Recent Acquisitions

I don't smoke, gamble or use drugs, and I try not to drink more than is absolutely necessary. I don't carouse or otherwise gadabout. My one indulgence is the ever-expanding Inkwell Studios Library. Here are a few recent acquisitions...

 A retrospective, to date, of work by the excellent Barry Blitt, best known for his covers and interior illustrations for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. The pen and ink/watercolor drawings are wonderful and Blitt's self-deprecating commentary is hilarious.

Usually these "Art of" books are released along with the film, to capitalize on the hype that accompanies any major animation feature these days. The Iron Giant never got the attention it deserved when it was released in 1999, but has remained so enduringly popular that this collection of concept art was put together 16 years later.

 "Loish" is the pen name of digital artist Lois van Baarle. This book collects sketches, studies and lots of process art. She's incredibly talented and ridiculously young.

Gregory Manchess is a wonderful painter-illustrator with a gorgeous "loose-but-precise" style. Last year he wrote and illustrated "Above the Timberline" a ripping retro-futuristic adventure story with steampunk airships, art deco rocket-sleds, noble polar bears and a little romance. A true labor of love, in the spirit of James Gurney's "Dinotopia."