Sketchbooks by mail

[Carla Cryptic]

A friend of mine who now lives 3 thousand miles away and I missed sharing our drawings and doodling with each other so we now share two sketchbooks by mail.  I started one and she started the other - we each add to them both and then send them back to the other person in about a week.  It's a wonderful way to keep up with each other - we write little notes to each other as well but it's mostly just whatever we're drawing or doodling that goes in the sketchbooks whenever they arrive in our mailboxes.  When the sketchbooks are full, we will each get the one we started back to keep.  I'll scan all of the pages so we can each have a copy of the other book as well, though.

 

If you've never done something like this, I highly recommend it... that is, if you can bear to part with your drawings!  And if you don't mind someone else seeing your day-to-day scribbling.  It's not always great art but it's always great to see someone else's process and pre-occupations.  It really informs the work they do which IS great art, I think.

 

I first did this with my best friend's son who is one of the most talented artists I've ever met.  We started doing it when he was only 15 or so and it was an amazing experience for both of us.  For one thing, I've never seen myself as being close to as talented as he is in terms of drawing but I had to get over that while doing this project.  I think every artist needs to get over him or herself to really be creative.  For him, it was cool to have someone older whom he admired accepting and commenting on his work, especially the edgy stuff which he might not have shown another adult of his parents' age.  

 

Have any of you done this kind of thing before and, if so, what was it like and how did it affect you?

[Helder]

well i never had share my sketches by mail, but i have an ideia that probaly i will done in future, that is after senting the mail art to other artist and after he/she received it,  i will probably send by email a picture of the first sketch that i did for that piece :)

[Carla Cryptic]

Yes, that's good too! ;)

[DKeys]

I did an exchange like this with a friend. We sent composition books back and forth and it was a great experience. I hope you post some of your pages would love to see

[Carla Cryptic]

This is one of my sketches from the last round - I was sitting in a hospital waiting room while I drew that! ;)

 

I will ask Dana if it's okay to post some of her pages and let you know what she says. 

 

Here is more from the journal I made:

 

Sketchbook has a translucent cover which goes over the frontispiece and an elastic cord which holds it together.

 

My challenge - to draw men who have so-called 'female' characteristics in such a way that it's still clear it's a man.

The actor playing Dorian Gray in this remake was a good model for this since he is extremely appealing as a man but has soft skin, is clean-shaven and has long hair, as well as very full lips.  When drawing men like this, it can sometimes be hard to show these characteristics without the drawing looking like it's of a woman.  Since I am drawn to men like this aesthetically, it's a challenge that's of particular interest to me.

 

[Sonja Benskin Mesher]

with Michael Powell