Book Review: Inkworks: Darren Quach Sketchbook Vol. 01

Darren Quach is a concept designer good at mechanical stuff. Actually if you check out his blog, you'll see that he's great at environment art too.

Inkworks is a 128-page hardcover, about landscape A5 size. It collects the mecha designs that Darren Quach sketches in his actual sketchbooks. So this book is designed like a sketchbook itself. All the sketches have been nicely cleaned up to remove the impressions of drawings from the opposite page picked up while scanning. I know that because there's a 18 minute Youtube video showing his original sketchbooks.

There are lots of wonderful mecha sketches included of all shapes and sizes. The style is drawn loose but the shapes and silhouettes are clear. One thing I like is there aren't any of those those Gundam or Transformer type mechas. Quach's designs are less blocky and more organic, although there are still a lot of mechanical parts involved. The mechas also look grounded with a good sense of weight and balance. There's a good mix between piloted and auto piloted ones. There are also a handful of sketches of other vehicles and spaceships.

Also included in the book are several QR codes that you can scan to bring up a video showing the drawing process. The same videos are also on the publisher Design Studio Press website. There are six and each 10 minutes long.

It's a good book for those who want to gain insight into what concept art can be when it's developing, evolving.

If you like mechas, also check out other artbooks I've reviewed on them at https://www.parkablogs.com/category/tags/mecha-robots

Inkworks: Darren Quach Sketchbook Vol. 01 is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

Inkworks: Darren Quach Sketchbook Vol. 01 - 02