Stunning new book opens up the sketchbooks of a host of top animators

We shouldn’t need to convince you how enamoured we are by the creative process – in fact if you didn’t know that about us then I think we should see other people. But even by our own insatiable standards, a new lovely book by Laura Heit has ticked all sorts of boxes. Animation Sketchbooks does exactly what it says on the tin (cover), opening up the notebooks and skecthpads of more than 50 top animators working across a host of styles. Featuring the likes of David Shrigley, Isabel Herguera, Jeff Scher and Koji Yamamura, it’s a beautiful and insightful peek into the way these leading lights work on paper. From really minimalist markings to full colour treatments via lists and storyboards, it’s a good reminder of how everyone has their own way of doing things.

As Laura writes in the introduction: "A sketchbook affords the mark-maker a safe place to play, to experiment, and to be unusually free. It is here that drawing can become wholly uninhibited, unencumbered by critique or criticism.

“There are no mistakes here, just first gestures, unselfconscious sketches, odd bits glued on, lists, notes, scribbles, jottings and doodles. An exclusive unveiling of the beauty, sincerity, and mania of the animator’s intimate process.”

Hubba hubba!

Animation Sketchbooks published by Thames & Hudson is out on May 6.