Harry's Moly

Rudolph & his mates are more than a wee bit upset with
Santa's new motorbike!!

Clare's Book

(Fibretips and coloured pencils)

I'm having a thing about strange exotic plants at the moment, so following Kerry's lead into Zanzibar was a godsend. Thanks Kerry! Now it's up to Melissa to find out what's beyond the shoreline.

Our Status Chart

Kerry's Book, Melissa's Entry

Nutcrackers. Sweet.
Originally uploaded by 3MW

Harry - thanks for the note of confidence. As you can see I went for it. I decided to keep the momentum going and thanks to my daughter staying home from school sick yesterday I got started right away. The three jokers in the midst of the "Nutcracker Suite" are my husband, Mallory and I. We may make this our holiday card this year. There are so many awful puns that come to mind. How can I pick one? Cracking ourselves up this season..."Hope your holiday is a little nutty and a little sweet"...the list goes on.

Kerry, I hope you like it. I really enjoyed your theme!! Marker, Watercolor Pencils and Gold Paint.

Melissa's Moly

When I received Melissa's Moly I was stumped with the
theme, 'things that go round'. I thought I would come up with
an idea as soon as I laid eyes on it. The book lay on my dresser
for a few days waiting for inspiration.
Then one morning I had story telling at work and told the children the story, 'The Wheels on the Bus'...
Of Course.... They go round & round!!
Here is my entry.

....and so the story unfolds......

should be in the post to you tomorrow Harry....if I can get to the post office through all our snow!

Harry's Book; Melissa's Entry

Harry's Book
Originally uploaded by 3MW

My entry in Harry's book reflects my thoughts on Thanksgiving as I sat here on my five day Thanksgiving break. So what you are seeing is that Santa stole Thanksgiving's thunder and he's run away with it. From Halloween, we seem to skip completely over our November holiday in a rush to get to Christmas.

Watercolor Pencil and Ink. I noticed a few things I want to touch up tomorrow, but will pop this in the mail on Monday to Clare. So Clare, the question is...what's he shining that light on?

The Cartoonist's Hat

Just thought I might mention my new blog devoted to cartooning, as well as Moleskine Exchanges - The Cartoonist's Hat.

And while I'm here: I note on our sidebar there are links to moly_x_24 and moly_x_26 , but neither of them appears to be a live blog. Anybody know anything about them? It seems odd that new blogs are being set up while these lie dormant.

Kerry's Moly

(Markers and coloured pencils)

It took longer than I'd expected, but here's the finished colouring of the pencils I posted last time. I hope you like it, Kerry.

I'll be interested to see where Melissa takes it from here, but I won't post it to her until the beginning of December, right?

Did you hear about Harry

Harry!! I just happened upon your blog today and see that you had a big event last evening. Please feel free to post your other art happenings here from time to time. I'll let the rest of the nosy bunnies wander over to your sight now to see what in the world I'm ranting about. Congrats!

And....... Finally, My Book Is on it's way To Kerry!

Themeless.

I had drawn  my letterbox and the surrounding bush in my lost Moly.......

 Take 2......... I was in the mood for doodling, and here are the results..

My sign in page:

Melissa's Book Has Arrived

And it is Wonderful!

I will have some fun with this theme...



Getting Ahead of Myself

(2B mechanical pencil)

This is the layout for my addition to Kerry's Moly. But am I getting ahead of myself, when not everyone has posted their first contribution to Round 2? Keep me straight on the group's etiquette, guys. Are there set times for posting and mailing?

Oh, yes, and ...

Forgot to post the sign-in page.

Let it flow ...

(Markers and coloured pencils)

Here it is then, my first contribution to Round 2. I decided the easiest way to get started was to draw a cornucopia, then let it disgorge its contents. What came out was as much a surprise to me as I hope it is to you.

In the post to Melissa today.

Guess for once.....

 .....I'll be the first to say I'm ready to post.  I decided to go with the colourful characters theme and used what I like to think of as my naive illustrative style!!!  I hope it inspires those that follow!  The first image is as it looks in the book (or part of it at least) the second is the photoshop version with colour-glow!  Its an antidote to all the black and white I have been working with in my textiles.  

Harry - can you email me your snail mail address and I shall pop the moly in the post.

Simon Says

Molyx25 round 2
Originally uploaded by 3MW

It's time for round two. Snag a color and sign into Melissa's "Things that go 'round" book.

Molyx25 Round 2. My book. Theme: things that go 'round.

Molyx25 Round 2. My book. Theme: things that go 'round.
Originally uploaded by 3MW

Finished and ready for Clare!

Off and running

To recap from comments:
- Sign in page on the inside front cover/spread
- 4 pages (give or take) per round starting on the back of the sign-in page
- We will not have an overall "group" theme. You may theme your own moly if you wish.
- Rotation of books as shown in sidebar
- First ship date November 1st

If anyone would like to take a stab at a new blog header, I will not be offended if you remove the current one. Once we have a new round, it would be great to feature the four artists who are participating this round.

Look forward to seeing what everyone is working on.

Hello, my name is Harry

I live in Gateshead in the north east of England, which is where I've always lived. Thought about leaving once or twice, but could never find a good enough reason, and now resist the very idea.

Married twice, no children, now in a happy relationship living together but apart. Or should that be living apart but together?

I've been drawing since I walked out of the Co-op at the age of four with an assistant's pencil stub in my hand. My mum didn't make me give it back, so my dad taught me how to draw cartoon spiders. Despite this early encouragement, I opted for sciences at school and had to make up for lost time when I left. Still making up for lost time many years later, I snatched early retirement from the hands of the Civil Service and went to Newcastle University to do a BA (Hons) in Fine Art ( a mixed blessing). Been a professional artist since I graduated in 2001.

In addition to more serious painting and drawing, I was once heavily involved in science fiction fandom and was Fan Guest of Honour at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1979, mainly for my cartoon contributions to fanzines.

I still cartoon now and then and my Moly additions have tended to be in that vein. I've been in Moly x 63 ("the Totem Pole Moly") since January last year and have done one addition to Michael Nightmare's rescued Piggy Moly.

This might be far more information than you wanted, but as you've been together for one whole round, it seemed probable that you've had more time to get to know one another, so here I am, making up for lost time again.

I haven't decided on a theme yet, or even if I want one. I liked the theme when we started Moly x 63, but can see the advantages of allowing the next person to riff on what I've just done.

Heeeeeeeeeere's Harry!

The ladies of moly x 25 are thrilled to invite Harrybell from the UK to our group for round 2. Harry, once you receive the blogger invite, feel free to introduce yourself to the group. I will be posting a rotation schedule within the next week. In the meantime, everyone please get your hands on a moly and start thinking about whether or not you want a theme in your own book. Since September is almost over, lets set November 1st as our goal to mail out the first entry in our own books. Can't wait to get started. Welcome Harry!!

Finito

Hello all.
It occurred to me that I never posted my final entry in my book. I was following Clare's amazing birds if you recall. I have this little tradition where I draw a hand on the last page of my moly sketchbooks. Don't know why, but I did it in the first one and have continued over the past few years. So I added some patriotic paws to this book, too. It also seemed a nice compliment to the beginning. I want to shoot and post a video to share, I think you will find a really nice symmetry in the book and some cool coincidences from artist to artist. Thank you Alison, Tracy, Kerry, Jan and Clare for everything you put into my book. It's a treasure and I've enjoyed this crazy trip with each of you.

You're Invited

Hello everyone.
Just a head's up that Clare and I have been discussing kicking off round two very shortly. Please comment on this post if you are interested in taking another spin with us. Also, if you've been following this blog and want to join in, please leave a comment with a link to your work so we know who you are. We will put up a generic posting on the flickr site after Sept 1st if we don't have any takers. As a reminder, this is primarily a painting/drawing group with limited collage. The two countries represented thus far are Australia and the US. Unless anyone objects, I would like to leave the archive of our journey live on this blog, with links to your own personal blogs (if desired). There would be some delineation as to who is from round 1 or round 2 if we don't have the same members.

On another note, as you may have read, Marty is currently working on some amazing opportunities for getting this project some display space in a book arts venue this January. If you've had time to finish your own book, please post a pic or video so we can see the finished masterpiece. Would be great to see a book molyx25 selected!

It's been a great experience so far. Thank you all for your time and talents!

Melissa

Call for Entries

Dear Members,
I am thrilled that moly_x will be exhibiting at Minnesota Center of Book Arts (MCBA), between mid-January through March 2011. It's coming up! This is a great venue, and this exhibit could mean some wonderful opportunities for other exhibitions around the country, and possible grants. This is a very receptive community.

MCBA does a great job of documenting their shows, so you will have a nice record. Whoever is in the book may add another credit to her/his resumé. We will continue to look for other similar venues for moly_x exhibitions. There are many book art institutions like this around the country, and there are many university book arts, and illustration programs.

I have dreamed of this exhibit since we started this little project. I would like to get 2 or 3 portrait books from this group.

Thanks for you help.

Yours,

Marty  (reposted by Melissa)

Clare's entry; Melissa's Book

It's best to let this lovely image speak for itself.

Melissa's Moly

Hello everyone. I just want to tell you all that I have finished off Melissa's Moleskine and it is on its journey home. AND!!! Guess what I forgot to do? That's right, I forgot to take a photo of my pages so I hope Melissa you will be able to do that for me. Over the past month I have been to Melbourne, Adelaide, Mildura, Corowa and back to Melbourne this Sunday to see Marianne Faithfull. Then after all this galavanting, things should get back to normal!! ;)