February Theme: CLOSE-UP!

Kelli Nina Perkins here to announce the February theme of Close-Up! At the end of this post you can find out about this month's prizes and how to win.

Your Sketchbook Challenge director says..."are you ready for your close-up?"

Getting close-up is about taking a new perspective, finding a different view and appreciating the little things. Here are three ways you can try this.

ONE Take a photo or find an image. Now FOCUS on one small area of the image and sketch that. Forget about the big picture, this is the small picture. Do you know the Indian allegory of the three blind men and the elephant? When we focus on one part of the elephant and close our eyes to the rest, the leg becomes a pillar and the tail a rope. Forget what your big picture mind is telling you and see with new eyes.

TWO  Find something to ZOOM in on. Go all the way. If you can't see the molecular structure, you're not close enough. That might be an overstatement, but you know what I mean. Get uncomfortably cozy with something and draw what you see. You will have points taken away though if you zoom in on a bee. What is it about bees that people must photograph in macro? Let's have some imagination here and let the bees have their privacy.   

THREE Perspectives change when you go from landscape to close-up, so see what happens if you VIEW something from a much closer perspective. How does it feel different when you're viewing it from afar, versus striking distance?

Check out my photos below to see the source for my close-ups. I've zoomed in on one aspect of each image and found something completely new!

However you do, do, do it, make sure it's CLOSE-UP in February.

The theme for Febrary 2012 is: 

*Close-Up*

Special Prize Giveaway Announcements:

This year on the Sketchbook Challenge we're going to be giving away some art!  Each month one (or more!) of the Sketchbook Challenge Artists will be sending a piece of mail art to three winners each month!   Winners of the mail art will be chosen by random draw from the photos posted on the flickr group for that month.  More details on how to be eligible are below.

We also have a special prize package giveaway from Gelli Arts! 

One lucky winner will receive an 8"x10" Gelli Art plate!

How to be eligible for prize drawings: 
In order to be eligible for one of the February 2012 prize packages you must post at least one photo of a sketchbook page related to the February 2012 theme to the Sketchbook Challenge Flickr group and you MUST tag one of your photos with the code "feb478".  

 

 IMPORTANT:  PLEASE ONLY TAG ONE OF YOUR PHOTOS with this special code!  

It is not necessary to tag more than one and it will not increase your chances of winning. Post as many photos as you like but only put the special tag on one of them.

Information on how to upload photos to flickr can be found here.

Winners will be chosen by random draw on 2/29/12 and announced on the Sketchbook Challenge blog either on that day or on 3/1/12.