In August 2000, three couples of friends went on a weekend escapade at "La Pichouline", a charming old Provencal family house.

As usual, Peter brought his macro-photo equipment. Mark prepared his watercolor tools, and Alan took out again his wonderful amateur entomologist equipment, heritage of his childhood.

The day had peacefully elapsed. The collection of insects and butterflies had proved fruitful. The jars, especially fitted for insect survival, were greatly provided. The three friends awaited the right moment, for Peter to take his pictures.

But, beyond simple photos, this collection had another purpose unknown to Peter. Indeed, Alan and Mark planned on realizing a display box of the representative species present in the surrounding biotope as a gift to their hosts, Peter and Christina. Unfortunately, an unidentified person opened the jars and released our little guests to nature!

Even though Peter had to postpone his photo shots to the next day, Alan and Marc considered this a beneficial misadventure because, in the end, they didn't want to pin all these wonderful insects. The next day, Peter took his pictures with a perfect light; and, instead of display box, his friends decided to create for him a sketch book of insect-related illustrations, the like of old watercolor travel books.

The sketch book, especially crafted for the aforementioned occasion, now belongs to Peter and Christine. It helps their guests to better understand what a bug's life means in these Provencal lands. Parents use it as a tool to guide their children through live observation of insects.

This is the one presented hereby; this sketch book obtains great success with the circle of visiting people at "La Pichouline". We thank Peter and Christina, who accepted to lend it to us. L'Atelier intentionally blurred some areas in the pictures on the website to mask too personal comments.

This sample illustrates what L'Atelier can create for you in terms of personalized sketch books. Many other possibilities exist with variations in themes, styles, and sizes.

Based on your personal documents (i.e., photos, crafts, samples) or our creations, L'Atelier will compose for you any type of personalized sketch books. The process to order such a sketch book is detailed in the page SKETCH BOOKS.

We want to point out an important piece of information:
Specially dedicated to friends, this sketch book was realized as a gift. Exhibited in this website only to illustrate the genesis of our concept, it cannot and will not be exploited as a whole or in parts - included watercolors - for commercial use.

You may discover wonderful butterflies and insects sculptures on the web site l'atelier Insectes d'acier from Jean-Pierre MAURICE.