Addictive - An Artist's Sketchbook by Adebanji Alade

If you're familiar with Adebanji's previous book, you'll know that his work is full of life and of love of people, sketching and life itself. This is not an instruction book, and yet it will teach you everything. It's a reproduction of a sketchbook, with faces and figures crowding every page and a few scribbled notes that mostly relate to location or character. It's fair to say that, in the hands of anyone else, this would be dull and useless. Without explanation, sketches usually have no meaning. Here, though, there's every aspect of city life. People look out at you, nap, watch what's going on, get absorbed in what they're doing. They're busy, relaxed, still, moving, full-face, profile, bare-headed, have elaborate coverings. This isn't a book about how to sketch, it's a book about how to see and it tells you wordlessly everything you need to know.