Most of my work involves books, animations or exhibition projects, but the main ingredient in all of this, compost, is often hidden away, unseen, in boxes or sketchbooks.
Some stories are mercifully abandoned as half-baked ideas, looking for an excuse to be revived, others are early or clumsy intermediate tests of a project, very practical drawings, or stepping stones to a finished work.
There are also some exercises simply to maintain health as an artist.
-From page 6 of the text

Provides a clue to the answer to the question, 'How should we create?'

This book provides a clue to how to create, especially for aspiring illustrators and those currently struggling with the pain of creation.
Since the book's initial publication, the author has continued to receive gratitude from readers of all ages and in many countries around the world, saying the book "helped them create."
It goes without saying that even world-class illustrators have concerns about their creations.
The only thing you can do in such a situation is to 'just start drawing,' says the artist.
If you let the tip of your pencil wander through the landscape of a sketchbook, it will soon become a picture.


When I stare blankly at a piece of paper, not many thoughts come to mind.
I don't feel inspired at all.
It's a familiar feeling of anxiety called 'artist's block,' and in such a situation, all you can do is just start drawing.
The painter Paul Klee described this simple act as "drawing lines as if taking a walk," which aptly describes my basic practice.
Driven by a vague impulse, but hoping to discover something far more interesting along the way, I let my pencil wander through the landscape of my sketchbook. The strokes, hooks, squiggles, and loops become hills, faces, animals, machines, and even abstracted emotions.

-From page 4 of the text

You might think that sketches are insignificant compared to finished illustrations.
But that's underestimating the power of sketching.
Sometimes, a sketch can be better than the finished piece.
A raw, unpolished sketch is the beginning of everything.


Another charm of sketching is its spontaneity.
Often, spontaneity can be lost as the piece progresses.
The losses are as great as the gains from excessive editing, polishing, and commercial compromise.
This leads to the familiar lament, “Why isn’t the finished work as good as the sketch?”
-From page 6 of the text

Not only a concept for a scene, but even an idea for an entire piece can start from a single sketch.
Even if it ends up looking completely different, isn't the beginning of a great garden a small seed?
This book reminds us once again of the importance of beginnings.


The fun of connecting various types of sketches to the finished work

The book also includes the color script for the short animated film adaptation of "The Lost Thing," as well as unused concept sketches for the story that later became "Rules of Summer."
Also included are two sketches showing the development of a scene from "Tales from Afar" before it was completed, as well as thumbnails exploring the narrative ideas of "Cicada."
It literally contains sketches of the author's representative works.
In addition, it contains drawings from the daily lives of artists we have never met.
Through books, we are invited into the artist's daily life through various subjects and diverse forms of paintings that we have never encountered before.


The 'List of Works' at the back of the book contains the artist's description of each sketch, and reading each one brings you one step closer to the artist Shaun Tan.
It also talks about how he works, which will be helpful for illustrators.
A Korean translation of the author's handwritten notes for each sketch is also included here.


For readers who love Shaun Tan, it will be a joy to discover the beginnings of the Shaun Tan works I've read among the various idea sketches in this book, to connect the various forms of early sketches to finished scenes from works I love, and to try to guess how the sketches came to be completed and published as a book.