MolyXers in Minnesota!

I had a wonderful time in Minnesota over the last few days with Claudio and Marty Harris (our gracious host and the founder of our incredible project). It was a bit surreal meeting these guys for the first time, yet knowing them so well from moly_x...it was much more like seeing old friends rather than people I’d never met in the flesh before.

Talkin’ Moly_X with Marty at MCBA

Last night we had a wonderful Q&A session with Roz Stendhal’s Visual Journal Collective at the Moly_X exhibit at Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The ladies were all very enthusiastic and several have already expressed interest in joining the fun.

Working on Nicole’s book at Marty’s house with Claudio

Sadly I was not able to finish Nicole’s book in time to send it off with Claudio today (Too much fun with ‘The Band’ as Claudio was calling us). But I will get it done before I skip town.

I encourage anyone within driving distance of Minneaopolis to try and stop by the MCBA show before it comes down on March 6th. It’s truly inspiring to see so many of these amazing books up together at once.

Dana’s moly...complete!?!?!

With the addition of Nicole’s awesome entry, Dana’s book has now reached everyone in the group! It's been to 5 countries, 4 different states and crossed the Atlantic twice! Amazing! (Click to see it MUCH bigger.)

However, by my estimation there's still about 10 blank pages left over. I guess I’m wondering what everyone would like to do now that many of our books are nearing “completion”? We could leave them as they stand and get them back to their owners, or we could recruit some new folks to try to fill every page...we could even send them around to the current members for a second round (maybe not portraits for the second round?). What do you guys think? Dana should definitely get to decide what to do with her book next but I thought it might be good to talk over some options.

Ramires' Moly - Finally finished!

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2011 is treating you well so far.

So, I've had Ramires' book for far too long now but after the incredible image he made for my book I felt I really had to knock this out of the park. After scrapping a few different sketches I hit upon the idea of using Ramires' own dream-like images in the drawing. I've loved his blimp-whales ever since I found them on his flickrstream. I also love his intricate speaker systems which suspend from the whales. I figured Claudio should definitely captain the wonderful craft bringing ethereal sounds to all those he drifts over. Hope you like it Claudio!

I'm debating adding full-color to the two inset panels, but I'll probably just leave them alone. Now, who should this go to next? Or should I send it to Marty and see if he can squeeze it into the show?

Our books so far... (10/10)

We've gotten some really beautiful new entries lately so I thought I would update this. It's pretty cool to see all the books together.

UPDATE: Added Dana's entry to Robert's book, 10/8/10

Our books so far...

Who has what?

It's been a while since we've heard an update. So, I made this little diagram to see if we can figure out where the books are. If you see anything wrong on here please let me know (and if anyone wants to do a fancy-pants electronic kind, go for it!). If you have a book please check in and let everyone know where how you are coming in the comments. Thanks everyone!

Dana's moly - finished?

So, I threw some ink at Dana's book tonight and am reasonably happy with it.


I dig how we look like some kind of oddball buddy team like Mulder and Scully or something.

However, I'm debating whether to add anything into the background. I was thinking of continuing the background color she used in her opening portrait somehow. I made a couple quick mockups in photoshop and would love to hear your thoughts:

I like this last one but I'm not sure if I could pull it off in the book without trashing the sketch. I'll probably just leave it alone...unless you all talk me into it!

Tim's book

So, I joined this group way back in October 2008, didn't contribute anything until March 2009 and never started my own book at all! I've had this moly since around that time and even had a rough sketch in it for at least a year. But for whatever reason I never got around to completing it. Ever since we got this group re-booted in January though I've wanted to give it another shot and finally pushed myself to do it this week.


I was inspired by Ramires' awesome paintings for some of the other moly_x groups to try this little painting. It's the first time I've used acrylics in one of these books and I'm pretty happy with the results. As you may or may not know I'm big-time skier...I raced in high-school and college and have been instructing and coaching for over 15 years so this portrait is me in my element.

I'm going to finish up Dana's moly this week and send both of these off to Ramires soon. Hope you're ready for 'em, Claudio!

Dana's moly - work in progress

I started working on Dana's moly tonight. I don't think I've really captured her expression from this great photo on her flickr page but there's lots of work still to be done on it.