This month, we spent a week in the French Pyrenees mountains with Isabelle and Florian, our cartoonist friends. Isabelle accommodates us in her large family house, in the heart of a charming little village with stone houses, a beautiful church and pretty little gardens. Finally a real vacation!

The lovely window of our room

On the schedule: hiking, outdoor sketching, soups, raclette, pie and tons of apples picked from the garden with which we filled jars of compote and jam with nuts and ginger.

We picked up 7 kilos of apples!

This little embroidery made by Isabelle's mother is very modern, isn't it?

I loved spending time in this big house full of memories. We even brought out old board games to accompany the herbal tea in the evening, by the fireside: Canon Noir, Tintin, Les Trésors des Cités Perdues etc. The boxes are beautiful, hand drawn.

The incredible library of old books!

The great thing about having artist friends is that you can take long breaks on a hike to do a watercolor sketch. These moments are precious: we are in peace, we become one with the surrounding nature, we observe the birds passing, the small insects which run between our feet, we savor the rays of the sun and the fresh mountain air ...

Left: sketch by me / Right: sketch by Olivier

Sketch by me

I also love very simple picnics: a piece of fig bread, cheese, sausage and a piece of blueberry pie wrapped in a tea towel. When we walk, we are hungry and we are not picky. In the evening, we do a little better: pumpkin soup and apple pie with fruits from the garden.

Left: sketch by me / Right: sketch by Olivier

We enjoyed the golden light and fall colors. We collected mushrooms and nuts, played crushing fallen leaves, and carved a Halloween face.

We named it Greg!

It was just wonderful! Nothing like the mountain to cut yourself off from the world, recharge your batteries, find simple and healthy pleasures. It was perfect just before the release of volume 2 of The Shadow Festival. Because now, it is an intense period of sign cessions and conventions that awaits us!

Elsa drawing

Since the beginning of the covid, we have seen our friends less and less and we have gradually stopped our outdoor sketching cessions to focus on our two books: The Shadow Festival and Le Songe du Corbeau. We were very lucky to have these two projects to forget about the health situation and to occupy ourselves during the confinement. But now that we have finished the books and that we have been able to get vaccinated, we have slowly resumed contact with the friends. We remain cautious and favor outdoor meetings. But there is no longer any question of depriving ourselves of our outdoor drawing cessions which are for us a real breath of fresh air!

In July, I had the pleasure of welcoming an intern at Atelier Sentô for the first time. As we were not yet fully vaccinated, everything was done by Skype. It was fascinating to interact with Orphéo for a whole month and I think I learned at least as much as he did during the internship. In August, he finally came to spend a day in Bordeaux to meet and draw together.

We meet at the Jardin Public with Elsa, Isabelle, Florian and Thomas to have a picnic and do a little sketching. The weather is great and we're lying in the grass, watercolors and paintbrushes strewn all over the place, and suddenly I'm like "here it is, finally, real vacation! ". This is an opportunity to discuss our respective projects, but also our doubts, our difficulties ... valuable discussions that allow us to take a step back from our work and to know that we are not alone facing some recurring difficulties of the job. We also have a look at everyone's sketchbooks, it's full of great ideas and it's good for the eyes.

Sketch by Orphéo

Sketch by Florian

Elsa's sketchbook

Sketch by Olivier

A few days later, the little gang found themselves to visit the Corto Maltese exhibition at the Aquitaine Museum. In the dark rooms, original pages and ethnological objects alternate with a direct reference to the world of Corto's travels. It's a wonderful exhibition where we stay for a whole afternoon. It’s moving to see the original versions of some of the images that we have always known. We are all astonished by the lack of care with which certain pages are treated by the author: white-out pen, patches, cutouts, felts that drool ... It desecrates the original pages a little and gives importance to the line, to the narration and especially to the book as a final product. We devour Hugo Pratt’s drawings and watercolors with our eyes and sketch a few statuettes and folklore objects.

Sketch by Olivier

Sketch by me

Sketch by Florian

The next morning, meeting with Vincent at the blue lake at 9am. It's early, it's still cool, everything is calm. Vincent is just starting to draw and watercolor. He wants to be shown how to paint the water. We don't really have a recipe, but still, we try to give him some advice. Vincent is diligent, he is attentive and patient, it is nice to spend some time with him drawing. And I find the result refreshing and lovely. I like the idea that anyone can start using watercolor for pleasure and sketch a moment of life …

Sketch by Vincent

Sketches by me (left) and Olivier (right)

If I enjoy drawing with friends so much, it's because it allows us to share a moment without necessarily chatting all the time. We speak when we have something to say, but since everyone is focused on their drawing, we can sit quietly for long moments enjoying the surrounding sounds.