The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections

This is good, but far from comprehensive survey of Nick Bantock's art career. A lot of the images are stunning, sometimes printed full bleed and his stories very honestly represent the fears, insecurities and victories of a developing artist.

This is Nick Bantock's autobiography of his creative life and development as an artist. The road was initially a bit rocky and early art instructors were not encouraging about his prospects. Thankfully, he persevered and did not give up on his dream and we now have his lovely books to sigh over. The Artful Dodger is full of his beautiful illustrations/collages with a bit on his idea development.

Not only compilation of Nick Bantock's work, Artful Dodger gives us a look into the author & artist's life as well. Being a huge fan of the Griffin & Sabine trilogy, I enjoyed reading about how it almost never came to be. When I read other works by Bantock I know I'll refer back to Artful Dodger for "the back story."

I feature this book as a source of inspiration. I love looking over artists' shoulders, reading what they have to say about their work process and finished pieces, seeing the progression of their work over a long span of time; for all this, even though I had only vaguely heard of Nick Bantock when I came across this book, I grabbed it and was glad. It is autobiographical in nature, Bantock speaking of his beginnings, experience in the field and works in progess, but the emphasis is entirely on the work, and the book is generously illustrated with it. Bantock is exceptionally versatile, so this volume makes my illustration senses tingle everytime – so much to try, so many ways of using a medium, so many directions into which to push show more one's personal style. The text really is interesting, discussing creative processes of works by him known and less known.

Considering its price, this book will mostly interest Nick Bantock fans and serious illustrators building a library of big names in the field. show less

This is a great book if you like Nick Bantock's work. He gives an inside look at his artistic influences and his creative process. It's a very down-to-earth read, humorous at times. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

An autobiography with lots of art. It was entertaining to see someone who leans on serendipity as much as I do. I'm glad he's made such good use of the coincidences.

Nick Bantock is one of my favourite contemporary artists; I really enjoyed this look at his life and work. My only complaint was that it seemed to fly by all too quickly.