Speaking of the incredible John Nevarez... http://john-nevarez.blogspot.com/ I received both volumes of his Bits & Bits about three days after I ordered them, signed by the artist himself. Of course my soon to be eighteen year old son got to them first and took them to that bottomless pit of his that was once a room. I have affectionately dubbed his quarters The Bermuda Triangle, cause once something goes in there, it seems to mysteriously disappear for years. However, just when I thought I would finally get my hands on my copies of Bits & Bits, my other teenager scarfed them up. But, today I got them back and I can see why those two pesky teens of mine held on to them for so long.

John Nevarez Bits & Bits Volumes I and II are short assortments of sketches about 32 pages each. They're a peek into the creative mind of one heck of a talented animator. Here youl'll find character sketches, a few scene panels and other bits of expermental sketches.

I love looking through other illustrators, especially animators sketch books. Here you get a real glimpse at the thought process that they go through when developing some of their scenes and characters. Its very liberating personally, because the work is free and it melts all notions you have (well, that I've had) that all illos are always perfect the moment you put pencil or pen to paper. The fact is that great illustrations have a lot of prep work...planing on paper...sketching out characters, concepts, scenes in a variety of ways, some preplanned, others experimental and still more just doodling to see the amazing what if.

That's how I work now too. But, it wasn't till I read Don Bluth's book on Storyboarding that I realized it was not only OK to work like this, its down right necessary. After all, a writer wouldn't dream of handing in his first draft, why should an illustrator. Oh and yes, my kids think Mr. Nevarez is awesome too.