Last year, I had the fun of participating in the Sketchbook Project created by the fine folks at Art House Co-op. They create "massive, international art projects that tie thousands of artists together--and anyone can participate."
The Sketchbook Project is a simple idea yet leaves a lot of room for creativity. Each person picks a theme for their book. They then receive their 32 page sketchbook and instructions in the mail. You're free to rebind the pages, and any form of 2-D media is encouraged (as long as it doesn't smudge or flake off). I chose to fill my book with collages. You have several months to complete the project, and then you mail it back to Art House. Each book is cataloged, sent on a world wide tour, and then archived at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. You can see my whole book here.
You have to create an account on Art House's website to participate, which is free and simple to do. However, there is a fee for every project, which covers the cost of the materials and helps keep the non-profit Art House running. For an additional fee, you can have your sketchbook scanned and posted online (which is what I did).
This would be a good project for an artistic, motivated teen to take on. Depending on how detailed someone wants to get and what materials they choose to use, it can take several months to finish. The first handful of pages fly by, and then you realize you still have to fill the rest of the sketchbook. It can feel a bit overwhelming at first, so it's good to plan out how many pages you want to complete in a week. The creators of the Sketchbook Project where smart to have people pick a theme for their books--it helps for coming up with ideas for so many pages (for example, one artist filled her book with drawings of birds).
It's extremely satisfying for me to look through the images of my sketchbook now. I think, "I made all that? Yup, I did." It was a fun and challenging project, which I will probably do again in the future.
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