Quick Update

Still slow going here. The sketchbook from volume one and the moleskine are still traveling around. Going at a pretty good clip considering.

Still haven't received in artwork by mail in over six months. Received a digital piece a couple weeks ago. No new writing since last year and no youth art submissions period.

Couple hits a day on the site, which makes me wonder...is it worth continuing?

I'll finish out the sketchbooks that are out there, I'm just not sure the project ever developed enough momentum to see it through more than one run.

Carry on.

Donation Request - Hosting

Greetings all.

A quick word on the administrative side of the 100AP; the hosting renewal has come up for the site and while we've got fingers in many social networking pies, having a stand alone site is important.

The hosting is $4.99 a month and I've been able to afford six months at a time at $24, a year would be roughly $54 (I know of a promo code.) This time however, my money is tight and I've no room for extra. So, if you're feeling saucy and need some place to spend some cash but would like it to mean something, consider donating $5-10 to support the continuing operation of the 100AP. The hosting expires April 21st and I should be able to chip in enough for a month, to keep it going but it would be nice to have to not worry about it for a while.

You can donate by clicking here.

News on the sketchbook travels; it's continuing at an admirable pace. The moleskine is also abroad still.

To you recent artists who've signed up to send in art work, don't let us down. Signing up means you really want to participate. It's not a sign up to receive updates.

Carry on.

Comics Monkey

The 100AP Vol. one is going to be moved over to it's new listing at Comics Monkey. IndyPlanet is doing something with itself, but I'm not sure I want to read too much about it. When the new listing is available I'll update the sites.

In the mean time, I'll research the cost of getting it republished through Lulu and let everyone know.

An Explanation

For those coming in late, I'm going to try to explain what's going on as efficiently as possible. It may be there are too many sites and too much cross over to really grasp the idea.

This is a volunteer project. People send in art. I in turn auction or sell it and turn over the proceeds to different charities that support artists or the arts. Depending on what project you contribute to, that's where the money will go. For instance, if you participate in the 100AP Youth, when the project is done, the money raised will go to the International Child Art Foundation. (The list of projects and organizations can be seen here.)

The project started off with people sending in artwork and when we got 100 pieces, I scanned them, put them together in a book with some interviews of the artists and sold them online. Then the originals went up for auction. The money from this went to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The Hero Initiative.

Once those people sent in work, that got them on a list to have a sketchbook sent to them. That book is currently going around to those artists and we're about 30 people in so far. If you are reading this and you have either sent me something or drawn something in a sketchbook, you're good. If you haven't drawn in a sketchbook, it's coming to you, I promise. It may take a while though.

Back in August of 2008, I opened up the idea again for more projects supporting more funds. (See that link above again.) One of them is also a sketchbook that will be mailed around. BUT it may be that between the old and new lists, I have just enough people to fill it up so I may combine those. However, the mail in portion still has almost all 100 openings to fill before we can publish or auction again; that's a long way to go.

I'll admit to having a lot of sites available for information about what the project does, where to read about it, how to participate, etc. In all honesty it's the only way I know how to get enough eyes on the project. I've Twittered about it, set up Facebook and MySpace sites. There's a Flickr pool and at one point I made a Ning page. While confusing, these sites allow me to direct people back to the main page and at the same time, hopefully they'll tell other people as well.

Maybe one day we'll be big enough that we won't need a social networking site just to get visits.

Luckily a few people from the first run have come back to help. I've also had a friend jump aboard to drum up support locally and help keep things updated. There was a gap when nothing was being done, but frankly there wasn't any art being sent in either.

So, if you have ideas on how to improve, let us know. If you have suggestions on how to promote the project, let us know. I've emailed and called every fund, a lot of publishers and most every online art organization I can find. It's not that we need more people seeing the project, it's that we need more ARTISTS seeing the project and actually sending in work. Also, if you have any QUESTIONS or something is confusing, please tell us.

That way I can write blog posts about interesting things like interviews and art showings instead of talking about how little is going on.

Again, any help is appreciated. Thank you.

You out there artists?

Award
Originally uploaded by xadrian

I'm wondering what happened to the 30+ people who signed up to do artwork for the project. It's been months, nearly half a year and only a couple have come in.

Plus the sign ups have dwindled to one a week and I'm fairly sure those people are signing up for a newsletter.

So, if you have signed up, please get that artwork in. The project lives and dies on the volunteerism of the artists. If there is no art, there are no auctions or books to make. No auctions or books, no sales. No sales, no money to the charities we're supporting. I realize each and every piece of work created is time, labor and love intensive. I also know that I can't do this alone. My partner and I can't draw 100 pictures, write 25 short stories and mail a sketchbook to ourselves 100 times in order to get the project done. It's up to you.

Even if you have already done the work, you can still help by telling people about it. And I don't mean putting a link on your blog (though that does help) but really telling people about it. Tell your Design 102 class, tell your art history professor, tell your parents or kids. I'm proud of this project and I would hope you all are too. Enough that you are more than happy to let other people know it's going on.

So we're still here waiting for those drawings. We can't do it without you.

100AP Artists posted on Neatorama

Melissa Sue Stanley featured on Neatorama!

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/04/01/plush-toothy-monster-by-melissa-sue-stanley/

Melissa was one of the original 100 artists for the collected mail in pieces that were auctioned a year ago. Her drawing had the distinction of being the only one that had stitch work. Her skill seems to be crafting, sewing and creating cute and creepy critters.

Make sure to stop by her Etsy shop and check out all her clever creations.

Distance Traveled

I just thought I'd share this with you guys.

This is how far the initial sketchbook has traveled. It's been to 32 different artists, so far two countries. It's been to 23 states and get this...

...it's traveled 29,657 miles!

Actually, it's likely traveled more than that. I've only added the direct line distance between points on the map. If you were to account for driving routes and the way flight plans bend or even land in different cities and then ship elsewhere, the number is likely to go up.

But, by way of comparison, the Earth at the equator is 24,902 miles. So our little sketchbook has traveled around the Earth once already and it's only a third complete. And we've just started sending to some international folks.

I'll start another map for the new sketchbook and maybe the moleskine as well. If someone has suggestions on better routing maps that fit what we need for this project, please let me know. Otherwise I'll keep manually making lines on a map.

Thanks, all. And keep up the good work.