JAMES JEAN

Yeah, everyone and their dog has heard of Mister James Jean, but that’s no reason not to heap even more kudos onto him. He makes me want to down all tools and never draw again, and yet, conversely, he inspires me to drawdrawdraw like there’s no tomorrow. Damn him. I think I might have to order his book. Don’t forget to check out his blog.

JOY ANG

Joy Ang has carved out an almost James-Jean-esque style for herself, but it would really be doing her a disservice to compare her solely to Jean, as her work is gorgeous and entirely her own. Check out her recent work Terrorsel, and her step-by-step description of her process on that particular piece over on conceptart.org.

WESLEY BURT

I remember being blown away by Wesley Burt’s sketch thread on conceptart.org years ago, and his recent work is just as gorgeous. Take a look at the old thread on CA and be amazed at how each and every page of his sketchbook is a complete work of art. He makes me want to eat his brain - in the very best and most polite way, of course.

ROLF HARRIS

I know! But I just saw an interesting documentary about his life, and I remembered watching Rolf’s Cartoon Club as a very small kid and the Rolf Harris drawing book I used to copy slavishly. Tony Hart always seemed faintly creepy to me, so Rolf was my childhood art idol. Yes, he’s cheesus maximus, and yes, his music is cringeworthy, but he seems genuinely lovely and he’s a hugely talented artist. I find it hard to believe that he simply quit painting for about ten years. His work may not be to everyone’s taste, but his enthusiasm for painting is infectious.

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In other news, I just sent off my application to the Black Church Print Studio’s spring screenprinting workshop. I know the demand for places is high, so here’s hoping I manage to get in. MmmScreenprinting.

I’ve been pretty busy with design work for the past couple of weeks, so I’ve barely had time to make more than a few cursory scratchings in the sketchbook. I have, however, been experimenting with bookbinding techniques, in an exploratory effort to design my own hand-bound portfolio book; this book was a huge help in figuring out the techniques and creative variations. Below, you can see the few samples I made with cheap materials to test different types of binding.

Tape Stitched:
I love the look of hand-made books with exposed stitching—they somehow seem more ’special’ than standard hardback books with spines. The boards were covered with black fabric (an old pair of combats!), the interior signatures were created with alternating pink and white heavy-weight paper, and the stitching was pink embroidery thread over black-and-pink striped ribbon.

Basic Codex:
This is just a very basic hardback book with a spine, and it was amazingly simple to make. I covered the book with fairly lightweight paper, which is not ideal, but is actually pretty sturdy. That said, I think fabric is definitely the best option for a covering material.

Codex with Wrap-Around Cover:
Here’s a slightly smaller version of the basic codex, with a little wrap-around hinged cover and button-and-velcro fastener. The boards are covered in the same black fabric as the first book, and I recycled a pretty paper shopping bag for the patterned endpapers.

I’m still not quite sure how I’m going to bind my portfolio book, but I definitely want to make a few editions of it, so it really has to be quite easily duplicatable and/or updatable. We shall see!

Tiphanie Brooke (AKA Antigirl) has some fantastic examples of her bookbinding and design work on her site. I particularly love the gorgeous portfolio-style sketchbooks with bra-strap clasps. Her work really showcases the professional quality you can achieve with hand binding; unbelievably, she created 102 copies of her Babylon Beware project by hand.