February 2014 Sketchbook Bound

My handbound February sketchbook.

I just finished binding my seventh sketchbook. Numbering them is getting tedious, since I have to keep going back to count them and remember that one is still on exhibit at MOHAI. The sketches in this one are dated from Jan. 25 through March 1, so let’s simplify things and call it my February 2014 sketchbook. (I do seem to be filling six signatures in just about one month.)

It’s been so rainy and windy the past couple weeks that I couldn’t go outdoors to spray the printouts of the cover sketches with acrylic varnish (a step I take in my cover-making process to keep the water-soluble inkjet ink from bleeding). Rather than wait for a better day (which, when it finally comes, I’ll want to spend sketching instead of spraying), I decided to skip the step to see what would happen. Some of the unprotected inkjet ink did run a little when I brushed on the medium, but not as much as I had feared. (Who knows – maybe I can get away with always skipping this step going forward! I’m all about streamlining the process, not to mention avoiding opportunities to distribute and inhale airborne solvents.)

On the covers this month are the first in my series of sketches of trees that have been cut away to make space for power lines and some jammers at Wintergrass.