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The Bird King: An Artist's Notebook (2010)

by Shaun Tan(Favorite Author)

4.32 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0545465133 (ISBN13: 9780545465137)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

Arthur A. Levine Books

review 1: Shaun Tan is an incredible artist and it's a privilege to take a peak inside his sketchbooks. This sampler, however, does not do justice to his sublime talent.The book is divided into a few basic sections, like Unused Ideas and Doodles, but there's very little context given beyond that. There are a couple of pages in the back that give a few cursory notes (which would have been more informative had they been on the pages they referenced) but the whole package did little to explain his process, either artistically or narratively. The book is simply like flipping through his personal papers, which I feel is always a wasted opportunity in the sketchbook genre.The printing is very high quality, reproducing each pencil and brushstroke in beautiful full color; there's no complai... morent there. Overall, I found the book to be very inspiring but frustratingly vague.
review 2: Wonderful stuff. I love seeing an artist's creative process, and this is, without almost any words, about as deep as you can get into an artist's mind. Shaun Tan replaced Chris Van Allsburg as my favorite artist of children's books some time ago. It was no easy task. I've always loved "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick," but when I found Tan's "The Arrival" (especially in light of having a guest from Chennai, India that I was somewhat hosting at the time I first read it), it was life changing. There's nothing he's ever done that I've been disappointed by, and his imagination is limitless. This is a peek into how Tan does what he does, but it only reveals a little bit. I especially like the true sketches...10 or 15 rabbits on a single page...because they show how he takes his work, morphs it from what it actually is into how he envisions it on the page of a children's book. The other stuff...the colored portfolio at the beginning...is just icing on the cake. less

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