Sketchbook Project 2012 - Part 2

This is the second half of my Monochromatic book for Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project 2012. Here's the first half.

Mailed it in today and I am entirely pleased with how it turned out! It's weird to think this little book I have dedicated so many months to is going away and I probably won't be seeing it again for a long time (if at all.)

The covers I am especially happy with since I haven't done much hand lettering in my illustrations and outside of my sketchbooks. These were really fun to do.

Front cover. Spine reinforced with paper-backed bookbinding cloth.

Back cover.

Small reinforcement. 

02-03

04-05

06-07

24-25

26-27

28-29

30-31

I left these blank as pseudo endpapers.

Lengthy, behind-the-scenes explanation Part 2:

The Book Lady - Savannah GA

The latest Electric Keychain project is aimed towards small/local businesses. We could pick absolutely anything and I picked one of my favourite places in Savannah, The Book Lady.

 

I was very impressed the first time I visited The Book Lady. Before this, I'd only ever visited one used book store in Costa Rica, and while that was impressive, this was even more so. The stacks of books practically tower over you. It REALLY did look like your stereotypical, fairy tale bookstore. Brown tones, soft lights, brick walls, chimney, cozy sofas, so many books packed in spaces so tight that you may not be able to pass through, a soft note of old paper lingering in the air and an undisturbed silence.

But the most impressive part is that staircase at the back of the store. I've often wondered, when was the last time it was a functioning staircase (rather than a stepped bookcase?) How long have those books been there? Does any one person know exactly which books are on each step? Who lives on the top floor? Did the books populate it up until the top story tenants had no choice but to relinquish the staircase to the books?

For this piece, I'll share some of my technique/process with you.

Offbeat Alphabet Q Ñ I

The latest project for Electric Keychain was alphabet letters. You can find them all here (link was broken but is now fixed.)

Letters were given out randomly, though I personally took Ñ since I wanted to do Spanish words for my letters. They were supposed to be humorous or offbeat in some way (not your standard A for Apple) and to me, Spanish sounds more phonetically humorous than English.

Q is for Quiquiriquí (key-key-ree-KEY) = Cockadoodledoo

Ñ is for Ñau (gnyow) = meow

I is for Imán (ee-MAhn) = magnet. I wanted onomatopoeias for all of my words but there wasn't much I could figure with I except for "EY, MAN!"

This project became a venue for colour experimentation. I've worked with limited palettes before but I don't think I've ever done it quite this way and I really enjoyed the results. Definitely want to do more of this from now on.

I started out knowing EXACTLY the colours I wanted for the cat... and nothing else. And then I said hey, let's just use the same colours on all the letters. It may not seem like it but the rooster was the hardest of them all to figure out in terms of colour and I'm happy his worked so well in the end.

These are the original sketches: