Best Sketchbook Ever

0511131312_01

bigorange

Not necessarily the best, but certainly the biggest. This sketchbook was given to me by Gloria Moyer, the art director at Longman Publishing. I had been illustrating one of their English As A Second Language textbooks, and Gloria had noticed that I carried a sketchbook with me everywhere. She presented me with one of Longman’s dummy dictionaries, a bound book with blank pages made to give them an idea what the real dictionary would eventually look like. I have never counted the pages, but they must number in the thousands. To give you some idea of its dimensions, I would ordinarily go through three or four sketchbooks a year in those days. This book I carried around for about five years, 1984- 1988. Having so many pages kind of unleashed the floodgates for me,and the book contains a wide variety of drawings.Eventually I constructed this jacket from cardboard and masking tape to protect the covers:

cover

David Chelsea is listening to:
Little French Songs
by Carla Bruni

Continue reading Best Sketchbook Ever

European Sketchbook #2: Germany

On the German portion of our trip to Europe this summer, we stayed with our friends Albert and Eva Warmuth in the Bavarian village of Wargolshausen (it’s near Junkershausen, if that’s any help).

David Chelsea is listening to
“Groovy Kind Of Love”
by Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders

Continue reading European Sketchbook #2: Germany

European Sketchbook #1: Italy

Palazzo Celsi
Palazzo Celsi

Here are some sketches from the trip I took to Europe with the family in June and July. Our first stop was Venice, then we moved on to Florence, where I collected research for a book project about Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and his discovery of perspective.

David Chelsea is reading
“Godel, Escher, Bach”
by Douglas Hofstader

Continue reading European Sketchbook #1: Italy