In My Italian Sketchbook, 30-year-old artist Florine Asch follows the tradition of the 18th century Grand Tour, when writers, architects and members of European high-society embarked on long journeys around Italy, taking in key cultural sites, often sketching as they went.

Asch's sketches are full of character, light-hearted, spirited and bursting with charm. Her fresh approach leaves us full of respect for the classical wonders of Italy's art and architecture, but also opens our eyes to the equally delightful architecture of today's stores, the markets, and local life.

My Italian Sketchbook is a must-have for Italy lovers and all those who paint in watercolor or simply appreciate this delicate art.

Florine Asch is an illustrator and watercolor artist who has worked for several years for prestigious brands both in Paris and abroad. She has illustrated numerous publications and magazines. She also designs tableware and brings back travel sketchbooks from all over the world.

These two carefully produced "sketchbooks" offer the flavors of their respective cities through color washes and scribbled notes. Each artist is particularly suited to describing his or her own urban moods: Asch has a sort of New Yorker cartoonist style mixed with 19th-century pen-and-ink sketch art that playfully renders chaotic Italian marketplaces and dangling laundry lines. She has modeled her drawings, as well as her journey from the Italian north to south, in the style of the original Grand Tourists, sometimes depicting imaginary courtesans and baroque sculptures. Her pages are covered with images and handwritten notes by film critic Christophe Auduraud, usually in French with a typed translation. Bouldouyre's style is more hard-edged, fitting for the more severe lines of Paris-the architecture and fashioin, the Eiffel Tower. His travels are in time. Bouldouyre draws Paris from dawn through night, stopping to capture the image of a woman leaning over a bridge, or a mosaic sign of a braying horse. Auduraud here contributes a sort of whimsical travelogue for the streets of Paris: "I might be a figure from a painting by Watteau... were it not for the kiosks selling the brightly colored balls, windmills, buckets and spades which keep children busy once they have finished their sticky pink cotton candy." Both volumes are reminders of a typical journey to each place and will happily jog the memories of countless tourists who want to remember. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.