Thursday, March 13, 2008

Moleskine 2007: A Year in Review

I've been thinking about this post for a while now. I started up this particular Moleskine in late 2006 as a larger version of my pocket Moleskines. After some subway and museum sketching it turned more into an idea/sketch book. I started working out sketches for current and future illustrations and gallery paintings. In one case, the sketches turned into finished work. The majority of the work here was created in 2007 and the book is largely filled up. After looking over it in early 2008 I decided to take a page from Baron Storey and a few local friends and work back into and on top of the pages. This will be an experiment to see what kind of ideas may come from embellishing, adding onto, and in some cases, destroying what's already on the page.



Composition sketches of John White Alexander paintings from the MET's "Americans in Paris" Show (Dec. 2006)



Sketches for an illustration of the Egyptian Goddess of War, Sekhmet.

detail:



A sketch for a project with Matt Black's theater company, Marrow.


Sketches for potential illustrations.

detail:


More sketches for the Marrow project.










A very unflattering portrait of friend and fellow illustrator, Rusty Zimmerman (sorry buddy).


Trees in Central Park, NYC.





Character design for a future illustration.

detail:


Sketches from the Coney Island SideShow.



Sketches for a cover illustration and spot for Knowledge Arcana online magazine (never published).


...and the under-painting for the spot illustration.

detail:





Sketches form the Society of Illustrators Jazz & Sketch (3 on 3 Thursdays).



San Diego Zoo Sketches (See Moleskine 4.0 post).









More sketches for the Marrow project.


More versions of the sketch from last post.

detail:





Word association exercise used to come up with an idea for my painting of "Underneath It All".


...and a taste of things to come: Sketches from the Society of Illustrators Jazz & Sketch.




Related Posts: Moleskine, Moleskine continued, Moleskine 2.0, Moleskine 3.0, Moleskine 4.0, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 1, Watercolor Moleskine: Part 2

12 comments:

Stuart Wade said...

Fantastic! Absolutely love your work.

Ive been following you over at gorilla artfare.

Keep up the inspiring work!

Andreas Schuster said...

fucking awesome!

i just started a moleskine again (one with the thin paper), hope its gets at least a bit close to the coolness of your work.

keep posting!

Lana Crooks said...

Yay Arkady! I wish I could fill up moleskins like that. It may be due to the mostly working with fabric...Anyway, I really like the fiddler. (with the marrow drawings)

Danny said...

I really like your moleskine sketches, inspires me to get out and sketch!

Arkady Roytman said...

Stuart - thanks dude! there are so may great artists on GA to follow. I'm honored to be part of that group.

Andreas - thanks! My Molesinke 5.0 turned out to be the thin paper kind. I'm not a fan. It just can't take the abuse. I may have to scrap it in exchange for the one with thicker paper.

Lana - You can always fill them up with fabric. Or just sew a moleskine plush and call it a day. ;P

Dan - thanks! looks to me you've been pretty busy sketching away on your own blog.

Unknown said...

I really like your work, it is different and unique! It is amazing how just by drawing a series of lines close together can turn out to be so simplistic when you step back from the picture itself! Keep up with the great work!

Anonymous said...

your work is awesome. you got mad style. your messy pencil marks create very emotional pieces with lots of feeling. keep up the good work!!

J.M.Ferrand III said...

Hey...Aqui Juanma desde Argentina.
MUY BUEN TRABAJO!!! You are really grat!!!!
Tienes muchisimo talento!

Arkady Roytman said...

Elizabeth - It's funny what our eyes an imaginations can come up with from just a series of lines, isn't it?

Eric - It's fun to make a mess and then try to see what results you get when you try to clean it up.

Juanma - Gracias!

sexy said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dana K said...

I really like the darkness of your drawings and the way the messy pencil marks add to the affect without making your drawings look too unfinished. I think that your drawings are beautiful, great work.

Anonymous said...

Its cool what you did with your moleskine! :D