About the author
James Hobbs is a London-based artist and the author of Sketch Your World and Pen and Ink. As a journalist he was the editor of Artists & Illustrators magazine, and freelanced for The Guardian, New Statesman and The Art Newspaper. His work has been selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize show and sold at IKEA stores worldwide. He was a board member of Urban Sketchers and helped set up the Urban Sketchers London group. He lives with his wife in north London. See more at www.james-hobbs.co.uk or @jameshobbsart.
Book specs
Language: English
Hardcover: 128 pages
ISBN: 979-8-9878771-1-1
Item Weight: 2 pounds
Dimensions: 8.3 x 11.7 inches (A4 landscape)
Richard Aitken –
Have had a quick look at an advance copy of Sketchbook Reveal and I’m in awe at what I’ve seen. James Hobbs and Sketcher Press have done us a great favour in producing such a candid look at a sizeable body of work from someone who is amongst the most thought-provoking members of our sketching fraternity. By reproducing several whole sketchbooks in miniature, the book has a cinematic quality, a stop-frame glimpse of Hobbs and his innermost creative impulses. Punctuated with selected spreads at full-scale and short explanatory texts, Sketchbook Reveal places primacy on the sketchbook as an evolving artefact, imparting a sense of journey rendered in image and text with vitality, honesty, and artistry.
Richard Aitken, Melbourne, Australia
Roy DeLeon (verified owner) –
When Sketcher Press announced it’s working on a James Hobbs book, it made me a happy sketcher. I am a big fan of Mr Hobbs style – I even have his two books. So, when I received my copy in the mail, I devoured it right away. Then after catching my breath, I savored each page – enjoying the touch and feel of the marvelous paper it was printed on, the easy and intuitive flow of the book design – especially the pages showing the sketchbook page full size!
One particular spread hit me deeply – one in which Mr Hobbs wrote: “On the day of dad’s death I took the train…I’m not sure the marks I made related to anything I saw through the window, but despite that they marked that moment… this drawing helps me to recall the intensity of emotions I felt the morning that Dad slipped away.”
His words refer to a sketchbook spread of what may look like, to a casual viewer, meaningless scribbles of tangled lines. But for Mr Hobbs, they showed his feelings, his emotions at that moment. And I am so thankful for him for sharing his raw feelings, his humanness, in words and images.
Thank you to everyone at Sketcher Press for sharing Mr Hobbs’ sketches with the world – and with me, of course!
Marcia Milner-Brage (verified owner) –
I liken James Hobbs’s many year journey of drawing in a succession of small sketchbooks to a meditative practice. It is like Zen meditation where one sits facing a wall, letting whatever comes forth from monkey-mind, to float through you, not placing judgement or expectation. Sketcher Press has brought us an exquisite volume showing us James’s practice of allowing often-times unassuming moments/interludes to be captured on the page.
James’s mark making is spare and unpretentious; it is elegant. The day I received my copy, I took in the visual component immediately—front to back, back to front, then again—to read James’s words. Sketchbook Reveal has brought me a quiet joy. For me, an artist with a many decade drawing practice, it is a treasure; it is validation for over and over again putting pencil to the page, showing the unfolding snippets of my life.
For those of you who would like to initiate or reclaim their analogous drawing practice, this book is invaluable inspiration. Find your own little, blank book. Take up a pencil, pen or brush. Start in! James Hobbs is a worthy guide.
Marcia Milner-Brage
Walnut Creek, California