Leisure Painter
Adebanji Alade is a self-confessed sketchbook addict. Renowned artist, teacher at Heatherley School of Fine Art and vice president of the Royal Institute of Oil Painterm Adebanji makes regular appearances on the BBC's The One Show and can be found sketching the sights and sounds of London.
His facinating new book, Addictive An Artists Sketchbook showcases one of the artist's sketchbooks in its entirety, showing a unique visual record of everyday life in the city of London. In his introduction Adebanji describes the way he works, and sthe sketchbook allows us an intimate peep into the artist's creative process. The sketches are inspirational and very soon you find you are addicted too!
Amazon
I already own a copy of the wonderful, The Addictive Sketcher . It's got lots of examples, hints and tips and clear photographs showing you how to achieve similar sketches. There are suggestions of places to sketch, where to find subjects etc. Adebanji Alade is a working artist and his enthusiasm and the joy he gets from his art is apparent and infectious.
Addictive: An Artists Sketchbook , is exactly what it says. It's a very full sketchbook showing the faces and places of everyday city life that Adebanji was inspired to record. There is no text as such (apart from the foreword and three pages of introduction). But my goodness the 275 pages that follow is full of sketches and artists written notes. It's wonderful to look at. There are all types of drawings from very rough to more detailed, and all types of faces and figures, park scenes. All life is there. The brief, handwritten artist's notes give an interesting insight into what inspires the artist, although sometimes it's just a name/place and a date. It a very interesting companion book to The Addictive Sketcher .
I've been doing more drawing and sketching this year than I've ever done before. It's a great way to pass the time while stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic. I have sketchbooks. My inspiration has been faces and figures I see online and on television (I pause the screen and sketch). And some online tutorials. When I look at Adebanji's sketchbook I'm inspired and want to go out and about to draw maybe not just yet, but soon, I hope. I was ready to throw out my old sketchbooks which, like Addictive , are mostly studies of faces, but I think I'll keep them now as a record of my progress (if any) and I'll use the space better with more little sketches on each page, and importantly, notes and the date! If only I had Adebanji Alade's talent!
Addictive: An Artist's Sketchbook has definitely inspired me to do more.
