Join Michael Foreman on an incredible journey around the globe. His prolific career as an illustrator has taken him through war-torn Vietnam to the vast forests of Siberia, from Mao's China to Japan, the Arctic to the South Seas and from the top of the world to the bottom of the ocean.
Travels With My Sketchbook' is an extraordinary collection of drawings and anecdotes taken straight from the original sketchbooks of author-illustrator Michael Foreman. Bursting with material that provided inspiration for his award-wining stories and illustrations, the book covers Michael's epic journeys through America and Mexico, across Russia to China on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and to the top of the word in the Himalayas.
Michael Foreman has illustrated and written numerous children's classics. Growing up in a small Suffolk village during World War II, little did he realise that drawing would be his ticket to travel the world. In Travels with my Sketchbook Michael reminiscences about the places that he has visited, sketched and painted.
Travels with my Sketchbook records Michael's extensive travels. It begins in 1963 and his first of many visits to America from Alaska and eventual trip down to Mexico. He then recalls taking the Trans Siberian Express across to the World Trade Fair in Osaka in 1970, taking a slow boat back to America. Later in 1972 Michael spent more time in Japan and returning again to produce a modern series of Hokusai's 'Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'. In 1985 Michael found himself on a North Sea oil rig before exploring the artic north. Michael also follows in the footsteps of Marco Polo, travelling through Egypt and deep into Asia to Shangri-La and China. He also travels to India, Nigeria and South East Asia. The final sets of artwork shows what unites us: football, messing around on boats, love of family and a longing for home.
Michael's drawings and watercolour paintings beautifully show the populated landscapes of everyday people. For example, Tokyo's urban sprawl foregrounds many of Michael's views of Mount Fuji, depicting Japanese people at leisure, construction workers and travellers. Michael is also attentive to the fusion of tradition, tourism and the modern. His painting of San Francisco, for example, shows the Golden Gate Bridge in a misty background. In the foreground is a busy commuter tram passing China town, accentuated in colour in front of the city's distant skyscrapers. Moreover Michael's choice of colour is fantastic. His painting of Delhi shows a riot of warm and cool colours juxtaposing traditional temples next to modern office blocks. North of the Artic Circle the whiteness of the page contrasts superbly with the clothing of the Lapps.
The book's design showcases Michael's work perfectly. For example giving the effect of travelling along with Michael on the Trans Siberian Express as if the reader was in the carriage with him. A simple train track is drawn along the bottom of the page. At the top is a number of short daily extracts from Michael's diary. The paintings in-between are of the landscape as seen from the carriage window, page after page. Other artwork shows the ripped out page from a sketchpad or a copy of a sketchbook.
Travels with My Sketchbook is a life-affirming narrative about the many, varied and different people with whom we share a planet and the journeys of one man, recorded in his words and shown in his art. This is a book for all generations to read and admire.
