ILLUSTRATORS SKETCHBOOKS

A treasure trove of visual delights examples of the sketchbooks of sixty international illustrators offer new insights into their artistic practice Intimate and often unseen the sketchbook means something different to each illustrator It might be a beautiful object a work of art in its own right where every line is painstakingly considered It might be a pictorial playground where mistakes can make art The boundaries between sketchbooks notebooks and visual journals are often blurred lending to the creativity that fills their pages It is likely that you will recognize many of the illustrators featured including classic childhood favourites Beatrix Potter Jean de Brunhoff Edward Ardizzone and Tove Jansson and established names such as Beatrice Alemagna Oliver Jeffers and Shaun Tan Others are up and coming for example Charlotte Ager and Leah Yang Martin Salisbury draws on decades of experience as an illustrator and educator to shed light on the lives and work of each artist He even reveals pages from his own sketchbooks exposing the rawness of his ideas and the narratives that surround them As the reader will discover sketchbooks are often a fascinating and surprising window into the mind of the illustrator