Guillermo del Toro Sketchbooks

Guillermo del Toro is the director of a pile of great films, including Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. His future projects include a new version of Beauty and the Beast, a new version of Frankenstein (referencing Bernie Wrightson) and he is (tentatively) working on a film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror  classic, At the Mountains of Madness. He has a rich and well, creepy vision that he carefully constructs starting with detailed sketchbooks.

These sketchbooks are works of art by themselves… Here’s a few pages from his Pan’s Labyrinth sketchbook:

And here’s a few from his Hellboy sketchbook:

This is my notebook, which I carry wherever I go. You can see it’s been rained on; I should really take better care of it. It contains visual ideas, character notes and plot details for Pan’s Labyrinth; everything from historical background about 1930s Spain, to the design of an insect, to the chemical meanings of the faces of the moon, to the way I want to destroy the hand of a thug. Sketching a film can sometimes be more fun than actually making one, particularly with all the economic problems you have to deal with. Maybe one day I’d like to have my own gallery, paint full time and express my ideas that way.
– The Guardian UK

Famously, del Toro once lost his sketchbook for Pan’s Labyrinth (before going into production) by forgetting it in the back seat of a London cab. The cabbie did some detective work and returned it to del Toro. Lucky us, as del Toro’s  sketchbooks have now been collected by Harper & Collins, published as Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.