S.B.

S.B. is an artist and author known primarily for her playful criticism and her anthropomorphic graphic novels. Her writing, published in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Artforum, and The Comics Journal, has been widely anthologized. She studied drawing at the New York Studio School and the Art Students League and has lectured at Parsons School of Design, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. This is her first book of sketches from life.

book cover with drawing of a sleeping child

I AM DRAWING YOU
A Mother, a Child, a Sketchbook

Hardcover, 264 pages,
color and b&w ills, $39.95
ISBN: 978-0-88214-206-7

Paperback, 264 pages,
color and b&w ills, $25
ISBN: 978-0-88214-235-7

E-book, $9.99
ISBN: 978-0-88214-229-6

(August 2026)

I spent the best days of my life drawing my newborn in the palm of my hand. One arm held him, the other sketched. This odd practice drew me in and drew me out, demanding both close physical contact, a superconnected state, and mental disengagement, a spaced-out state. I was hooked. Over the next five years I made four hundred fifty sketches. The more I drew, the more I realized that this brew of attachment and detachment is the perfect cocktail for new mothers. Yes, I’ve found the fountain of maternal bliss–and it’s not an easy fountain to find. Draw your child! If you don't have one, borrow one!
—S.B.

A beautiful book that covers a tremendous swath of emotion and experience, being particular and universal at once.

—MAIRA KALMAN, illustrator and author

Depiction as connection device. S.B.’s exploratory drawings help establish contact. Another kind of mother and child reunion—seeing and feeling through line and form.

—TERRY WINTERS, artist

One thing about portrait drawing is that the artist can connect deeply with the subject—even more so if the subject is your own child. Nothing could be more powerful! Congratulations to S.B. for this wonderful book.

—BETTY EDWARDS, author

The only thing I don’t love about this project is that I didn’t have it twenty-five years ago when I was struggling as a new mother.

—LINN MEYERS, artist

S.B.

I AM DRAWING YOU A Mother, a Child, a Sketchbook

I AM DRAWING YOU
A Mother, a Child, a Sketchbook