You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘enikki project’ tag.
This is Part II of the most recent instalment from the long-distance sketchbook/notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko. For Part I click here.
If you’ve been following the progress of this collaboration you may remember the mysterious, magical forest scene from Yoko’s previous entry (partly pictured below, or you can click here to see it in more detail).
notebook (amsterdam) – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
I was so enchanted by this mystical forest I wanted to create a protector for it, a guardian spirit if you will. She appeared in the guise of a tenacious, green-eyed owl.
late night prototyping
ear tuft/eyebrow, work-in-progress
notebook (amsterdam) – completed double page spread
She looks rather flinty, but she’s really quite friendly. That’s just the outward manifestation of her resolute determination to protect all those that call the forest home from all those that would cut down, kill, consume & catalogue.
Of course no guardian spirit would be complete without glow-in-the-dark eyes! (My penchant for GID paint, and in fact anything that glows in the dark, does not seem to be abating.)
ear tufts folded for transit to tokyo
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6 – part I) | (6 – part II) | (7 – part I)
At last, I’m back with new instalments from the long-distance sketchbook/notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko Hayashi.
It’s always a thrilling day here when a MUJI notebook sized package, postmarked Tokyo, lands in my letterbox!
In my previous entry (which you can see here) I’d left Yoko with a rather awkward, untidy-back-of-embroidery page to work with…
I was intrigued to see what she’d done with this page. I knew it would be beautiful and inventive, but I wasn’t prepared for just how beautiful – there was actual gasping when I turned the page to reveal Yoko’s most recent entry…
notebook [tokyo] – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
This fine lace-like filigree evokes a constellation of delicate celestial bodies or magical snow crystals.
Although they are painted they have an enticing three-dimensional quality – like real openwork – that makes one want to reach out and touch them.
notebook [tokyo] – double page spread (artwork by yoko hayashi)
The village beneath this constellation (itself, it would seem, born of fallen stars/snow crystals) exudes a peaceful otherworldly calm, and that deep stillness that almost always accompanies abundant snowfall.
notebook [tokyo] – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
Soft, substantial snow came to Haarlem a few days after the notebook arrived. Coincidence or enchantment? I favour the latter…
notebook [tokyo] – all artwork by yoko hayashi
notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo, and notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6 – part I) | (6 – part II)All artwork in this post is copyright yoko hayashi
While Yoko was producing the beautiful pages in the ‘[amsterdam]’ notebook of our long-distance MUJI notebook collab (featured in this post a couple of weeks ago) I was enjoying working in the other / ‘[tokyo]’ notebook. Yoko had previously provided this trigger for my next entry…
… and I leapt at the opportunity to raid my stash of postage stamps amassed over the decades – soaked off correspondence received from distant friends and family, flea-market finds etc. While sifting through this trove I restricted my selection to stamps with animal or vegetable themes and collaged them onto the notebook’s left page.
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
Then I chose eight of my favourites (chosen for their excellent animal subjects and not, in the case of some, for the pernicious colonial legacies they represent) to use as the basis for a series of black and white ink drawing exercises exploring pattern, texture, positive/negative space… and fun!
bull-headed shrike (japan, 1998)
7th century celtic dog (ireland, 1971)
sloane’s viper fish (congo, 1961)
chameleon (ghana, 1967)
gologolo / sun squirrel (malawi, 1984)
To give my failing eyesight a fighting chance I made the drawings at a larger scale than they would finally (re)appear in the notebook… then scanned, scaled down, printed and ‘stitched’ them back into the notebook using bright embroidery thread.
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – double page spread | back side of stitching
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo.
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6 – part I)
Hello! Way back, through the mists of time, at the beginning of March 2016 I received an exciting package from my friend Yoko.
i’ve got mail – yay!
It was the next instalment in our MUJI notebook exchange. Opening a newly received notebook is always like opening a mystery door, or dimension hopping. Turning the pages of this notebook with excitement, I discovered a snowy white owl passing over the psychedelic mushroom territories of the mourillos…
… and into the cool, mossy half-light of an enchanted forest.
notebook [amsterdam] – double page spread
As always Yoko has woven a tale, cast a spell. The forest is an enigma, full of signs… and portals to other worlds.
I’ve been getting lost in the woods… and I love it!
notebook [amsterdam] – artwork by yoko hayashi
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo.
The preceding five Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)all artwork (c) yoko hayashi
They say time flies when you’re having fun… but can it really be four months since I last posted here?! Apparently it can…
My summer has flown by, too fast, in a bright blur of visitors, first forays into roof-terrace ‘farming’, city explorations, art gallery visits, plenty of enjoyable reading, some interesting client work, and lots of drawing for projects of my own. My camera has been working overtime so I have many pics to share and I’ll be trying to catch up on some of the summer’s wanderings and meanderings in my next few posts. Kicking off the catch-up, here are some more pages from the sketchbook/notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko…*
A recent project for a client required lots of mushroom research and drawing, so I used the notebook as a place to experiment and play with ‘shrooms of all shapes, sizes and colours.
notebook [amsterdam] – work-in-progress (animated GIF)
notebook [amsterdam]
dreaming of mushrooms | work-in-progress detail
notebook [amsterdam] – left side of double-page spread
notebook [amsterdam] – right side of double-page spread
During my research** I encountered many weird and wonderful mushrooms – the world of fungi is mind-bogglingly diverse and fantastical! Although the patterning and colouring of my mushrooms is mostly imagined, it would be no surprise if these curious specimens do exist in nature. However real or imagined though, I’m pretty sure those purple ones above are poisonous enough to drop a human at thirty paces… even if they’re apparently quite harmless to snails and ‘mourillos’***
Yoko’s most recent pages, as with all her previous entries, are filled with magic and mystery. Finely-detailed etchings of a unicorn and a nesting bird atop a kingdom within an apple are incorporated into a collage of beautiful old stamps, mulberry-paper leaves and delicate drawn elements.
notebook [tokyo] – double page spread, and a right side page detail
(all artwork by yoko hayashi)
notebook [tokyo] – left side page details
(all artwork by yoko hayashi)
Yoko also included a treat for me on the next blank page of the notebook: a glassine envelope containing more beautiful old stamps – inspirational triggers for my next entry…
notebook [tokyo] – details (all artwork by yoko hayashi)
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo.
The preceding four Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) (2) (3) (4)
* Yoko and her husband visited in July and it was the first time since we embarked on this project that the two notebooks were in the same place at the same time :)
** I highly recommend checking out the photographs of Steve Axford for lots of fantastic fungi! Many of my mushrooms were inspired by his photographs
*** mourillos: as christened by a friend, when they first appeared here, for their resemblance to a cross between a mouse and a tiny armadillo
