Sketchtravel is a project started by illustrators Gérald Guerlais and Daisuke (“Dice”) Tsutsumi in 2006 in which a single sketchbook has traveled around the world, being handed from artist to artist between 70 artists in 15 cities, each adding a single page to the whole.

The project, which involves well known illustrators, animators and comics artists, benefits Room to Read, an international non-profit devoted to children’s literacy.

The sketchbook was completed by its final contributor, Hayao Miyazaki, in February. The first print edition has just been released in French and is now available on Amazon.fr. English and Japanese editions are planned, though there are no firm details yet.

The sketchbook itself will be auctioned off in Paris, and online, by Pierre berge & Associes on October 17, 2011. Details for the online auction, as well as other information, will be found on the new Sketchtravel website.

Designed by Seth Van Booven, the website itself it entertaining, with parts of the interface animating as you scroll down the page. There is also an impressive list of the contributors, with links to their websites or blogs.

Unfortunately the virtual version of the sketchbook that used to be available on the old site seems to be gone, but you can see more images of pages from the book on the Sketchtravel blog, along with interviews and additional features.

There is also a video trailer for a planned documentary about the project by Catherine Bonvalot available on Sketchtravel.tv.

For more, see my 2007 post on Sketchtravel.

(Images above: Greg Couch, Terada Katsuya, Sylvain Marc, Peter de Séve, Jerome Opena, Erik Tiemens)