PROJECT SHEET
Client: Cœur d’Ostrevent Tourisme
Partners:
Fully Graphy (graphic design)
ETHAP (printing & finishing)Project duration:
Quote signed: 29 August 2025
Delivery of illustrations: 19 September 2025
Delivrables: 50 watercolour illustrations, ranging from full-page artworks to small drawings, for a 16-page activity book
Theme: Marchiennes Forest – natural and historical heritage
Launch event: Les Cucurbitades, annual festival in Marchiennes
An Illustrated Activity Book to Discover Natural and Historical Heritage
Cœur d’Ostrevent Tourism wanted to design a new activity book for its Carnet d’Aventures collection, following the success of the first volume Jade et la malédiction du terril [Jade and the Curse of the Spoil Heap].
This second volume, Jade à la conquête de la forêt magique [Jade’s Quest for the Enchanted Forest], invites families to explore the Marchiennes Forest through a playful and educational adventure, focused on discovering the region’s natural and historical heritage.
The story is inspired by Péronne Goguillon – the last woman condemned for witchcraft in the 17th century – while raising young readers’ awareness of the forest’s ecological richness: the crested newt, woodpecker, wasp spider, pine trees, and good environmental practices for walkers.
A Creative and Educational Watercolour Approach
Children’s and natural-history illustration dedicated to celebrating heritage.
For this activity book, I created fifteen boards gathering around fifty illustrations, blending children’s illustration and naturalist illustration in watercolour.
This technique allowed for a gentle, lively and authentic feel – far from the overly digital imagery often used in children’s media.
Some pages alternate between full-page illustrations, immersing families in the story’s magical atmosphere, and cut-out drawings that punctuate the games and narrative.
The watercolour medium offered two visual registers:
Colour illustrations, depicting the forest’s flora and fauna with fidelity.
Sepia line drawings, inspired by early natural history plates, echoing the period of Péronne Goguillon.
A Representation Suited to a Young Audience
The character of Jade retains her visual identity – a young red-haired adventurer with a distinctive braid – while evolving within an artistic direction consistent with the new book’s theme: autumnal atmosphere, witch’s hat, lace-up boots, and a warm palette.
I also created new characters suited to the target audience (8-10 years old), in order to illustrate darker moments of the story – such as Péronne Goguillon’s arrest – without losing emotional accuracy or visual accessibility.
Bringing Games to Life with Precision and Creativity
While the games were already designed by the Tourism Office, my role was to bring them to life visually, making them clear, engaging and easy to understand for children.
Some games required simple atmospheric illustrations (charades, word puzzles), while others demanded full graphic creation:
mazes
dot-to-dots
“find and seek” puzzles inspired by Where’s Wally?
matching and observation games
Each board had to balance clarity, energy, and visual harmony, ensuring the book remained both playful and beautiful.
A Tight Schedule, A Challenge Met
The project took place within a particularly short timeframe – just two months.
For the illustration stage, the quote was signed on 29 August, and the 50 watercolours delivered by 19 September – a very short turnaround for this kind of project.
This tight schedule was due to the summer break and the shared goal of launching the book in time for the Cucurbitades festival in early October.
Normally, a three-month schedule would be ideal, allowing for spaced-out validations and a calmer creative rhythm.
After my delivery, layout, colour tests, adjustments, printing, finishing and final delivery were all completed within the following fifteen days.
A Close and Smooth Collaboration
This ambitious schedule succeeded thanks to the excellent preparation by Cœur d’Ostrevent Tourism, whose detailed brief outlined the book’s composition and the content of each game.
This solid foundation enabled smooth coordination between:
Cœur d’Ostrevent Tourism, project lead
Fully Graphy (Chloé Weiss), graphic design
Myself, for the watercolour illustrations
We established a clear validation process (video meetings, shared annotations, quick feedback) and made joint eco-design decisions, rooted in our shared Graphic for Good training with Chloé.
Our shared goal: to create a visually striking, educational and responsible activity book, delivered on time for its official launch at Les Cucurbitades.
Local, Eco-Responsible Printing
Production was entrusted to ETHAP, a local social enterprise I had already collaborated with.
A visit to their printing workshop – including their ELISE recycling system – allowed us to select the most suitable technical and environmental options.
We chose:
Balanced-weight paper, pleasant to the touch and easy to write on
Controlled ink reduction, achieving clarity, beauty and environmental moderation
The result: a book with faithfully rendered colours, meticulous finishing, and on-time delivery.
Extending the Experience with Families
To strengthen the connection between families and the Tourism Office, we designed a detachable postcard integrated into the last page of the book.
Children can write their game answers and colour an illustration before sending it to Cœur d’Ostrevent Tourism, which then displays the cards in its office or during Les Cucurbitades.
Soon after, the Tourism Office also wished to acquire the original watercolour boards for a permanent exhibition.
I hand-lettered several interpretive texts directly onto the artworks and contributed to reflections on their preservation and display.
Would You Like to Create a Watercolour Illustrated Activity Book?
This project perfectly reflects my way of working with public institutions
A structured, creative and eco-conscious approach, dedicated to showcasing natural and historical heritage through watercolour illustration.
Let’s Work Together
Do you work for a tourism office and wish to create an illustrated activity book or watercolour information panels to highlight your local heritage?
