Comics, sketches and charming illustration from Danielle Chenette

I love peering into people’s sketchbooks. There’s so much more honesty in an image that’s been hurriedly scribbled down on a station platform than in one which has been perfected over the course of several drafts, and I’m a sucker for that kind of insight into an artist’s process. I like to see the mistakes, the rubbings out and the development as well as the final work.

You can see why I’m drawn to Danielle Chenette’s Tumblr then. The Chicago-based illustrator, animator and printmaker has posted loads of her sketches on there, with each slightly more beguiling than the last. Her work is satisfyingly lo-fi, whether it’s made in felt tip, coloured pencil or watercolour, lending the scenes she creates the action-filled dynamic of a film still or a storyboard. She’s a whizz at comics too – just check out her one page stories There’s Plenty More Fish in the Sea and Family Politics for examples of how to condense witty and rich stories into just a few panels.