Some quick-fire questions and answers to Jessica Le, owner and artist behind Fleur & Fable.
How did you find out about bookplates?
I first heard about them in 2013 when I came across a university competition to design one for their library (spoiler: I didn't win). And then in 2018 I randomly stumbled into an exhibition on women illustrators of the 20th century who also happened to do bookplates.
What are you currently reading?
Circe by Madeline Miller! I kept seeing it online and considering one of my favourite paintings is Emma Hart as Circe by George Romney I felt I had to read this
What is the best advice that you have been given?
"Never make a line that doesn't matter" - being thoughtful in each stroke and not doing sort of 'fluffy' lines or lines that don't add to the drawing (for the sake of 'detail') really changed the way I draw. I'll add another one in for fun and it was something I read in a book on art style - "what makes your work cohesive is the fact that you made it". I kept worrying I didn't have a consistent 'style' but this was comforting to read.
Who are your favourite artists/art styles?
Margaret Ely Webb, Eleanor Brickdale-Fortescue, Alphonse Mucha, Herbert Draper, John William Waterhouse ... among so many others. In general I love the Golden Age of Illustration, Art Nouveau, Academicism, Aestheticism, English Arts & Crafts period. I also just bought a book on medieval art and it's taken me a while to get around to appreciating this style but the use of colours and fashion is on another level.
