Good evening.
It"s been one year since I made a whispered video,
so it was time for a new one.
And tonight's video will be about
one of my favorite things in life,
and one of my favorite triggers as well :
books and page turning.
So I'm going to show you some of favorite
illustrated / art books, these are not novels, except one.
Some I had for years and that are very precious to me.
And some I recently bought and find to be beautiful.
And, who knows, you may find some ideas here
for presents, as well.
Let's start with this one.
This one is by Kinuko Craft, she's a painter and illustrator,
and I fell in love with her paintings.
I discovered her art about... 20 years ago, I guess.
It is a book full of magic,
and it really takes you in another world.
She's inspired by fairy tales,
legends,
and classical paintings.
Pegasus.
This is one of my favorites.
Here you can see that she was inspired
by paintings from the Renaissance,
or the 19th century,
especially the pre-Raphaelites painters.
And this one reminds me of Leonardo da Vinci.
I like this one as well.
The reflection is beautiful,
and green is one of my favorite colors.
We can see honeysuckle here.
It's very colorful as well,
so bright.
Some sketches.
The sketch and the final painting.
It feels like we can almost touch the dress.
This is Aliénor d'Aquitaine,
a french queen from the 12th century.
Sleeping beauty.
With the King, and the Queen.
Isn't this lovely ?
And of course I cannot talk about art books,
without talking about the Middle-Earth world.
There are many artists who illustrated
and still illustrate Tolkien's books.
And there are 3 I really love,
probably the most famous ones.
And my favorite is John Howe.
I have a few artbooks from him
but this is probably the most beautiful one,
in my opinion.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen this one in other languages.
It's a french publication.
But, if you're interested, there are many other artbooks
to discover his art.
"Sur les Terres de Tolkien",
this means : on Tokien's lands.
Let's open it.
Of course John Howe became very famous with
the Peter Jackson movies,
because he was one of the artists
who worked on the movies.
But he began to illustrate Tolkien's books
at the end of the 70', if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, this one is from 1975 (mistake : from 1979),
Gandalf fighting the Balrog.
He was quite young but so talented already.
It's a very powerful painting, in my opinion.
This one was made almost 20 years later.
I really like the page layout,
it's simple but elegant.
Gandalf.
Theoden, Faramir, Boromir, Gandalf and Arwen.
I hope you don't mind spiders.
Smaug.
This is one of my favorites.
Landscapes...
Yes, it is a quite noisy book.
And I have to mention Alan Lee and Ted Nasmith as well.
These are very different styles.
Ted Nasmith might not be as famous as Alan Lee or John Howe
because he didn't work on the Peter Jackson movies.
But his gouache paintings are absolutely breathtaking.
This is, obviously, the Silmarillion.
And of course it can be found in many different languages.
Look at this.
It requires a lot of talent to be able to paint
so many details with gouache.
This is quite amazing.
And there are a lot of artbooks by Alan Lee as well.
But I really love his sketches.
So this is the Lord of the Rings sketchbook.
And I think sketches are a great way to appreciate
an artist's work.
I think I already did some page turning with this book
in my very first roleplay.
Minas Tirith.
Eowyn and Aragorn.
My favorite character.
A painting.
The next book is going to be very different
from the others.
It is a cooking book.
This one is in french, and sorry
but it can only be found in french.
"La cuisine des fées" : Fairies cooking.
It was inspired by the classic fairy tales.
And we can find some magical recipes.
Like the cake in the Donkey's skin tale.
Or the beautiful gingerbread house from Hansel & Gretel.
I'll find this one later.
And this book was the last gift
one of my grandmothers made to me.
In 2007 or 2008, I can't really remember.
I've tried many recipes from this book,
and I must say they're not easy at all,
but so good.
And the pictures are so beautiful and inspiring.
You can see there has been a lot of work done for this book.
Cinderella.
It looks yummy, doesn't it ?
This is from the Little Red Riding Hood.
Alright, let's find the gingerbread house.
There it is.
Isn't it beautiful ?
I haven't tried this recipe yet.
But one day, I will.
Ok I hope you are not hungry right now.
Chocolate...
Fine.
Next one.
On this side...
Some of you may be familiar with this one
because I used it for one of my very first roleplays,
the dressmaker.
This is the Western Fashion History by John Peacock.
And this is the ultimate reference for me
when it comes to historical costuming.
I almost always refer to John Peacock
when I want to be historically accurate with my costumes,
before I start looking for them.
And John Peacock is english so of course
you can find this book in english.
And I'm not sure but I think I saw an italian edition as well.
I'm trying to avoid harsh light.
In this book you will find every century,
and how people used to dress.
Every fashion era is very well described,
and it is so perfect :
the shapes, the details, the colors,
everything is clear and so well documented.
And
there is a full description of each costume as well.
Ah, the 19th century, my favorite.
So many different styles...
Very "Scarlett O'Hara".
And now, another french book.
And again, this one can only be found in french, for now. Sorry.
It is about medicinal plants,
that we also call "simples" in french.
And as you can see this book was inspired
by medieval plates and illuminations.
A nice touch.
Let's have a look.
It's beautiful isn't it ?
And this includes medieval paintings as well.
And it's both beautiful and very informative.
I have a lot of books about medicinal plants
because I love to learn about them.
And that was also one of my inspirations for the apothecary roleplays.
And this is the kind of book you love leafing through
by the fireplace, on a cozy Winter evening.
Letting your mind drift away...
"Pâquerettes" in french.
Daisies.
The queen of flowers...
And the last book I wanted to show you,
is not really a book.
It is an oracle deck.
But since it comes with a book,
I thought I would include this in the video.
Ok, this is just a pretext.
I love the artist who illustrated the cards.
His name is Will Worthington,
and he has illustrated many tarot & oracle decks.
I already had one.
And it was a tarot deck,
but I found this one a few weeks ago,
and I fell in love with it.
This one is about plants.
Let's put this aside...
So there is a book.
Where we can find all the cards and the meanings.
And, of course, the cards.
Let's have a look.
There are a few blanks as well
where you can draw your own favorite plants.
Of course, this deck can be found
in english, in french, and I've seen it in german as well,
and probably other languages.
This is the only card with a human.
A blank.
I know some of you requested a roleplay
with tarot reading.
This is one of my plans,
but I don't know when.
I don't often see as many details on oracle or tarot cards.
And these are my favorites,
and the most beautiful I have found.
Each card is a piece of art.
Garlic.
Flax flowers.
Poisonous plants.
Chamomille.
And this was the last one.
I hope you enjoyed this very simple video.
Let me know which book you liked the most.
I will put all the names in the description.
And, as always, I wish you a very good night.
Sleep well.