Circa 2017-2018, I made a series of homemade sketchbooks in various sizes, using my favorite 140lb Fabriano watercolor paper. This was one of the later ones, in an almost-square size I really liked. You can see my haphazard stitches at left. This painting was improvised, like everything in the sketchbook; it’s a mix of watercolor and gouache.
Here I was trying to do a study of my childhood favorite illustrator, Richard Scarry. I forget these guys’ names, but I was imagining them as solving mysteries a la Scooby Doo. At the top they’re all waiting for the call to adventure.