Cécile is a beloved, talented, and celebrated French illustrator/painter living in a village in Scotland. She is greatly inspired by nature, animals and cosy little homes. When she’s not making art, she enjoys going on small adventures to observe the natural world: birds collecting the sticks to build a nest, the patient little snail on its journey, pigeons doing all sorts of goofy things.
She hopes that painting these stories brings us a bit of the magic and tenderness that we all need. “Every page of Happy Being Me felt like a beautiful adventure in itself. It was such a joy to create a colourful little world and be part of Benny’s journey toward love and self-acceptance.”
https://www.instagram.com/cecileberrube/
Kids, click here to learn more about Cécile & Jesse!
There isn’t a time that Jesse Stern remembers not drawing. He doesn’t know at what age, exactly, he started, but the evidence of his passion dates back at least 30 years, to a magical cruise ship where he brought along three or four little ETs for the ride. He’d just seen the movie, and with his magic markers he created miniature versions of the famous alien to stow in the ship’s cabins. His mother still has his drawing of a cross-section of the vessel with people fishing off the hull.
Stern loved the words of stories as much as the pictures, and by the end of high school he wanted to be a writer. He pursued this path as an undergraduate, but continued drawing all the while, and by his mid-twenties began drawing seriously. By the time he turned 30, he was compiling a portfolio to apply to graduate school.
“I’m really grateful to have settled on that path,” Stern said of becoming a visual artist. “I probably would have, one way or another. For me, drawing and painting give me more of a sense of peace and purpose than anything else in life. I find it’s possible to lose myself completely, simultaneously working hard yet being extremely relaxed.”
Writing, Stern found, required constant concentration, whereas the experience with visual art is less constrained: “With drawing, once your fingers get into the zone you can stop thinking about it. Your mind can be elsewhere, and your fingers know what to do.”
At the New York Academy of Art, Stern honed his skill in portraiture, aiming to achieve highly detailed, expertly crafted visual images that bring people to life on the page. He sought to emulate the masters: “I love Caravaggio,” he said, “And you can’t beat Rembrandt for a portrait.” He also admires Hans Holbein, J.S Sargent, Diego Velasquez, Chuck Close and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Stern was excited to work on Murphy’s book, for he recognized that she was looking for a sophisticated aesthetic. He and Murphy have aimed for a kind of “whimsical realism,” with richly sculpted characters that allow viewers – adult and child – to believe the scenes on the page and become part of the represented world.
As an artist, Stern calls himself “meticulous,” and in the illustrations for Murphy’s “I Love You, Favorite Present,” his careful observations of form come through: the deep joy of a little girl, eyes closed, kissing and snuggling her new kitten; the eagerness of a young astronomer, standing on tippy toes, hand over his brow, straining to see the furthest planets; the delighted eyes of another young boy running towards his new toy. Stern aims for, and achieves, a fine balance between elation, surprise, and disbelief. Indeed, the last boy’s excitement is palpable, in the most exuberantly youthful way: he looks as though he might run past the hand extending his toy, grab it, and continue running right off the page.
