Stuttgart-based illustrator Marc David Spengler has sifted through 11 sketchbooks from the last six years to create Marc David – Sketchbook, the ultimate collection of his work so far.
Published by Chemistry Publishing, Marc David – Sketchbook sees hundreds of the illustrator’s sketchbook pages from between 2017 and 2023 reproduced at their original size. Accompanied by text written in Marc’s distinctive style, the book allows readers to see his imagination go all out and trace the evolution of his style.
For Marc, a self-confessed habitual illustrator who enjoys drawing all the time, these sketchbook pages hold a deep, personal connection as they have accompanied him during different periods of his life. “They are like an abstract diary,” he explains. “So I can’t imagine cutting out pages to exhibit or sell them. The only way I could think of is to share this collection of work with people by reproducing them as a book.”
Another benefit of releasing his sketchbook pages in one collection is that they’re now all digitised, too. “A big fear of mine is that they could get destroyed in a fire or something similar,” Marc adds. “In that case, they wouldn’t be lost completely.”
The idea of releasing a collection of his sketchbook pages began when Marc graduated from ABK Stuttgart. For his diploma, he completed several projects, one of which was an early version of this book with less content.
“I’m always drawing, but I thought I would have less time for that after leaving university,” he explained. “That’s one reason why I wanted to publish this book. I started editing the book at the end of 2021 and graduated in 2022. Since it takes some time and a lot of effort to publish a book, we decided to publish it in 2024 so that we could include pages I’ve made in the meantime.”
Marc says the book includes work from 2017, which allows it to show the development of his drawing style. “Looking back at older sketchbooks, it felt right to start in 2017 because I started to evolve into a certain direction,” he reveals. From this point, I was concentrating on working with shapes and abstract compositions. I guess at this point, I found what really interests me.”
While his older work may look different to how he currently draws, this does not phase Marc because he can still remember why he made those creative decisions. “Today, I would probably do things differently because my approach and style have changed in some ways,” he says. “Looking at the number of drawings I have done over the years makes me feel proud because I really enjoy drawing and creating.”
Enjoyable as it may be, the process of scanning and editing every single page was admittedly really exhausting. “Imagining the outcome keeps me going during these long processes,” he says. “It’s the same approach that I also work with my sketchbooks.
“There’s one sketchbook, which is also in the book, that I started at the beginning of 2020 and have filled in about 70%. I like these long-term projects because, in the end, it’s worth all the effort.”
The experience of looking back over old sketchbooks also proved enlightening for Marc, as he realised that he tends to perfect things. “More recent drawings are much cleaner than older ones,” he says. “To balance that out, I like working on multiple sketchbooks at the same time. I always have a main sketchbook for drawings that I put a lot of effort into and side sketchbooks for quick and rough sketches. I also learnt that investing much time in something you enjoy can be worth it.”
When it came to selecting which pages would appear in the book, Marc concluded by saying that they were all his personal favourites. “It’s a balanced mix of simple black-and-white outline sketches that took me a few minutes to complete and sketchbook pages that I worked on for weeks.
“It’s a full insight into my sketchbooks, my way of thinking and designing. A sketchbook is very personal because it is a visual representation of your own thoughts.”
