The Bird King

The Bird King and other sketches is the title of a book created by Shaun Tan, this book shows many sketches that are part of the artists creative process. There are several sections including untold stories which is about stories that begin with an image rather than words. These works are generally small fairly aimless sketches that may possibly lead into stories later in life, some are shown below.

Another section discusses working in other mediums such as theatre and film. Tan explains the importance of not only the book version of the story but the preliminary sketches or thumbnails. These often capture the emotion or are linked to the way of thinking when originally created which is what is a struggle to recreate in other formats. This in large is due to the time scales involved, working on other projects and changes in mind set through time. Examples used in the adaptation of The Lost Thing into an animation are shown below, this project took several years but did win Shaun an Oscar for his troubles, so keeping such sketches seems invaluable.

Drawing from life is a section that demonstrates Tan's observational works that he considers the foundation of all of his work. This is something I have become acutely aware of myself through this project. My lacking in this practice has prompted me to correct this issue, I took a break from everything over the holidays but I am now itching to get these first two case studies complete so that I can get back out there and continue drawing from life. Shaun states the importance of these studies in building relationships between line, form, colour and light which all feed into his studio work whether it is people, objects or environments, some examples of these are shown below.

Adding to these observational drawings is a final section on notebooks, the small pocket size sketchbooks that I have have started carrying with me. These give an insight into how the artist thinks, drawings from life, imaginary characters or worlds and planning out sequences are all contained in these little books. Tan discusses how many of these doodles may serve no purpose or have no meaning they often lead to ideas, the important fact is the idea is recorded because if it is not it will most likely become lost, some examples are shown below.

The most interesting things contained within this book relate not only through the insights into how Tan works, but the vast array of objects, people and places that become his subject matter. This is exemplified by the numerous choices in materials used to create these sketches. Working through different mediums is something I enjoy myself as it not only challenges me as an artist but somehow keeps things fresh. This is something I have noticed with my little sketchbooks, I seem to have kept to drawing with a small variety of pens possibly just through handiness, this is something I wish to rectify. Reflecting on things such as life drawing where I would purposely use a different material to work with each week to avoid becoming repetitive have made me aware of such issues.
Another important factor of this book lies within the introduction, Tan talks about the artist Paul Klee. Discussing how when faced with a blank page he often just takes the line for a walk to see what happens. Another is Klee's metaphor of an artist as a tree, drawing from rich compost formed through experiences of life. Things seen, read told or dreamt all forming to grow leaves, flowers and fruit. This is something I can relate to and feel that this has become a part of this project, going to see fine art, sculpture, theatre or anything else that may hopefully feed into my own rich compost from which I can draw from and see through the fruits of my own work. These are linked into ways of thinking and influence through exposure which I have discussed previously in this project. A short video of Shaun Tan discussing this type of work whilst holding an exhibition at the Illustration Cupboard in London shows how these feed into more finished works.
https://youtu.be/JTJFX1XPNNg