The Bird King, An Artist’s Sketchbook

Written & Illustrated by Shaun Tan

 

ISBN: 978-1-4063-8924-1

 

Published by Walker Studio

 

Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster

 

Publishers website https://www.walkerstudio.com/books/

 

Shaun Tan’s Website https://www.shauntan.net

 

Pitch

This is a visual dairy of the influences that drive Shaun Tan to be a creator. Whether that be from direct observation or his imagination he is able to conjure up compelling images that keeps one asking questions. As a master draftsman his work commands respect and thoughtful consideration. This comprehensive and thoughtful tome from Walker Studios contains much fun, wit and wisdom.

 

Review

All artists have an inner kingdom and internal energies that drive us to make artefacts. There are several ways to communicate this to the outer world but none are as intriguing as the artist sketchbook. Visual language can be heavily influenced by commercial concerns but we also need to find ways to express our richer personal drives. Shaun Tan writes about this process with ease and great depth of feeling. Embodied at the heart of this enterprise is his assertion that it’s important to keep things fresh.

 

Sketchbooks are used to help you work out what you want to say and what you wish to keep personal. Your ideas live behind closed pages. That is why artist’s sketchbooks interest the public so much. It’s the chance to discover secrets or hidden passions that others may have missed in the more visible works.

 

Tan’s drawings are delicate in tone, shade and line work. He is able to infuse his work with bold and dynamic areas of intense colour. There is a palpable impression that we are being invited into a private space that is only meant for the initiated. The printing on some pages evokes in facsimile his real notebook pages that reminds me of artist James Jean’s Process Recess books. This texture adds to the authenticity.

 

In his work there is for me a strong connection to the landscape similar to that of the artist Sidney Nolan and the hallucinatory scenes from Peter Weir’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ (1975). These landscapes frame something that is just out of sight that will amaze us if we dare to focus our gaze upon them. He also renders grainy, colourful, shocking and eerie townscapes that contrast perfectly with the more open spaces. Tan’s expert handling of scale and perspective is used to create worlds that are unexpected but also deeply satisfying.

 

The creative process is key to the formation of measurable outputs and helps one to maintain and sustain one’s ability to stay current and to produce work of relevance to oneself and a wider audience. This book will inspire students and young people who need to be encouraged to find a place to store their own visual insights and secure their inner kingdom.

  

08 October 2019

Otto Blotter Bird Spotter

Written & Illustrated by Graham Carter

 

ISBN: 978 178344 745 9

 

Published by Anderson Press

 

Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster

 

Publishers website https://www.andersenpress.co.uk

 

Graham Carter Website http://www.graham-carter.co.uk

 

Graham Carter’s Agent’s Website http://arenaillustration.com/portfolios/graham-carter

 

Pitch

Otto Blotter is a fearless explorer whose curiosity takes him far and wide. As for his family they are obsessed with bird watching and rarely leave their house that has been converted into an enormous Hide. They haven’t much time for our hero not when there are beautiful birds that need spotting. One day while out adventuring Otto makes a discovery that changes his life forever.

 

Review

Otto goes on an adventure that ranges across a fully formed environment habituated in places by mostly passive human characters, he is the exception. This highly detailed illustrated book alive with textures and vibrant imagery is from the hand of artist and printmaker Graham Carter. The main excitement comes from his spectacular bird illustrations. The vivid colour and dynamic shapes helps to drive the narrative and grabs our attention.

 

Otto discovers and ‘rescues’ a tiny bird that he secretly feeds and comforts. A bond builds between them but as time goes by the bird becomes enormous. Just when Otto thinks his secret is about to be revealed the bird decides to display its unusual and delightful powers.

 

The energy in this book shines out from the artwork as Carter uses every square centimetre of the pages to reveal new surprises and give the story depth. The digital paintings are quite dark with the colours being very sophisticated for the intended age group however the palette selection comes into its own once the bird’s final special power is on display.

 

The cover of this hardback book uses varnish and embossing to make a tactile statement. The bird at the centre of the cover is subtle and stylized into the shape of an arched window. A window that leads to indigo end papers that give us some clues as to what the story is about. The narrative gives me the sense that this is only the beginning. I would really like to see a series about the Blotter family and their unusual location.

19 August 2019

Cassandra Darke

Written & Illustrated by Posy Simmonds

 

ISBN: 9780224089098

 

Published by Jonathan Cape

 

Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster

 

Publishers website https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/108/1084784/cassandra-darke/9780224089098.html

 

Posy Simmonds Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posy_Simmonds

 

Pitch

At last a very unlikely female anti-hero who is well into middle age and has hardly any redeeming features. Posy Simmonds has put her finger on the zeitgeist presenting to the reader a world no longer sure of itself, where pigeons always come home to roost. Cassandra Darke has her eye on the main chance but when the truly vile encroaches upon her world where will her moral compass lead her?

Review

Cassandra is a fine art gallery owner, with currency in certain strata of the British class system. She lives alone in a house estimated to be worth seven million pounds on a pretty but mostly deserted square in Chelsea, London. It’s her fortress of solitude but without any solace. Many times, she has contemplated the dreadful means she can use to leave her unhappy life behind. Privileged but petty she risks her reputation for money that she doesn’t even need. She appears bored and is boring.

 

We are kept engaged by the ‘crimes’ that Cassandra commits in order to satisfy her selfish but pointless needs. She suffers from a sense of entitlement and looks at the world through haughty eyes and callous regard. Cassandra like her namesake from the Greek tragedy is seen as dishonest and a mad woman. It’s only when Nikki, her niece moves into her basement that her life starts to have a purpose once more and she looks to the future with optimism.

 

This slice of life story is constructed to take in the time the year from Christmas 2016 to 2017 and cheer is in short supply. As we socialize with our friends and colleagues one never knows who is drinking at the next table to you. This is a device that is pivotal to the story and takes it in a more challenging direction. Not even Cassandra’s best efforts can keep this at bay.

 

The drawings are exquisite, delicate and powerful. The clean crisp line work is handled as deftly as a 19^th Century Master. She channels Charles Dickens using words and pictures to expose the foibles of complex characters. Simmonds creates a believable space holding a mirror up to contemporary London moments. Her writing shows us the way a façade is built up and then knocked down. How physical and sexual violence is so common place that we have become blasé about it. She acts a visual essayist in her reflections on day to day living.

 

At a time where the gap between the haves and have nots begins to reach Dickensian proportions, this story displays that the differences between Them and Us isn’t so wide after all. Wealth in its exclusive position distorts any sense of community or reconciliation. When things go very wrong it’s the public servants who have to save the day and stitch things back together.

 

I think that Simmonds is well aware that far too often women who are childless, independent and have strong personalities are seen as ‘other’ and fair game for criticism. A Women who knows her own mind has to be neutralized. Transgressors who threaten the status quo must be controlled. I know what women like Cassandra would say to that, “Bollocks!”

 

19 August 2019

NIGHT CITY - My review of this publication from March 2015

Night City by Ian Barraclough (Published by Brabazon Press 2014) www.ianbarrapix.com

Thanks for the gift of ‘Night City.’ I've read it twice now and feel it works a bit like a documentary poem. For me the main power of the piece suggests many of the conventional things that people dislike about living or experiencing the big bad city, however I think the work is like the GRIT that gets into the oyster and aids the growth of the PEARL. I imagine your references come from you time living in London filtered through a commuter’s eyes.

I feel you are part channeling George Grosz 'The City' combining this with the aesthetic of a faded plastic carrier bag. Have you ever printed onto carrier bags? In the early stages of the story the graphic feel reminds me of Russell Mills 'More Dark Than Shark.' Your torn ephemera acting as flotsam and jetsam from the streets.

You use lights well nothing suggests grime and crime better than nighttime light. The blazing lights of the steel towers blinking carelessly down on those who will never benefit from 'trickle down.'

I love the Angel image the angle reminding me of my Noir favourites and Wenders 'Wings of Desire.' The Angel cannot save us, which was its original purpose.

The centre pages show a complex image filled with multiple elements but somehow every part is isolated and at odds with its surroundings. This is very effective.

The text works well and allows open interpretations in some cases but also punctuates with powerful meaning when needed - as with the 'swan dive' death of the man in the later pages.

I particularly like the words "office screen slaves" "like insects in matchboxes" "they got the job, now the job's got them..."

The final two pages remind me of the fatalism found in many a good Ian McEwan novel. I am the person in the window wishing to blot out the things I feel helpless to change.

One suggestion: the really dark pages might need to be printed differently so there is more contrast. Use truer blacks if possible.

I hope this is an okay review. I'm impressed by your output and rather saddened that I've not added to my own work for quite a while. The cover of the book works well for me. The overlapping lines like the red separation cell of the four-colour process.

Keep going my friend as your work is distinctive and shows what you are thinking about and what concerns you most.