Random Notes about Doodling, Sketching, Drawing and Illustrating by John Vernon Lord

Random Notes about Doodling, Sketching, Drawing and Illustrating

Random Notes about Doodling, Sketching, Drawing and Illustrating looks at the works and private sketchbooks of acclaimed illustrator, John Vernon Lord. With works from the 1950’s to 2023, this volume represents the most comprehensive range of work from Lord.

The book includes an introductory essay from writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley and four essays by John Vernon Lord on the differences between doodling, sketching, drawing and illustrating.

Lord is internationally acclaimed for his works for James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, his illustrations Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and his writing and drawings for the seminal The Giant Jam Sandwich, set to verse by Janet Burroway.

‘This book represents 66 years of some of Lord’s drawings and notes carried out from his student days to the present (1957-2022). They are mostly informal works that were carried out as a way of exploring and discovering. There are very nearly 700 pages of drawings here selected from the many pages of his sketchbooks, notebooks and doodles. The apparent precision of many of the drawings belies the actual spontaneity of making them. They vary from depicting something observed to subjects that lurk inside his imagination. Drawing is one of the sharpest ways of keeping within the present.’ – John Vernon Lord

This comprehensive new volume illuminates Lord’s unique approach to illustration and diary/notebook keeping. The focus of this book isn’t the resulting outputs of Lord, which are in themselves fantastic, but on the process of his approach to work. The intricacy of detail in the books is frankly staggering, and the insights Lord adds are insightful and engaging.

You can read more from Lord’s time at the University of Brighton here:
https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/artsbrighton/the-history-of-arts-education-in-brighton/john-vernon-lord-illustrator/

And the Association of Illustrators here:
https://theaoi.com/wia/john-vernon-lord/

ISBN: 978-1-915528-02-5

266 x 238mm

290 pages

Screen printed cover