I have been keeping my eye out for something different to sketch on. Something cheap to buy (moleskins are an expensive habit), and that I won't be precious about if it is hard to get. Cardboard was too thick to carry enough, butchers paper too murky and everything else fell into the expensive or mainstream pile.
BenZen had told me of a pianola roll that was given to him to illustrate (imagine drawing though the music, the holes providing glimpses of the other side). But my habit of thinking while drawing, as opposed to having the idea then drawing it, is not pianola roll worthy, yet. So I didn't need to start the long (potentially expensive) search for a piece of pianola music.
With an architecture student in the house rolls of yellow/white trace litter the office during assignment time. Both great candidateds, both unfortunately falling into the expensive pile.
So when I spotted a roll of brown paper in the stationery section of the supermarket I knew it was right. Cheap, alternative and totally replaceable.
Having watched it from across the coffee table for a couple of days I decided to use some of it to line the back of a display frame for a
Jess Bradford print I purchased at a COFA art fair. Laying unwrapped on the desk I thought I should at least try it out. I found my sketching pencils and sharpies, placed the pencil to the paper and ... thats when my plan for a open slather doodling session came to a crunch.
Often I find myself changing pages in sketchbooks to change styles, but with a roll there is no page to turn. Your next image references the previous because you can see everything at once. Not that it's a bad thing, but it has created a monster. A long, brown, lightly textured, wood based, cylindrical monster!
If I cannot over come it I may have to resort to slicing its body into sheets each time I need a change. Until then it's decoration can keep dreaming up the page.
