The Sketchbook Project, 2015

I participated in The Sketchbook Project in 2011, 2012, and 2013. I skipped last year, but signed up again for 2015. It's a crazy thing. Folks from all over send in $25 to receive a small blank sketchbook. They fill it up, following a very few rules, and then send it back. Just like a rock star, the book goes on tour, and then is retired permanently to a sweet little library in Brooklyn, New York. Who would do such a thing? Buy a book, work in it, and then send it on its way never to get it back? Only about 70,000 people, including yours truly, that's who. Anyway, to learn more about it, including the tour schedule, click on the link above.

When you sign up for the project you can pick a topic, although how it is interpreted is up to the artist. In other words, anything goes. I selected "iconology," for no better reason than I like the sound of the word.
I had no other thoughts in mind at the time, but ultimately decided that one way or another The Statue of Liberty would play a part. It is, after all, an icon, it is in New York City, and so am I. It also happens to be one of my favorite things, and Lady Liberty sometimes finds her way into my own little creations.

It then occured to me that it would be fun to do a little visual mash-up of Ms. Liberty and some other iconic images. Here is my completed book, soon to be on its way to Brooklyn. Which tickles me, as Brooklyn is where I was born and raised.

All sketched (except for the cover image, which is a rubber stamp) with a Micron pen and lightly colored with watercolors. And did I mention how much fun this was to do?