Book By Its Cover » Sketchbook Series: Rob Dunlavey

Hi I’m back! Sorry for the lack of posts. I left for a Savannah wedding Thursday and thought I’d have time to post at night. But you know how it goes– it’s too hard to think when you’re on vacation! Here’s what I was going to post Friday:

Illustrator/artist Rob Dunlavey has done work for all sorts of clients from The New York Times to Scholastic. You can even find them in several children’s museums and on a line of adorable mugs. So when Rob sent me some images of his sketchbooks to share I was thrilled to get an insider’s peek. I love the variations on buildings he’s made- each a little more playful than the last. I would love a big wall mural in my house of on of these structures. This is what Rob had to say about his work:

Images here are excerpted from a hard bound black book I started in January of February. I do 2-3 paintings a day early in the morning before everyone gets up and I have to get kids ready for school, etc. I fill up about 6-8 sketchbooks a year and I have them dating back to the late 1980’s. These below are the most recent.

The majority of the images are part of a personal series I call “Crystal Cities”. They are whimsical and decorative architectural fantasies and doodles. Paul Klee is a big influence obviously but not in any slavish way. Mostly, I’m just trying to amuse and delight myself and one other person. Anyone else who likes them is icing on the cake. I use all kinds of media and work pretty fast: marker, oil pastel, collage, watercolor, ink, gouache, house paint, pastel, charcoal. The sky’s the limit!

A few other pages are research for a children’s picture book I’m writing about two birds and a bear. Up till now, most of my professional illustration has been in editorial and various educational markets. Lately, the sketchbooks have just taken off and they’re leading me (back) into fine art, decorative art, children’s book illustration and character-based designs. All this stuff is obsessively documented on my flickr photostream.

Thanks to Rob for sharing. You can keep up with him a bunch of ways. Here’s his website, his flickr, and his blog- today he posted a fantastic collaborative sketchbook he made with Scott Bakal that’s not to be missed!