Wishlist

"I wish I was a sentimental ornament you hung on
The Christmas tree, I wish I was the star that went on top..."

don't know why, each time I think about Christmas, it's this Pearl Jam song that comes to my mind.

Anyway !! I just received my first Christmas gift in advance, under the form of the SPECTRUM 18 artbook, and I wanted to share this ! It is heavy, it is full of pictural awesomeness, and most of all it has a zuper zexy cover !!

What can I ask more for Christmas, you say ?! Maybe ask one of those even bigger and sexier giclee prints to fall under the Christmas tree !

http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/livingrope/white_heat/

http://www.inprnt.com/gallery/livingrope/guts/

Massive Black Workshop 19-22 Nov 2011

you're an artist and want to jump next level ? want to get surrounded with talent, infused with creativity, boosted by emulation during 3 days of art madness ? Then the Massive Black workshop in San Francisco, November 19-22, is the event you certainly don't want to miss !

I'll  be there with a batallion of friends coming from the video game industry and fine arts field.

"WorkshopSF is an event designed by artists for artists. For four days, Top Creative Professionals from the worlds of Entertainment, Film, Games, Comics and Fine Art come together to share their techniques and ideas with you. Our event is geared to instruct and inspire students and professionals alike. Whether you’'re new to art, interested in art, or have been in the Art Industry for years, WorkshopSF is intended to facilitate your artistic fancy.

WorkshopSF will include live demonstrations: digital and traditional, figure painting and drawing, lectures on character, creature, environment and technological design, storytelling for comic books, cover and marketing illustration, information on business practices, portfolio reviews and much more.

There will be a recruitment day, so don’t forget to bring your best works!

Come learn from some of the top professionals in their field!

Be prepared to be inspired."

MAGNITUDE 9 est en vente

MAGNITUDE 9, le artbook collectif d'aide aux sinistrés du Japon auquel j'ai participé est en vente

 

 

cardboard boxes

I always loved cardboard boxes. They always inspired me on a graphical level, and maybe also because they travel a lot. First one comes from Beijing - China and contained a beautiful book I did the cover for; it was sent by my friends @ LeewiArt. The package was so appealing with its chinese pictograms everywhere, I had to paint something on it.

Talking about this chinese "Character" book, I thought that I shared the photos here but it seems I didn't. So here it is. I did the cover and have a big interview + gallery inside.

French & US Workshops

[ENG] November is workshops month !! I'll be instructing in San Francisco along with my talented friends from Massive Black of course, and also people from Sixmorevodka, Steamboat, Arenanet, Blizzard, painters, freelance illustrators etc... look at the website and tell me if you've ever seen so many gifted guys in the same place, it's gonna be nothing less than HUGE !!

[FR] Comme l'année dernière, j'aurai le plaisir d'être instructeur au workshop CaféSalé, du 7 au 9 Octobre à Paris. Il y aura vraiment du beau monde venu de tous les horizons, des illustrateurs freelance (comme moi), des concept artists et des directeurs artistiques venus du jeu video, des dessinateurs de BD, et même un juriste !! Dépêchez-vous de jeter un oeil sur le site du workshop et attrapez les dernières places dispos.

watercolor work in progress

it's been long since I shared any new pic on this blog. So why not posting a WIP of a commission I finished just recently ?!

This is a new version of my "Morrigu" image, in watercolor this time.

As you can see on the first shot, I was going to simply redo the original piece in tradi' but I quickly felt it would be just boring. That's why I did another sketch with a different approach, more dynamic.

SPECTRUM 18 cover

[ENG] It's a couple of months since I actually know the crazy news, but I wanted to wait for the official communiqué to share it here: I am doing the Spectrum 18 cover !!

Needless to say that I was already delighted and thankful to get a silver award from this year's jury, so now you can imagine what was my level of excitement when the nice folk at Spectrum told me "oh! and by the way, Arnie (Fenner) wants you to know that you were chosen to do the cover...". What a great honor !

I'm an avid reader of the most influencial sci-fi & fantasy anthology in the world since issue 7, which corresponds approximately to the beginning of my career as an illustrator. I grew up as a pro with the incredible art of Hale, McKean, Foster, Manchess, Brom, aso... showing me what level I'd need to reach to be part of the game. I didn't spare my efforts, nor the questionings, nor the sacrifices that would come with it.

It is not without significance that, instead of one of my illustrations, Spectrum chose to put one of my personal paintings the front . For some time now, I do work on traditional paintings. All along my professional journey, I didn't cease to create images that were exploring my own inner world, but they were often digital. These days, in parallel to my illustration job, the relationship with the paper and brushes became vital again. Without knowing it, the people at Spectrum underlined this choice... and it makes me happy !

[FR] Cela fait déjà quelques semaines que je suis au courant de cette nouvelle un peu dingue, mais je voulais attendre le communiqué officiel pour le partager ici: je fais la couverture de Spectrum 18 !!

J'ai déjà dit ici combien j'étais honoré que le jury de cette année me décerne un silver award, alors vous imaginez le niveau d'excitation dans lequel j'étais quand au détour d'un mail qui se voulait anodin on me dit "oh! et au fait, Arnie (Fenner, le patron de Spectrum) me fait te dire que c'est toi qui fait la couv' du numéro 18..." Quel grand honneur !

Je suis un lecteur assidu de la plus influente anthologie sur la SF et la Fantasy mondiale depuis le n°7, ce qui nous fait remonter à il y a environ 10 ans, date à laquelle j'ai commencé à sérieusement envisager de faire de l'illustration mon métier. Chaque année, les nouvelles images présentées par Hale, McKean, Foster, Manchess, Brom, etc... montraient quel était le niveau à atteindre pour être de la partie; il y avait du boulot pour être à la hauteur, et je n'ai pas compté ma peine, ni les remises en question, ni les sacrifices qui vont avec.

C' est loin d'être anodin pour moi que Spectrum ait choisi de mettre à l'honneur, plutôt qu'une de mes illustrations, une de mes peintures personnelles. Depuis quelques temps déjà je travaille à nouveau sur des pièces en peinture traditionnelle. Durant tout mon parcours professionnel, je n'ai jamais cessé de réaliser des images qui explorent mon monde intérieur, mais souvent en numérique. Aujourd'hui, parallèlement à mon boulot d'illustrateur, la relation à la peinture et au papier, me redevient indispensable. Sans le savoir, les gens de Spectrum ont souligné ce choix... et ça me fait plaisir !

new covers

here's a handful of covers that I did and that hit the shelves (or were just announced) recently.

Pin-Up l'exposition + Tsunami project

Je participe ce mois-ci à une expo collective sur le thème de la pin-up chez LaGallery à Paris.

Des pin-up, j'en fais régulièrement pour le bar culturel Les Furieux, et c'est un exercice de style que j'apprécie beaucoup. Mais pour cette occasion je me suis demandé ce je pourrais faire pour sortir un peu de ma zone de confort, et aussi proposer quelque chose de différent de l'image cliché de la pin-up. C'est en matant un sujet sur les artistes burlesques, ces effeuilleuses girondes aux courbes généreuses, que l'idée m'est venue de contacter une de ces artistes pour réaliser un portrait. J'en ai tout de suite parlé à la belle et talentueuse Miss Anne Thropy, qui a été emballée par l'idée. Après une période d'accordage de plannings, nous avons finalement réussi à arranger une séance de pauses à mon atelier. Et voilà le résultat:

____________________________________________________

Et puis, encore une actu vente d'originaux; je vous avais parlé de la vente aux enchères organisée par CaféSalé au profit des sinistrés du Japon. Cette vente aura lieu le 30 Avril à 18h à la galerie Arludik à Paris.

Vous pouvez trouver toutes les infos ici.

pour mémoire, la pièce que je cède pour cette vente est celle-ci:

Il y a là moyen de faire une bonne action, et aussi une bonne affaire à mon avis ;)

Tous les profits de cette vente iront directement et le jour même à la Fondation de France pour le Japon.

Magnitude 9 en prévente

le artbook Magnitude 9 tiré du projet Tsunami (dont je parle dans le post d'en dessous) est en prévente ICI.

Faites passer ;)

Projet Tsunami : Aidons le Japon

bon, on suit tous avec angoisse et impuissance le cours des dramatiques évènements au Japon, et je ne vais pas discourir sur le sujet. Juste parler d'une oeuvre utile à laquelle je participe:

Les artistes de la communauté CFSL se mobilisent pour réunir des oeuvres qui seront vendues aux enchères à la galerie Arludik le 30 Avril à 18h, puis regroupées dans une publication, afin de réunir des fonds pour aider le Japon. Tous les bénéfices sont reversés à l'organisation Give2Asia.

Voici ma contribution à ce projet:

http://cfsl.net/tsunami/

Sur la page du projet Tsunami vous pourrez voir les déjà très nombreuses et magnifiques oeuvres créées par les artistes réunis autour de cette cause.

J'en reparlerai quand approchera le moment de la vente aux enchères.

Spectrum Silver Award

The eighteenth annual Spectrum awards for excellence in science fiction and fantasy art were chosen Saturday evening (I stole this sentence from Irene Gallo, cos I couldn't say it better). I've just seen on the Spectrum blog that my painting White Heat received a silver award in the category "unpublished"... Man, nothing could make me prouder (or actually a gold maybe ;) !).
I want to address my gratitude to the Fenner's and to the members of the jury: Greg Manchess, The Shifflet Bros., Nathan Fox, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Shena Wolf. Thank you very much.

Greg Manchess has my image in hand !

For those interested, Irene Gallo posted on the Tor books website a list of all the websites of the others award winners.

Sfumato & Rinato

Mon travail sera présent à la Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair (BRAFA) qui se tient du 21 au 30 Février; et ce grâce à l'incontournable galerie Daniel Maghen qui y exposera deux de mes très récentes pièces. Ce sont les plus grandes peintures que j'ai réalisé jusqu'à présent (format Jésus). la première s'intitule Sfumato et la seconde Rinato (qui a dit Renato dans le fond !).

Sur la photo ci-dessous, j'ai placé un pot de pinceaux devant les images pour que vous ayez une idée de l'échelle.
(ne faites pas attention à la censure, c'est pour Facebook.)


Sfumato (watercolor + gouache. 76x56 cm)


Rinato (watercolor + gouache. 76x56 cm)


Cela m'a clairement donné le goût pour en faire d'autres de cette taille, pourquoi pas une série qui sait...
En tout cas, si vous êtes sur Bruxelles au moment de la BRAFA, ne manquez pas cet évènement car au vu du catalogue, ça va être splendide.

Punisher: in the blood

Recently I did 3 Marvel covers for the Punisher. I had a blast drawing this character, one of my all times fav' actually. I still own a 17 years old T-shirt with the infamous skull logo ;)
Here's a step-by-step of one of the covers:

first, the pencil sketch:


second, a watercolor "gray":


and finally tweeked and colorized in Photoshop:


the other covers:

my 2010 in review

Happy New Year everyone ! 2010 was a busy year for me and I finished it in a rush, didn't even find the time to do a greetings card. But now that I have a small moment to breathe a little air before I go back to the drawing table, and also instead of talking about good resolutions that I will never fulfill, I want to have a look in the rearview mirror to see what was accomplished within a year.
Needless to say that it was a tuff one for everyone, I mean politically, and also for the industry. And at the same time, when I look at all that I've done, all the exciting new people I've met, all the friendships that were consolidated in 2010, I feel satisfied.
The workshops I did as an instructor, in Berlin (MADE) and in Paris (CfSl), were unforgettable. I had the opportunity to meet dozens of amazing artists and devoted students, and I learned so many things at their contact it's hopeless to detail it.
Eventually, I did my first covers for Marvel, DC, and Top Cow, and the 10 years old boy who still lives in me is very proud of it. When I was a kid I just didn't care about Tintin and Asterix; all that counted were the X-Men, Alpha Flight and Batman !
And Conan !! Which leads me to think about the loss of Frazetta. We image makers owe so much to this man. I was very happy to pay him a video recorded tribute in issue 61 of ImagineFX.
2010 was also the year when I decided to seriously get back to my easel after ten years of exclusive love with Photoshop. I can't tell the joy I have to paint traditionally again ! Those paintings were very well received, and it brings me a new palette of opportunities in the fine-art field. I'll tell you more about this shortly ;)
Finally I found myself in good place in three major compendium artbooks. I did the back cover of both Spectrum and Café Salé artbooks. And Exposé gave me 2 Excellence awards and 1 Master award. I think I couldn't finish the year in a better way.

Some great things are already in the making for 2011. I have three book projects that I'd like to make concrete. The rest is still secret but I can tell you it will be really cool ;) !
Lastly I want to say thank you to YOU, who take of your time to read this blog and encourage me with your comments. Thank you to all the friends and clients who made this year special for me. See you in 2011, let's make great art together, let your sideburns talk for you a little more !! \m/