Book Review: Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists

I got to know of this book from Book By Its Cover, which is the blog of the author Julia Rothman. I visit her blog regularly to check out lesser known art books. She does a great job featuring artists and their books.

Drawn In seems like an extension of the blog in a book format.

There are 44 artists featured in this book. Each comes with a profile, an interview and pages from their sketchbooks. There's a nice variety of wildly differing styles, all very unique and raw.

Most are doodles of imagination, some simple, some intricate, there are pages drawn with pencils and others created from mixed media.

It's interesting to see what these artists fill in their sketchbooks because you can never guess what's inside. Katy Horan draws dark spooky women, Rob Dunlavey seems to like to draw castles, Chad Kouri creates lettering, Ted McGrath's book is well worn with the many things pasted onto the pages.

I like the interviews that talk about how they use their sketchbooks, their various inspiration, and you can learn more about their personalities. With the exception of the author, the rest of the artists are all new to me.

Delightful book. More for those who like doodle-like imaginative drawings.

The list of artists included are:

Ana Benaroya
Sophie Blackall
Jill Bliss
Sam Bosma
Calef Brown
Tad Carpenter
Jen Corace
Christian Defilippo
Rob Dunlavey
Austin English
Camilla Engman
Ben Finer
Sarajo Frieden
Abbey Hendrickson
Lars Henkel
Jessica Hische
Katy Horan
Meg Hunt
Karen Klassen
Chad Kouri
Matt Leines
Renata Liwska
Mike Lowery
Alex Lukas
Grady McFerrin
Ted McGrath
Andy J. Miller
Will Miller
Mark Mulroney
Lauren Nassef
Anders Nilsen
Laura Park
Leif Parsons
Claudia Pearson
Mike Perry
Julia Pott
Catell Ronca
Julia Rothman
Carmen Segovia
Lizzy Stewart
Mike Sudal
Issac Tobin
Jenny Volvoski
Ben K. Voss

Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists is available on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | JP) and Book Depository (US | UK).

Sophie Blackall