The Sketchbook Project is like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks.  During the summer of 2010, sketchbooks were mailed out to artists from all over the world who signed up to participate in the project. We had six months or so to fill one book each and mail it back to the Art House Coop in Brooklyn to have it join thousands of once identical books, now filled with original artwork by artists, from moms filling books out with their kids to well known artists with a wide range of work. The tour starts in February 2011 and will travel across the US to select cities where people can access the books and sign them out to sit and read within the art gallery. Each time a book is signed out of its spot, the original artist gets notified by email that their book is being read. The project is in its fifth year and is a real hot topic right now. For an extra fee, artists’ sketchbooks will be scanned by the Art House Coop and displayed on the project’s website. Some artists have found a way around it, however, by scanning their own pages and uploading them to sites like Flickr.

Here are a few pages of my own sketchbook that I scanned before sending it away a few weeks ago. Be sure to check out the official website to see other scans or find out when the tour will be near your home town.

By Erin