From a project that started in November 2006, it accumulated into something that is Sketchtravel book today, a 192-page hardcover. In case you don't know, the Sketchtravel project invites artists to draw in the book, and then hand-pass it to another artist for drawing, until the whole book is filled.
A total of 71 artists contributed, including Bill Plympton, Enrico Casarosa, John Howe, James Jean, Scott Campbell, Dice Tsutsumi, Peter de Seve, character designers Carter Goodrick and Nicolas Marlet, veteran animators like Glean Keane and even Koji Morimoto and Hayao Miyazaki.
There are sketches, watercolour paintings, collages and of course, nothing digital. So it's not just a sketchbook. Some artists would use the Sketchtravel book as a common motif for their illustrations. Others would draw whatever they can imagine. Mike Mignola possibly has the fastest sketch, James Jean's piece features disturbing subjects (again), Robert Valley's panorama sketch of a party, Juanjo Guarnido with comic style, and Hayao Miyazaki with his familiar watercolour sketch.
Beside each artwork is the artist profile are photos, some are photos of the book passing can be quite amusing. From the photos, I noticed that the passing is not always continuous. Artist A would pass to B, B passes to C, and it could be A again who would pass to D.
The book is in French, strangely. It's strange because just behind the cover are, in English, the rules for submission for the book. After that page, everything else is in French. Secondly, most of the artists who contributed to the book aren't French. Thirdly, there are plenty of space on the artist profile pages to easily include an English translation. Good news is, there's going to be an English edition coming in 2012, I was told by Sketchtravel co-creator Gerald Guerlais.
There are plenty of white space in the book, that for layout purposes, I think is still effective.
There's also a limited collector's edition. It comes with a woodcase, the paper is stronger and there's a Nicolas de Crecy print. The book's the absolute copy of the original one plus embossed logo, which means there's a separate book for the comments, bios and pictures.
It's an unique and fun book for sketchbook lovers.
The full list of artists included are (in alphabetical order):
- Alex Puvilland
- Alexandra Boiger
- Andrea Blasich
- Aurelien Predal
- Ben Butcher
- Benoit Lepennec
- Bill Plympton
- Bill Presing
- Carlos Nine
- Carter Goodrich
- Catia Chien
- Chris Appelhans
- Claude William Trebutien
- Daisuke Tsutsumi
- Daniel Adel
- Daniel Lopez Munoz
- David Gordon
- Dominique Bertail
- Dominique Louis
- Eli Harris
- Enrico Casarosa
- Enrique Fernandez
- Eric Gosselet
- Erik Tiemens
- François Maumont (online x-mas card)
- François Roca
- Frederic Back
- Gerald Guerlais
- Glen Keane
- Greg Couch
- Gregoire Villermaux
- Hayao Miyazaki
- James Jean
- Jerome Opena
- John Howe
- Juanjo Guarnido
- Katsuya Terada
- Kerascoet
- Koji Morimoto
- Leuyen Pham
- Lorelay Bove
- Lou Romano
- Luis Grane
- Mailys Vallade
- Michael Knapp
- Mike Lee
- Mike Mignola
- Nash Dunnigan
- Natalie Ascencios
- Nicolas de Crecy
- Nicolas Marlet
- Paul Felix
- Peter de Seve
- Peter Nguyen
- Pierre Alary
- Pouch (online promotion)
- Quentin Blake
- Rebecca Dautremer
- Robert Kondo
- Robert Mackenzie
- Robert Valley
- Ronnie Del Carmen
- Sang Jun Lee
- Scott Campbell
- Sylvain Marc
- Tadahiro Uesugi
- Taiyo Matsumoto
- Tomer Hanuka
- Verossignol
- Vincent Nguyen
- www.kerascoet.fr
- Yoko Tanji
- Yuko Shimizu
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The hardcover edition is available at:
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The Limited edition is available at:
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