The collaboration I tentatively suggested is under way! In response to my post about the Moleskine booklet I had three responses from artists keen to be involved. The first booklet (see here) has gone to Kylie Fogarty, an artist in Canberra, see here for her website, and the booklet above has gone to Karen Bailey in Melbourne. Karen has been busy with an exhibition (see here on Karen’s blog about it) but will now be ready to add some pages. Karen’s will then go to Kylie and vice versa, and we will all collaborate on the first and last pages. There will be a third one in this set, yet to come.
The fourth one which I am still working on will go to Cathe (see here for her beautiful blog, Amaryllis Log) in Minnesota in the US and we will do this one between the two of us.
I am so looking forward to what happens with each of these books – the three artists are all very different and all very good, I respect and am inspired by what they each do, but the intention of these books is not to create great art but to experiment and have fun. For each booklet there will be a loose theme, in that each artist will use what the previous artist has done to inspire their page, whether by the mark making or subject matter or other more abstract concepts.
The image above is identifiably inspired by seaweed, and the one for Cathe will have a similar marine/natural history basis. This one is drawn with pen and water-based ink, some of the lines have been made to bleed with a wet paintbrush, then colour added with coloured pencil.
Here’s to some surprises!
anna warren portfolio 
This is beautiful. I’m looking forward to seeing the collaboration 😀
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Me too! Thanks Rosie.
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Lovely Anna … I see your seaweed edging to explore the empty pages overleaf 🙂
I’ve enjoyed seeing new artist’s work thank you for the links … and anticipating a fascinating collaboration !
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Ah now Poppy that would be fun – like Sleeping Beauty’s forest growing up, but seaweed! I can’t wait to see what the others come up with.
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Would love to work with you on these, Anna!
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That would be great – I will be in touch with you.
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Okay, this makes it all real! What fun and slightly intimidating! Loving seeing everyone’s art, beautiful!
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I don’t want it to be intimidating – you can’t go wrong Cathe, your work is wonderful!
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Gosh that first image is so strong. I can see your excitement in that drawing! It sure is a wonderful idea and I take my hat off to you for thinking of it. The unpredictability is what makes it so exciting.
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I am really enjoying this Julie – I can’t wait to see what everyone does! Each idea will lead to more, I think we will all go in directions we wouldn’t necessarily have expected, I know I have already.
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What a delightful round-robin of art making! It’s going to be thrilling to see what each of you does and how it all progresses. Marvelous! And yes, I will certainly be visiting those other blogs and sites!! Thanks for sharing them.
xo,
Kathryn
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It really is exciting Kathryn! I am so looking forward to seeing how it all works out. And yes, please do visit the other artists, they are all quite different and all interesting. Its a nice way of alerting people to other artists throughout the art community I think.
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Really interesting, Anna! Looking forward to the outcomes. You’re off to a great start!
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Thanks Elena, I’m looking forward to what eventuates! It’s been fun so far, just getting to this stage.
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What a wonderful idea Anna, I can’t wait to see what happens next!
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Me too Jen!
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Finished my part and will be posting the book back to you, hope you like it. I will write a post about it. Had so much fun doing it. Thanks for initiating the idea Anna. Karen
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I can’t wait to see it! I’m so glad you enjoyed it Karen!
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Yep! That is definitely seaweed! I have always liked the way seaweed looks. I haven’t been to the ocean in years, though, and the last time I was, I wasn’t into art that much yet. The colors are beautiful. I don’t really understand the term “pen and ink.” Would you mind explaining exactly what that is? My first thought is that it is like using a calligraphy pen with ink???
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I suppose ‘pen and ink’ is an old fashioned term really, probably dating from when people dipped a pen into ink. In this one I did use a fountain pen, which is filled with water based ink, so I could move some of the lines with a wet brush. Often though I am just using a drawing pen with a fine fibre tip.
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Okay, that’s what I wondered about. I guess it has always sounded funny to me, because all I’ve ever used is a fountain pen. 😉 My husband does have a pen with the different nibs and a bottle of ink for doing calligraphy, though. I tried it in the past, but couldn’t get into it. But I do like the look of pen and ink with watercolor. It’s lovely.
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I think ink and watercolour work together well. In my travel sketchbooks I generally use waterproof ink disposable pens, as I can then splash the watercolour on top without worrying about the ink bleeding.
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Oh, so you sketch with the pen and then sort of fill in with the watercolor? I wondered if it was the other way around! Funny! I thought maybe you painted and then went back and kind of sketched the outlines with the pen. Well, I bought some pens yesterday, but because I was thinking of accenting the paintings with them afterwards, I didn’t check to see if they are waterproof. Oh well.
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I think either approach is perfectly acceptable. I sketch first with the pen just because that is what comes naturally, but I know other people do it the other way around. Also, doing the pen after, it doesn’t matter if it is waterproof or not!
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Yes, I found that out last night! I did a couple of watercolor sketches using my watercolor pencils and on one of them I used a pen. I really like the way it turned out. I will probably post it tomorrow! 🙂 Thanks, Anna.
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Your collaboration idea is wonderful! I look forward to seeing the work. Off to a most beautiful start!
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I am really enjoying it, and it has already started to expand! We have four of us starting another collaboration, each making our own book to start with. There will be posts about it, but maybe not for a month or two, as we get going.
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