Book Review: Venice Sketchbook

Too beautiful. That's how I would describe this book.

Venice Sketchbook is one of the series of watercolour sketchbook from Fabrice Moireau, a lover of architecture and gardens.

The book was originally released in French and translated to English. I actually bought the French version and upon seeing how much text there is in the book, I promptly ordered the English edition.

It's a 96-page hardcover published by Editions Didier Millet. The reproduction of the paintings is excellent. The paper has a watercolour paper texture to it, but much softer. It's almost like looking at the actual paintings.

The watercolour paintings are wonderful and charming, and they are printed huge. Together with the captions, they perfectly captures the mood of being in Venice. You can see the details of architecture, the weathering effect on the buildings, Venetians at work, and the lesser known areas hidden from tourists.

Fabrice Moireau's watercolour style seems really controlled. You don't see colours crossing over pencil lines. That really makes me think of how much masking he does to achieve to prevent colours from overlapping. It's not like he doesn't overlap, he just doesn't overlap the colours when there's a change in form, like for two buildings.

Other than the captions, there are also plenty of text describing the various places in Venice, and the history behind. It's very well researched and interesting to read.

This is a terrific travel journal.

I highly recommend this book, and all his other books.

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Seems like there are two ISBN for this book. One's 981415508X (my copy) published by Editions Didier Millet, and the other is 0312334583 which is from St. Martin's Press.

I recommend getting the Editions Didier Millet published copy because they also publish all other Fabrice Moireau sketchbooks. And the paper quality is watercolour-paper like.

Editions Didier Millet publisher (ISBN 981415508X):
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St. Martin's Press (ISBN 0312334583):
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