sketchbook project progress ~ {part 1}

 A mundane and moody beginning

Here we are with the first pages of my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project.  My, my ~ it's really taking me a long time to get moving on this. 

This is a view of Highway 17 heading south towards Santa Cruz.  My topic is Lights in the Distance.  The overall idea I have is to set the sketchbook here, in the Bay Area and follow a story of various lights appearing in the distance that bring other characters with stories of their own.  That sounds kind of like aliens or something, but that's not what I mean ... you'll see.

Room in the sky to write something... possibly...

I started the sketchbook with the road heading south because I spent a lot of time there this summer ~ on the beaches and in the mountains ~ and found a lot of inspiration, especially in the redwood forests.  But for all the magic to happen with the lights, I wanted to set up a bit of a dull contrast with views of "normal life" first.  So, sorry if this is boring... at least it's deliberately so!

I plan to segue into more of a cartoon style very soon.  I haven't thought out the full story, thinking that the nature of a sketchbook should be less planned.  But I am looking forward to using different types of media or styles depending on what characters show up out of the lights.  I've encountered people in daily life sometimes and thought they should be characters in my sketchbook!

Reality before the surreality

I'm just using pencils to start with.  I'd like to paint but the pages are so painfully thin.  I think I'll either paste some pages together to fatten them up or paint on other paper and glue those in as I progress through the book, because I definitely would like more vivid color to show off the lights in the distance (and all that comes from them).  

Hope you'll keep me company and follow along on this project.

xo kimi