Masquerade spread

My sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project on the theme of Capes, Masks and Tights is rapidly filling up with spreads. If you're new to this blog ( and if you are, a HUGE welcome!), I'm concentrating on Masks only, forgetting about capes and tights. I'm making my spreads for this sketchbook by collaging small pieces of paper from mainly mail order catalogues onto the pages composing them as I go along, using matte medium. I then add colour on top using watercolour paint. The next step is stamping and doodling, as well as adding text.

You can see the process above and perhaps you recognize one of my favourite collage materials; the wrappings for Amaretto biscuits. I don't personally eat them (never been keen!) so John gets that pleasure but I love the wrappings with their Italian text and also the metal tins they come in, which get used for storage in the studio.

The final touch for these spreads is the addition of the fabric mask, also using matte medium, both to glue it on and to cover it. All these layers are more than the thin pages of the sketchbook that the Sketchbook Project send you to use, can cope with, so I'm sewing two pages together to make them more sturdy. I could have used glue instead but as my sewing machine is always ready to use and I don't like stickiness I usually opt for sewing. You can see the black sewing lines in the top picture.

Once the sketchbook is done I will mail it to the Brooklyn Art Library and from there it will go on tour to various venues in the US next year and eventually it will become part of the library's sketchbook collection. It will also be digitized and have an online presence for all time to come. If you want to see my previous sketchbooks for the Sketchbook Project you can find them on their website here.