In this exquisite monograph, world-renowned illustrator and character designer Peter de Sève shows his favorite published and unpublished works. Inventive, eccentric, and often irreverent, they represent a lifetime of drawing . . . a very sketchy past. The imagery that springs from his pen marries colorful personalities with expert storytelling, and wild flights of imagination with a masterly drawing technique that harkens back to a bygone era of impeccable draftsmanship and craft. Copiously illustrated with hundreds of paintings and drawings, including never-before-published New Yorker cover roughs, behind-the-scenes animation development artwork, and personal sketches, A Sketchy Past is the first comprehensive survey of de Sève"s work. A career-spanning biographical essay written by historian Amid Amidi, along with comments from de Sève throughout the book, offer a unique insight into his approach to illustration and his artistic process.