Daisuke Tsutsumi, Art Director at Pixar had an idea with his friend, illustrator Gérald Guerlais, to create a picture book that would travel around the planet so that illustrators could fill it with their remarkable images.
6 years in the making, 71 participating artists and more than 56,000 miles of travel was what it took to complete Sketchtravel.
The rules were simple, an artist would illustrate a blank page and once completed deliver the book in person to the next guest artist.
This traveling paper museum resulted in the personal visions of exceptional illustrators, animators and comic book artists, including Bill Plympton, James Jean, Rebecca Dautremer, Glen Keane, Frederick Back, and Hayao Miyazaki.
The project culminated in an auction of the original book in Brussels on October 17, 2011. Proceeds from the auction and royalties from the book’s publication were donated to the international literacy non-profit, Room to Read.
An edition of this book was fortunately just published by Chronicle Books and it can be purchased HERE for $40.
Lastly, a Sketchtravel – Collectors Deluxe Edition ($250) was published in Paris in 2011.
The deluxe version comes in a card stock case resembling the Sketchtravel wood case. The book was designed to match the original including the paper cuts and pop ups without any text. A separate booklet is included with all the text and additional images in it.