Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Tan, the mastermind behind the incomparable The Arrival (2007) and Lost and Found (2011), opens up his sketchbooks and offers up an array of drawings, doodles, and visual experiments. Separated into works for books, theater, and film; life drawings; notebooks; and tantalizing glimpses of untold stories; the entries all share Tan's unique trademarks. Unmistakable are his flawless craftsmanship, his organically industrial yet timeless aesthetic, and his lyrically haunting style and tone. Given their own page and focus, many details that might have attracted merely a glance in larger works are turned here from a flourish into a full-fledged character or visual idea. Simultaneously, mechanics of his world-building skill come clear, like a penchant for embellishing illustrations to make them appear a part of a larger blueprint or schematic, giving the sense of a small image within a vast tapestry that is itself an infinitely branching world of imagination. The author's stated hope is that, in their evolutionary examination of images and narratives, the sketchbook pages offer a privileged insight into the creative process. So it does, making it an invaluable resource for burgeoning visual storytellers. But even for those interested in little more than pondering and daydreaming, this is a powerful springboard for the imagination.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Why isn't the finished work as good as the sketch?" Tan (The Arrival) asks in the introduction to this collection of loose illustrations and rough ideas, wondering why drawings lose their spontaneity as they undergo revision. These sketches took little time to make, he says, and some "barely escaped the paper-recycling bin." Fascinated with hybrids, Tan draws cyclopean monsters with claws and tentacles, light bulbs with tails, cars with antennae, and a flower whose bloom is a single human eye. A section of full-color paintings and drawings offers rich and complex layers of pigment, lush shadows, and startling highlights of scarlet and magenta. In one, an Asian man wearing glasses holds the hand of a small boy on a sidewalk; "Dad + me," reads the legend. A careful set of sketches records pre-Columbian artifacts; another, just as earnest, invents a character alphabet for an undersea civilization; a cover sketch for Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels also appears. The sharing of unfinished work is a generous gesture, and the collection is a treasure trove for any young artist who wants to know more about how ideas are captured on paper. Ages 10-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3 Up-A collection of sketches, drafts, and scanned ephemera from the artist who created The Arrival (2007) and Tales from Outer Suburbia (2009, both Scholastic). The initial section, "untold stories," is a series of visuals and captions, sometimes inspired by the accompanying turn of phrase and sometimes only illuminated by it, like a particularly enigmatic New Yorker cartoon. The "book, theatre, and film" section contains images familiar to readers of Tan's other works, while the "drawings from life" and closing "notebooks" sections are excellent examples of the skill and practice required of an inventive illustrator. Not only can one see the breadth of Tan's technical ability here, but the reproduction of the originals is also top-notch; the marginalia of its origins intact with creases, scuffs, erasures, and signs of assembly all photographically preserved. These show the work and the physical reality of getting to an end product, as well as revealing, by implication, the gradual process of creative invention. While not so much a graphic novel or an illustrated book, this is an excellent archive of what might be found if one peeks into the recesses of an artist's portfolio. For those interested in illustration as a career, it could be a superb, if daunting, inspiration.-Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This collection of unpublished sketches is a treasure trove filled with fantastic, slightly creepy--yet endearing--creatures and provides a fascinating look into Tan's artistic processes. After Tan's introduction, the sketches, paintings, and dummy pages are organized into four sections: "untold stories," "book, theater, and film," "drawings from life," and "notebooks." A list of works included gives further information on each piece. Bib. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From a master of visual mystery, a beguiling gathering of sketches, doodles, portraits and written thoughts about art and creativity. To set up his gallery, Tan quotes Paul Klee's definition of "drawing" as "taking a line for a walk," and then he ruminates on how his ideas and his efforts to express them act on one another. The images themselves range from tiny scribbles to finished pastels or storyboards. Most are figure studies, with an admixture of alien landscapes, mazelike warrens of rooms or sustained imaginative flights, such as a full spread of nautically themed characters labeled "language of the sea." With rare exceptions, the figures are fantasy creatures sporting beaks, armor or other strange features--but all (even a series of quick studies of pre-Columbian pottery) not only look alive, but display the artist's distinctive whimsy and innate poignancy. Many, though not all, of the images later appeared in his published works, and most come with discreet, often oblique identifiers: "The thing in the bathroom"; "heart-bell"; "Talk it over in the Bird Room." Rewarding territory to explore not just for budding artists or writers, but for daydreamers in general. (media and production notes) (Artist's sampler/showcase. 6 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
