Wednesday, June 1, 2011

the sketchbook project 2012

Some of you may remember that I participated in The Sketchbook Project last year, and that I filled my sketchbook with etegami illustrating the roughly 50 proverbs and sayings that resulted in my Japanese Proverbs series.

The Sketchbook Project was so much fun and satisfying to participate in, that I decided to try it again this year. There are various rules you have to follow, and one of these is that everyone has to submit their artwork in the same type of sketchbook-- a small-ish, blank notebook that gets sent out to all registrants by the Sketchbook Project headquarters.

This year I will be filling the sketchbook with my illustrated translations of Ainu folk tales. The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan, and if you've ever checked out my Project Uepeker blog, you know that I'm part of a team that has been working for over a decade to make Ainu oral literature accessible to English readers.

The etegami posted here is one of my illustrations for a folk tale called A Song Sung by the Otter God. I still have to decide what words to put on it. Probably Ainu words taken from the story. The English translation of the story will fill up all the space in the notebook that the illustrations don't fill up.

I plan to post more samples from my sketchbook as it takes shape. I hope it will be fun for you to follow along.

Click the Sketchbook Project banner in the sidebar to learn more about it. Maybe you'll decide you want to participate too. : )

5 comments:

  1. Nagyon jó ötlet! Várom a mesét!

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  2. Yes it's fun for me to follow and to learn about the Japanese culture.

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  3. Can't wait to explore your blog some more. I am intruiged. :)

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  4. I joined this year but mine won't be anywhere near as attractive or artistic as yours. Mine is more of a travel journal. I should be posting pages soon.
    I visited the traveling exhibit of the 2011 project as it came through Chicago. It was great to see all the different Sketchbooks.

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