My Theme - The Circus

Hi All. I went back and forth with a bunch of different theme ideas, but ultimately decided to do the Circus as my theme. I love illustrating with lots of bright colors and patterns and usually wind up drawing scenes and characters from fairy tales. I think the circus has a lot of similarities to fairy tales, with their animals, beautiful ladies, strong men, ect... so I though this theme would be really fun. And it's a subject I've never done before. Right now my ideas are all in my head, but as soon as I start putting pencil to paper, I'll update you all on my progress.

Now a little about me. I live in Southern New Hampshire with my husband, about an hour from Boston. I went to art school and have a degree in illustration, which unfortunately I don't get to use very much. For my regular job I design websites for schools, but I'd love to illustrate children's books someday. I paint a lot of furniture and paintings for children's rooms, mostly for friends and family, so I don't often make much money at that. :-) This is my first Moly exchange and I'm really excited about it. I discovered it existed a while ago and really wanted to get into it. I'm always trying to think up new projects for myself to help me perfect my illustration style and I'm excited to be interacting with other creative minds.

Introducing Stacey Duvall...

Well, as you probably all know by now - I'm Stacey.
I should also mention I am a control freak - hence the recruiting and organizing of the group that I did.
I'm a 36yr old (or at least I will be in a couple of weeks) wife and mother.
I have 2 boys (ages 5 and 13) and 4 step-children [1boy-15, 1girl-13 and twin girls-10].
In August I will have been married for 3yrs.
I work at the local electric company here in Austin, Texas.

I have NO formal art experience or training - to be honest I stumbled upon a blog over a year ago and I thought to myself "I can draw" lets see what I can do. I bought and read a lot of books about drawing and painting and seem to have a natural talent that I am developing. I have dabbled in a number of creative arenas - sewing, scrapbooking, card making, yard art, drawing, watercolor and acrylic. I am still learning each of them everyday. I have found that being creative can be both a blessing and a curse but I do so love to see images come to life on a piece of paper.

#1 The Sea

well, this is just a teaser, just to let you know that I am clear about my theme now - "The Sea". There is still lot of work on this piece, I'll let you know when it will be finished :)

I thought it would be nice if everyone could write a short self-introduction to get to know each other. So, well, I'm Danica and I am a student of Architecture in Bratislava (little city on Danube in Slovakia), I am obsessive tea-drinker and dog-lover. I've spent one and a half month in New Zealand and it has been the greatest experience and also inspiration in my life :) In a month I will be preparing an art festival in Tarragona, Spain. That 's also the reason why I want to finish my Moly as soon as possible, because I would like to send it to the next person before I leave :)

Looking forward to reading about you guys :)

PS: I'm very sorry that my English isn't faultless but I'm working on it :P

And here it is! ^^

Address info...

You should all have received a flickr message from me containing the info for the person you will be mailing to and the name and email address of the person you will be receiving mail from. Please excuse the his/her tense used as I was trying to send the same basic email to everyone and forgot to change it.

Welcome to Moly_x_78!!

I know that we are all eager to get started...so here are a few guidelines to remember as we begin our new moly exchange. Most of us have been in a moly group before but we can all benefit from a little refresher. If anyone has any questions at any time please feel free to ask. This blog is the best way for us all to easily communicate with one another, so please use it. No question is too small.

* At this time please decide whether you want your moly to have a theme or if you want to go theme-less.

* Each artist starts with a large Japanese accordion fold Moleskine – be sure to put your Name, address, email address inside book. You may choose at this point to create a ‘sign in’ page for your moleskine where each artist can sign their name.

* We are going to go with the flow ~ but as a guideline each artist should try to make their entry within 4 weeks and then mail the moly to the next person.

* Each artist’s entry will be approx. 3 pages. Each book will make 2 rounds. Please feel free to post pictures of your progress and or finished entries to the blog for the other members to see.

* Artists are encouraged to interact with other images in the book. Please be respectful.

* When the book is full (when one side of the unfolded book is filled) the book will be sent back to its original owner. That artist may continue by buying a new book and sending it to the next person.

* If at any time you should decide not to continue, simply keep your book when it comes back to you. If you do decide not to continue, please post a message on the blog to let the other members know that you choose not to continue. The group will then decide if they want to find a new person.

* Please communicate regularly via this blog. Create a post to let the group know that you have received/sent a book. The goal is to have a dialogue. Any comments and questions are welcome.

I will be emailing each of you the address information you will need for the person that you will be mailing to. I will also send you the email address for the person who will be mailing to you. Please keep in contact either by email or by blog post so that everyone knows what is going on.