TOP 10 ARTBOOKS ANIMATORS SHOULD OWN

I have been racking my brain trying to settle on just 10 books, that in my opinion are a must for any animator. When we started the animation book business 5 years ago, there wasnt a lot of choice. Today there is so much great stuff -its hard to choose, but choose i did. After reading the list, you may disagree with me, and if you do, feel free to leave a comment.

No TOP 10 list is without controversy. I tried to pick the books that i personally love to go back to, looking at them over and over again. Of course, i own hundreds of books and i dont recommend anyone should stop at just 10. Most of the books i listed are still available, as i tried to stay away from rare or hard to get stuff.

First off let me clarify, that for the purpose of this list i am looking at artbooks/sketchbooks -not so much how to books. For example, no animator should be without Richard William's Survival Guide to Animation -but as artbooks go, its not the best.

Starting the list was easy, but then i realized that i liked several books by the same artist. For that reason, the TOP TEN list is broken down more by Artist, then by book. For Example Norman Rockwell is known as a master illustrator- but his ability to charicature and invoke action and emotion into his paintings make his books a must on any animator's list.

Note: There are plenty of other books not on the list, that could easily have been added, except that i limited the list to 10. To simplify the list, i didnt include any japanese artbooks of which there are plenty of awesome ones (Anything by Miyazaki, Koji Morimoto's Orange, Range Murata,Hyung Tae Kim's Oxide 2,Terada Katsuya's Zenbu or Tatsuyuki Tanaka's Cannabis Works are just a handfull that pop into mind).

TOP 10 (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):

1. Claire Wendling - Drawers 2.0 & Iguana Bay
2. Norman Rockwell - Pick any book
3. Stephen Silver - Art of Silver, Sketches 1,2
4. Ben Caldwll -3 sketchbooks, Action Cartooning,Fanasy Cartooning
5. Carlos Meglia - Canari, Superman infite city
6. Barbucci - Skydoll,Monster Allergy
7. Cartoon Modern - 1950s animation
8. Dean Yeagle - 4 sketchbooks
9. Art of Star Wars Episode I,II,II - awesome location and costume designs
10. Michel Gagne - Insanely Twisted Rabbits

So what do you think - is there any you would remove? Any you would add? Let me know what you think.

JOHN NEVAREZ IS IN THE HOUSE

THEY'RE HERE! The two awol John Nevarez sketchbooks have made it back from the world of the missing pakcages and into my grubby hands. ha ha ha. Well, actually i got a call that they came in. I wont have my paws on them until tonight. Seriously though, if you haven't yet seen John's sketchbooks, do yourself a favour and take a peak. As I've mentioned before, John is super talented and the sketchbooks are a real treat. Not expensive either.

ALSO I AM TRYING TO PUT TOGETHER A LIST OF THE TOP TEN SKETCHBOOKS that an animator should own. Not sure if i should have a seperate list for finished illustration books (eg. ashely woods Grande Finale,etc..) or just have one list that combines the best from everything. If you got any opinions as to what books should be on there, let me know. Oh -and if you have your own top ten list, feel free to respond with that.

THE LONG ROAD

Its a long story so let me start at the beginning.

This past July I was at comic-con, where I picked up copies of Pat Morgan's awesome new sketchbook and 2 amazing sketchbooks by Rod Guenoden. The problem was, that I picked up many other great sketchbooks and didnt have space in my luggage to bring everything home. So - what I did was, pack these sketchbooks in a box, and asked John Nevarez to mail them out to me when he mailed out his sketchbooks (that I also ordered at the con.)

For those of you who aren't familiar with John, let me say this: John works over at Disney. He's an amazing artist but more importantly one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Soft spoken, humble and super friendly.

More than month and a half passes and no packages have arrived. John is going crazy over this, and so am I. I believe John when he says he shipped the stuff, but am frustrated that he cant find any record of shipping it (i.e. tracking #s.) Now, if John wasn't the kind of guy that I said above, I might have worried that something sinister was going on. But the thought never crossed my mind. In my mind - John had my full confidence.

Late last week we got a call from UPS's lost package centre. They found a box. It didnt have any shipper info, so we didnt know what package it was, but both John and I were optimistic it might be the missing box. At least one of the two boxes that John shipped. The other box was full of Johns two awesome sketchbooks.

Today one box arrived and in it were the Pat Morgan and Rod Guenoden sketchbooks. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. I had tried to buy Rod's sketchbooks last year, but he didnt have enough copies. For weeks now, I thought - oh great, I may never have these sketchbooks to offer people. The two pencil sketches shown are a sample of rod's work. Pat's book is the colour image with Whaleboy on the cover.(I love Whaleboy)

So what of John's two sketchbooks?

Two days ao, we got another call from UPS that they found another unlabelled box. We have no idea what is inside of that box, and when we called UPS today -they said the box was missing. They think it might have been shipped out. I am crossing my fingers. John offered to ship out a duplicate shipment (see I told you he was a great guy) but I asked him to hold out until we find out if this 2nd box shows up. Stay tuned for the conclusion..

If you want to see Rods or Patrick's sketchbooks, come by our sale next week at Seneca. Tuesday to Thursday Sept 19-21st 10am-5pm. for directions, etc..please email me.

TARA MCPHERSON

Just found out that the Art of Tara McPherson comes out next week. I can't wait for the book to arrive. Tara isn't as well known as she should be. A truly creative artist with an amazing colour sense. If you haven't heard of her or seen her work before i suggest you check out her website www.taramcpherson.com. Oh and if you would like a copy of the book, feel free to email me. it will be in this coming wednesday.

SKETCHBOOK CONTROVERSY

Let's talk artist sketchbooks.

Artist Sketchbooks have been around for a very long time, but the phenomenon of self published sketchbooks goes back about 5 or 6 years (as far as I can tell) to the first Mike Mignola Hellboy Sketchbook. Mignola sold the sketchbook at comic-con for $10, and soon after it was selling for upwards of $50 online. The following year at comic con, fans could find more than a dozen new sketchbooks being sold by various animators and comic artists. The number of new sketchbooks has grown exponentially ever since.

Remember -we're talking self published sketchbooks. Often, these sketchbooks are small photocopied or printed sketchbooks that an artist creates themselves.

Even though the production value isnt always the greatest - they're often worth buying because (a) its a great way to support artists you like (b) its a unique product with art that otherwise would never be seen. Since they're self published most of these sketchbooks come signed. There is no middleman. No big companies or distributors involved.

So why are these sketchbooks so expensive? It's not because they're signed. Its because they are produced in very small quantities. Usually the artists use the money to not only cover the cost of printing, but also to cover convention expenses (like renting a table, transportation,etc..)

About 2 years ago - Stephen Silver released the Art of Silver (note this was his second art book. The first was a black and white, comic sized sketchbook) that in my opinion -raised the bar of what an artist sketchbook could be. Since then, many artists have started producing sketchbooks with far better production values (eg. bob chiu, jose lopez, patrick morgan). Never the less, many others continued to print and sell the small copied variety. The artists that produce these tell us they do it because they are easy to make and can be made quickly just before a show or convention. Others do it, because they can print in small quantities and don't have to invest in a huge inventory that comes with using a traditional printer.

The Labyrinth has been selling self published sketchbooks going back to that first Mignola sketchbook. Often times, we are able to negotiate a wholesale bulk rate with the artist so that we can afford to sell the sketchbook for about the same price as the artist was charging. Some artists (usually comic artists) choose not to wholesale. In these cases we are forced to mark up our prices in order to to make it feasible for us to dislay these great books.

The reason for this post is that we recently found out a customer was under the impression that we photocopied and then sold sketchbooks. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Every sketchbook The Labyrinth sells is an original item created by the artist. In our eyes -the artist is King. We respect them, and would never ever copy their work for financial gain. By selling self published sketchbooks, we are showing support for those artists which our customers love. Believe me, if we were selling copies, the prices would be much much lower.

ON A HAPPY NOTE: We just got our first shipment of Glenn Villpu Life Drawing Manuals and Quick Sketch Sketchbooks. They are truly cool and should be of interest to anyone studying life drawing with animation in mind. Check these out for yourselves at our next sale.