New chapter, new canvas. 

Last night I got to the last page of the sketchbook I’d been drawing most of these octopuses in. After 5 years in a creative rut it’s such an incredible feeling to be able to leaf through 100+ drawings on pages that were empty just 4 months ago when I bought the sketchbook.

Now that I’m no longer terrified of the blank page, I thought I’d take a stab at a different canvas. A massive dredging of books in our basement recently unearthed an absolute gem from my youth – my collection of Great Illustrated Classics. Does anyone remember these? Super cheap paperback abridged versions of all sorts of classic novels (Count of Monte Cristo was my favorite). Anyway, there were two copies of Moby Dick, one of which I’d already mutilated at some point by trying to cut one of those secret hollowed out compartments into it (this technique was clearly not intended for paperbacks). Having grown up in a household where books were always treated with the utmost reverence, I’m amazed that my adolescent self was able to destroy one this way. Of course, it’s the horrible state of the book that makes its pages absolutely sing to be drawn & painted upon, to be repurposed in some way.

So here we go.