Based in Berlin, Germany, Muriel Gestin is a French freelance illustrator for children’s books. Since illustrating her first published book with acrylics ‘Feuillette’ in 2012, Muriel has also produced illustrations with watercolours. In 2016 Muriel switched to digital illustration, the most suitable medium through which she could express her creative ideas.
Muriel is particularly invested in educative books and original storytelling that have the ability to provide children and parents alike with a fun and imaginative, yet informative learning experience. Topics range from stories regarding recycling, the environment, community spirit, compassion and moral lessons. In recent years, she has produced a series of bilingual books for 3-8 year olds with the objective being to help and support young children in learning a new language through vivid, captivating adventures and in-book games.
In 2019, Muriel started working on a personal illustration project with adult undertones to balance the vibrant, idyllic world of her children’s illustration. ‘The Doodle Books’ invite you to embark on a journey with creatures both big and small into a fantastical world of spontaneous, rugged, raw and wordless illustration in a minimalist monochromatic scheme. These are black ink on paper illustrations that explore how an image can convey a story without the use of words.
There are currently two ‘Doodle Books’ with different paper in order to experiment with the traditional surface quality of paper. Through the return to traditional medium, Muriel continues to diversify and expand not only her visual style, but how she expresses her artistic ideas.