I put together my first sketchbook in 2008.

That first one was a random mess of stuff. A hodgepodge. But I really liked doing it. So in 2009 I made another. And then next year another. I liked the sort of “benchmark” aspect of it all. The thought that, this is 2010 and this the best work I did for myself this year. The first few weren’t themed, again, just a grab bag of whatever I had done that wasn’t for any clients.

It wasn’t until my 2011 sketchbook, The Hidden People, that I managed to approach the thing that I’d been after. A collection of new, original work all on a theme. Not a hodgepodge. Not whatever scribbles I had leftover. A thoughtful and structured series of sketches and drawings centered around a single idea. A collection that a person could walk through and experience.

And so for the next five years, I kept at the annual sketchbooks and had in mind to collect those first five themed sketchbooks into a hardcover anthology. That dream was ultimately realized in Visions of Whence.

And even when that book went to print, in 2018, I was still working away at my yearly individual sketchbooks. Though my project calendar and schedule have chipped away at my time for the sketchbook collections, these last few years in particular, I still make time for them.

Which brings me to a special announcement! I am now ready to collect the next five sketchbook into a second, new hardcover anthology, Visions of Whence Vol. II.

Dragons and Other Incidents of Travel, The Walking Hills, A Light in the Woods, Glimmer, and The Little Hills, are the next five sketchbooks to comprise up this upcoming hardcover.

Like I did with the original anthology here on Muddy Colors, I thought we could take a look at the creation of the cover.

As with Vol. I, my goal was to create a single piece that could represent all five sketchbook to varying degrees, directly and indirectly. And I’ll leave the details up to the viewer to discover, with this second cover, which figure or creature calls back to which individual sketchbook.

I had two main directions for this piece and while I was really leaning toward the one for a while, but I ended up taking it in a slightly different direction. Either way, I knew I wanted the giant fox from A Light in the Woods to sort of anchor the piece and find a way of arranging the other creatures and figures around it.

A look at some of these scrubby thumbnail sketches.

Once settled on a direction, I took a pass at a slightly less scrubby (though still properly scrubby) rough thumbnail.

And a look at the actual sketches scanned, and then a bit of rough digital drawing messing with values and some other elements (mostly how I envisioned watercoloring the sky).

And next time will take a look at the finished drawings, watercolor, and (probably) the actual completed cover!