. We've been working from master paintings, allowing 20 minutes for each. The figures are therefore a bit more stylized than they would be if we'd been using photographs.

For the past two weeks, I've mostly been working on my Copperplate calligraphy and flourishing. I feel like my sketchbook hand lettering allows me to be a bit sloppy, so I wanted to also practice more controlled lines. It was very difficult to do that on the paper in this particular sketchbook; almost all the inks bled like crazy on one side of the paper, and the pointed dip nibs kept catching. A lot of the calligraphy work involved repetitive practice, so in the end, I selected bits and pieces of what I liked the most from the hundred or so pages I ended up with, and pasted some examples into the book. 

While filming the video, I flipped through the book quickly to conserve bandwidth, and so that it wouldn't drag. You can alter the speed on your settings if you'd like to watch it slower. I haven't overdubbed with sound and explanations, but if there's anything you'd like to ask about, please put your questions in the comments.

I always feel a little sad when I reach the end of a big, exciting project. It helps to have a plan in place for what's next, but this time, I don't have one. Yet! How about the rest of you?

I hope you've enjoyed the video flip-through of my Holidays in Ink sketchbook, and would love to hear your comments about it! Thank you so much for watching. If you'd like to see the other posts about Holidays in Ink, you can see a list of them here. The post with the Challenge Details and Prompt Lists is here.

15 comments:

  1. I LOVED walking through your Holidays in Ink sketchbook journey! I will go through it again more slowly, but I paused the video for many pages so I could look at them more closely. As always, I am impressed with your creative page design, as well as the breadth of approaches you do so well. Your Day 26 page spread is especially striking, and I look forward to seeing it in person someday. I also really like all your beautiful calligraphy practice. You are so inspiring, and I have loved doing this project and sharing ideas with you. Thank you, Jamie!

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    1. Melissa, thank you so much for all your comments, support, and for doing the project along with me! LOL about that Day 26 spread. My eyes were hurting from that bright color by the time I was done! Can't wait to see the rest of yours too.

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    2. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

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  2. An excellent month, a wonderful variety of subjects and techniques. I loved the flip through.

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    1. Doug, thank you so much for your comments and support! So glad you enjoyed the video.

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  3. Super impressive and inspiring. Thank you for sharing this project.

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    1. Thank you for watching, Marieanne. I never would have thought it could take all day and fry my brain to film a two minute video and get it posted. The fact that it inspired you makes it all worthwhile! :)

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  4. Gingie8:56 AM

    Terrific, Jamie. Loved seeing the video bring it all together!

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    1. Gingie, thank you so much for following along and watching!

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  5. What a wonderful sketchbook, Jamie!!! - So many beautiful pages and inspiring ideas. I love the lift up and spread out pages and that you attached other pages into you sketchbook. It makes it so interesting. I finally started your ink challenge, but am no where close to being finished. Flipping through you book motivates me to keep going. I can't wait until we can meet to share our results in person. Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

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    1. Cathy, I hope we can share our books in person too in the not too distant future! I'm so glad the video provided a source of motivation for you. It can be tough sometimes to keep forging ahead, but I'm really glad I finished it. Looking forward to your version!

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  6. Great work Jamie. Have you used the same sketchbook for watercolor? Did the pages take the paint well?

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    1. Tamara, there's a lot of watercolor in the book too. I'll have to do a full review of it in a separate post, now that I've used it for so many different types of media. I'd say it's best for watercolor, and not so great for ink, unless you want a soft, feathered ink result. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a watercolor sketchbook, but for fountain pens, brush pens, or dip pens, not so much. I experienced extreme feathering with all of those on the smoother sides of the paper. Sometimes you want more softness when working with pens, so when that is the desired result, this works! For crisp linework with wet ink, it's better on the cold press side than the more vellum side of the paper. Fortunately, they make the book so that the facing pages always match each other. That helps when working across the spread (which I tend to do a lot). Personally, as student grade watercolor sketchbooks go, I prefer the Strathmore 400 watercolor paper. After 40 days in this book, I feel like some nice cotton rag paper is in order for awhile! If this had been a watercolor project/challenge, I think I'd have felt better about the book. It wasn't a good choice for an ink challenge though.

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    2. Thanks Jamie, very helpful. I'm currently using the Stillman and Birn Beta for ink and wash. It's too early to judge but I like it better than the Gamma which is the only other S&B sketchbook I've used.

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    3. The S&B books are all awesome for ink!

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