Review: Paris Je T'aime

Urban sketcher Lapin returns to his home city to bring us a celebratory and quirky diary of a month in Paris.

Our Verdict

Lapin's bijou Parisian tome is delightful and thoroughly inessential, but a lovely thing to own.

For

  • Beautiful, quirky sketches celebrating Paris
  • Accompanied by engaging handwritten tales

Against

  • Occasionally bordering on twee

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Lapin, a French illustrator and artist based in Barcelona, is a hero of the urban sketching movement and he's been busy of late. Paris Je T'aime is one of three sketchbooks he produced in 2016, alongside Barcelona: Modernisme, Beyond Gaudí and Barcelona: Original

Lapin says he aimed to "celebrate the city that has given me so much"

Lapin says he aimed to "celebrate the city that has given me so much"

This one sees him return to his home country, where he spent a month observing, conversing with people and sketching on the streets of the French capital. If the idea isn't original, it's in Lapin's highly original sketching style that the appeal lies. 

Using a black ink pen as his main drawing tool, he sketches in old accountant books and adds subdued colours with watercolour pens. It's an unusual approach and the result is a form of amiable art that borders on twee, yet retains an attractive authenticity.

Lapin spent a month observing and sketching in Paris

Lapin spent a month observing and sketching in Paris

Lapin's quirky artworks are threaded together in this bijou book by handwritten tales of his travels through Paris, from artist's squats to the Eiffel Tower, Aligne Market to the Moulin Rouge, and beyond. 

In all honesty, we're not sure who the audience is for this, but we are sure of one thing: we like it very much.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX issue 143; buy it here!

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The Verdict
8

out of 10

Review: Paris Je T'aime

Lapin's bijou Parisian tome is delightful and thoroughly inessential, but a lovely thing to own.

Tom May

Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.