Studies, tiles, and the Sketchbook Project 2012

 After weeks of doing nearly nothing creative (I've sewn a few things for Maddy, but no drawing or ceramics), I decided to unwrap the leather hard ceramic tiles I made the week before Maddy was born and decorate them. Since I couldn't decide what to put on them, I've been doing some studies and sketches the last few days to limber up my drawing skills.

One of the tiles is a gift for someone, who I know loves birds, but I didn't just want to put a bird on a tile. I've been doing a lot of things about little girls lately, so I decided that illustrating Thumbelina on a set of 5 tiles would allow me to draw a girl and a swallow, along with some other animals. I started the swallow tile last night.

All this drawing has gotten me in the mood to do more sketching, which is perfect timing, because I just got an e-mail about the 2012 Sketchbook Project. If you'd forgotten, I actually signed up for the 2011 project, and then did not come even close to filling my moleskin sketchbook. I did 3 pages, I think. I never bothered to mail it in, and I was kind of sad about it. I was completely stumped on what to draw, and I signed up very late in the year and didn't give myself much time. This time, I have 8 months to finish, and I have a theme that I'm really excited about: "Fill me with stories". So I went ahead and signed up. I plan to share my sketches for that, as well as studies and whatever from my regular sketchbook... as often as possible. I'm kidding myself and you if I promise to do it daily or even regularly. But I will definitely share what I do from time to time. Wish me luck!