Tours de Merle

Return to work after almost a entire month of artistic inactivity.

I had to finish something, and quickly!

 The caslte depicted here is called "Tours de Merle", a medieval and fantastic place... 

 Reference pictures below
(source here and there)

The Tours de Merle (English, Towers of Merle) are the ruins of a castle in the commune of Saint-Geniez-ô-Merle, in the Corrèze département of France. A feudal fortress from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, which was subject of a classification as a historic monument since July 30, 1927.

In the fourteenth century, Merle included seven castles, two chapels and village, owned by seven noblemen from Merles.

During the Hundred Years' War, the English took one of the towers and a castle in 1371.

In 1574 the Calvinists took the citadel, where they established a garrison, they were driven out two years later by the co-lords. But the fortress was abandoned by those who preferred to live in places that were more pleasant and certainly more accessible.

(from Wikipedia - I admit I was too lazy to write my own comment here)

Sketchbook 2014-2015

 Maybe an illustration of the French Tale "Lai du Palefroi Vair" / Svartsjuk bis

 

Copies of illustrations by Jan Černý, from a book about Round Table Knights

Medieval love story... with a poem by Verlaine

Rêverie

The pictures speak for themselves...

Dragon Noir

Here are some pictures of the progress of "Dragon Noir", a completely random painting.

(sorry for the low quality)

Used tools :
300g/m² paper (A3), Indian ink (applied with a n°0 brush only),
watercolours, white and gold inks, salt.

Last stage before adding final colours with a light watercolour wash.

But.... wasn't it better before??? I let you judge by yourself!

Watercolour sketchbook I

Four speed paintings from one of my sketchbooks (A5 size).

Some of them are already done as finished piece, others are in progress...

"Svartsjuk" (2013) / untitled painting of Ariane, Timiga and Cabriole (2014)

"Rêverie" (2015) / "The mystery of death before us" (2015)

La Chasse au Cerf - Stille Volk tribute

 "Quand du donjon retentit le cor..."

This is an "tribute-illustration" to one of my favourite bands ever : Stille Volk, through their song "La Chasse au Cerf" (album "Hantaoma", 1997).

I was thinking about making such picture for two or three years ago... 

Indian ink and watercolours on paper (A3)

Close-up :

 

I was strongly inspired by the illuminated art style, especially by the picture below. I found it on the Bibliothèque nationale de France website which display plenty of incredibly interesting and inspiring online exhibitions, just like that one about the "Livre de Chasse" of Gaston Phébus...

Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phébus
France, Paris, XV^e siècle / Paris, BnF, Département des manuscrits, Français 616 folio 77

***

If you're interested by awesome medieval folk music with some occitan lyrics,
I couldn't recommend enough Stille Volk's albums!!

Stille Volk - Hantaoma (1997)

Mille regrets

Watercolors and inks on paper (A4)

That illustration is actually inspired by a book I enjoyed very much, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, which is itself based on the Grimm fairytale, you know, that horrible one with the vicious chambermaid and the decapited-but-still-speaking-horse.

Thee trees are based on those I can see through the window during my lessons at the university. You may conclude that I'm rather an inattentive student :p

Some close-up :

Shannon Hale wrote some sequel to her book, including Enna Burning which I also read (not as good as the first book, though)

I was looking for some nice children's novel at the library and I've been immediatly attracted by these beautiful covers are painted by the children's illustrator Allison Jay.

I must say, I would never have picked these books with their other covers (just a picture to compare) !! (As we say, don't judge a book by its cover... in both ways).