Red Mask

I had an easy day today, after all activities over the weekend and giving a talk last night to the Edinburgh Quilters. I'm always taken aback by just how busy it is in the big city even late at night. Here in the country side all is dark at around 7pm and nothing much happens after that. Only very rarely do we hear any cars. But Edinburgh was just as full of people and traffic when I drove back again as when I came in.

I was going to have a day off but somehow got involved in another journal quilt and was machine stitching frantically most of the day. Still far from finished though.

For my picture today I thought I would show you the first page in my Sketchbook Project for 2014. I've done 4 previous sketchbooks all now in the possession of the Brooklyn Art Library and if you're interested you can find them digitally online here. The 2013 sketchbook is currently on tour with the Sketchbook Project in the States.

I registered for 2014 in a fit of optimism as soon as sign-ups opened and in my enthousiasm didn't exactly read the instructions exactly. As soon as I read masks I was sold (thinking Venice!) but if I had paid slightly more attention I would have discovered that it stated: "Capes, Masks, and Tights tour, looking for extraordinary stories in comic or graphic novel format".  Hum, that's so not me! But on the plus side when the sketchbook arrived it also said not to be inhibited too much by your chosen theme. Okay! I have probably strayed off the path a little more than they would like but it must be said I had a great time doing so.

My sketchbook is forgetting all bout the Capes and Tights bits and concentrates completely on Masks. It's also most definitely not comic but I did try and do edgy.

I choose a collage technique where I used matte medium to glue in torn bits of paper, coming mainly from mail order catalogues that arrive unasked for on an almost daily basis. I made sure to include a face. Once this was dry I added colour with watercolour paint, added stamping and doodling, as well as washi tape. Once I was happy with the overall effect I added the mask. This is fabric and again was glued down with matte medium. All this heavy collage action is a bit much for the rather flimsy pages of the sketchbook (sized 5x7") so I adhered pages together to make them more sturdy. I did this by stitching which you can see around the sides.

You will be seeing all the pages in the sketchbook over the coming weeks. If you want to keep an eye on them they will all have the label Sketchbook Project underneath each post and you can also see in at the bottom of the sidebar. Clicking there will bring up all the pages of this one eventually as well as all my previous sketchbooks.