I had the sublime opportunity and the heavy obligation of participating in the SFG blank book project a week or so ago. For those of you not in the know, the SFG Blank Book Project is a traveling sketchbook created collaboratively by Jeff Andrews and Steph Doyle .For approximately 500 days, the sketchbook is on the move! The blank sketchbook got its start in Washington D.C. and will slowly meander hither and thither to 50 illustrators around the world. Once the book arrives, each illustrator has 7 days to complete a sketch and send the book on to the next illustrator. The book will reach its final destination approximately mid-December, 2008. What a cool thing, huh?
It was a very hip and happening thing to do, but it was also a stressful pressure cooker. Luckily for artists following me I've eased up their experience by my complete lack of sketch planning. The book is beautiful and while I was only the tenth artist to touch pen to it, it was freaky knowing that every page had been slaved over by such talented people. I pity the artists who get it when it's 3/4 of the way through, talk about a psyche-out. I loved having it but I wasn't sorry to see it go! go! go! go sketchbook go! I cannot wait to see where the next forty artists take it from here. Check out what artists are doing with it and stalk its journey around the world here, at
Below you'll find an honest salute to life in Brooklyn. The sketchbook's theme is "Where I live."
At the top of one of my sketch pages you find a quick rendering outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art as seen in the torrential rain. If you look beneath the museum sketch and to your left you'll see one of my sneakiest and silliest habits. Sometimes I like drawing people the way I imagine they'd look in their underwear while on my daily commute to 23rd street on the F train. Word to the wise, make sure no one catches you cartooning them in their panties, otherwise you'll have a lot to explain. . . On your right, turned kinda topsy is the view from my lovely Brooklyn bedroom. Awww... Brooklyn, I'll love you forever.
