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©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

some sketches from this week...

We've been living in Paris for exactly one month today. The time has really gone quickly and I'm so glad we have another month left as I'm no where near ready to leave.

In addition to seeing the sights and exploring the city, we also wanted to make time for our art while we're here. As such, we've been trying to alternate the way we spend our days. If we go on a big walking adventure one day, we'll spend the following day closer to home and do creative things. Of course there is overlap as I tend to bring my sketchbook everywhere.

Here's a sampling of what I did in my sketchbook this week. There's nothing that I'm particularly pleased with, but it all contributes to my growth as an illustrator. Someone once told me that if there's nothing bad in your sketchbook you're doing it wrong.


©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

sketchbook - in our apartment

©2009 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli


©2009 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli


©2009 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

some more sketchbook

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli


©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

recent sketchbook activity

©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli


©2010 Jacqueline Hudon-Verrelli

european picture books - céleste, une étoile dans la nuit

I so enjoyed "La mémoire envolée" that I decided to pick up another book illustrated by French illustrator, Marie Desbons. This one is called "Céleste, une étoile dans la nuit" and it's about a matchstick with big dreams. It's based on the Hans Christan Anderson tale, The Little Match Girl.

I thought the design of this book was especially clever. The book comes in a case that is made to look like an old box of matches, and when you slide the book out, the book cover shows all of the matches.

illustration in filament magazine

My copy of Filament arrived just before we left Edinburgh. I photographed one of the spreads that I illustrated:

european adventure - paris

We've been living in Paris for just over a week and are loving it. The people, the colours, the cute shops, the cafes, the art, the cheese, the wine, the amazing fresh bread... This city is vibrant and beautiful.

The flat we're renting is in Montmartre, an area quite rich in art history - Picasso's studio was just a couple of buildings away and Toulouse-Lautrec's was just a few blocks away. We're close to the Moulin Rouge as well as the Moulin de la Galette. It's pretty cool to think about all the prominent artists from the late 1800's who used to paint here. Hopefully some of that which inspired them will also inspire me :)

edinburgh, glasgow, london

The posts on this blog have been a bit thin lately. Here's what I've been up to:

european books - a really cool cookbook

This one is actually not a picture book, but a Scottish recipe book, Ma Broon's But An Ben Cook Book (it's one in a series of Ma Broon books) and I fell madly in love with it the first time I saw it. To be honest, I'm much more interested in the design of the book, which looks like an old scrap book, than I am in the actual recipes, although I do plan on trying to make some of the dishes at some point.

european picture books - les moindres petites choses

This is the other book that I picked up by Belgian illustrator, Anne Herbauts. It's called Les moindres petites choses and it's absolutely lovely. The book is designed so that the pages on the right side fold open to change the 2 page spread into a 3 page spread.

Here's a 2 page spread:


and here's the same one folded open: