if the images are too big for your screen resolution, press "Ctrl (Cmd on Mac)" + "-" until the best size for you...
> Illustration/Animation 2d
Final or Lastest Work in Progress Pictures
> All Full W.I.P. Pictures
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Animation Practice Roughs
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
I • Project of video games covers adaptations
In my playful evolution, there were video games. And many of them really impressed me !
So, the aim of this project is to adapt, in realistic style and with my vision, these covers of retro gaming titles ; those of my childhood.
> Pictures by Projects and Details
Super Mario Bros.
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Super Mario Bros. is my very first video game on NES, and at six years old... It thrill !
Through the drawing, I tried to bring out emotions that could not be shown on the original seven pixel high head of Mario. So, I decided to illustrate an humorous representation that could contrast with the seriousness and rigidity that a realistic style can bring.
The first idea was to represent a Mario tired of running and jumping from castle to castle in search of Princess Peach (cf. Princess Toadstool). It can also express his long career in video games.
But I also wanted him to wear an impassive face for his ease to brave the level design when the player is working his skill.
The illustration offers a variety of very pleasant textures to paint. Like skin variations when it is pleated, pinched, stretched or irrigated . Scratchy or smooth plastics, warm leather or cold metal, rigid seams or wavy laces, falling folds or tensed fabrics, ...
A good and rewarding challenge.
To finish the picture, I still have to paint the head of Mario, and work in a more efficient integration, such as refining the hard edges, softing the textures in the shadow areas, and add some high-and-reflectives lights. Then, work on my process of shifting grayscale to color, as I tested it on the hand and the shirt sleeve.
Super Mario Bros.
Earthworm Jim
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Earhworm Jim
Earthworm Jim is another game that inperssed me ; I never had Super Nintendo or Mega Drive and Mega-CD consoles, but I had lukier friends. And I was often in the house of my neighbour to play Earthworm Jim.
I always wanted to show more than the realistic process through the drawing again, but unlike the Mario's previous video game cover, Jim had already an expressive face on the cover. So, I decided to work another idea. For that, I was inspired by the Earthworm Jim HD remastered version (Xbox 360 et PlayStation 3) to focus on muscle definition. Indeed, we can see on this cover an original Jim with strong and hard shapes evolving into a round and muscular cartoon character. But muscle density was still too soft for me ; so, it was decided, my main goal for this illustration will be a strong muscle definition, as an anatomical board.
The illustration is attractive, because it offers an interesting workflow. First, the values have been set aside, for a desire to work my line cleanest. A solid foundation for accurate and comfortable painting later on.
Here, my line is almost clear and workable on the upper body but remains rough and to rework on the lower body.
At this stage, values should not be considered as a whole. Because I worked in parts : pectoral, abdominal, oblique, dorsal, ...
And each part needs adjustments of light and shade to blend well with others.
Here, I just tried to create basic relief and make the definition appear.
Also, I added a few merged flat colors to check if my gradients are working.
II • Studies
Combining the realization of a study with a concrete digital painting allow to override the conventional notion of the exercise and to put these details in scene.
The interest of this concept is to merge these studies in varied and different environments.
Manouvrier
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Manouvrier
The digital painting Manouvrier is a reproduction of the Lewis Wickes Hine's photography : Power House Mechanic Working on Steam. But inspiration has finaly taken precedence over the faithful of the reproduction principle.
The desire to do this digital painting was initiated by the attractive analog photography acutance, but mostly by the Lewis Wickes Hine's sociology work and the ideology ilustrated through the picture.
On Manouvrier the study focuses on the creation and harmonization of varied textures and variations of a same material.
For example on metal pieces which are declined in brushed and machined metal, or raw and corroded one. These metals are moreover cold and unlively textures, which can be differentiated from the others warm and lively textures, like skin, hair or fabrics.
So, the purpose of the illustration was to paint my own texture pieces without using a real ready-made textures overlay or a photobashing process.
Finaly, to improve the digital painting, I should smooth out values transitions, fine-tune some textures and balance details of the picture.
Fourmi
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Fourmi
The digital painting Fourmi is inspired by a photograph from an Internet images database. This is an interpretation of the original image with a combination of several other sources.
The choice of this image was motivated by the conposition and the visual strength that the contrast predicted.
On Fourmi the study focuses on the light and atmosphere.
I wanted a strong image ; A clear contrast of black and white and a visual as violent as the theme is soothing. For this, I did not intentionally use the common structure of the golden number, that is to placing my elements at 1/3 of the frame. But I strictly centered the subject and created no vanishing points. I wanted the viewer feels stocked in the image, and that his gaze be focused on the stage. The other feelings I wanted to make appear are intimacy and discretion.
The light used is like a concentrated spotlight directed to the stage to brings out and highlights the subjects.
On the other parts of image, gradients are straight to create a sharp relief. The idea was that only full light reveals the image backgroung.
For an even better rendering I could improve the detail of the ground and the ant, and refine the overlay of the picture overlappings
Vieille Main
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Vieille Main
The digital painting Vieille main is inspired by a few medical pictures about wrinkles and skin aging.
The working images were chosen for the accuracy and anatomical aspect of medical imaging.
The coldness and rigidity of the image are also what motivated my choices.
On Vieille main the study focuses on stiffness and smoothness. For that, I chose to illustrate the hand of an old person who offered me both. Wrinkles allowed me to evoke the suppleness of the skin, while the bones and tendons showed the stiffness of the skeleton.
The notion of suppleness is minor because I quickly focused on rigidity. It appeared to me that the fingers gnarled aspect was close to a vegetal condition. And I wanted to give an impression of calcification or petrification.
In this study I was particularly interested by the fingers appearence. The rest of the hand was secondary and should be transparent so as not to attract attention. Thus, the incomplete aspect of the image helps in a good overall perception.
Then, to go further in my idea of plant rigidity, I think painting a branch in place of the index finger.
Tubble Gum
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Tubble Gum
The digital painting Tubble Gum is an inspiration of a 80's chewing-gum tube. Tubble gum is a sweetmeat that I loved in my childhood, especially for the design and the visual of the object.
For this illustration, I wanted the study had a thematic of childhood, of nostalgia and the bright and aciduloius colors of the 80's. Then, the illustration subject was quickly found.
A problem was that the Tubble Gum original design is no longer sold today, and that it is very little referenced on the Web images.
The only pictures I could find had a very poor quality, anb I had to interpret or invent the details of the tube of chewing gum. And it's finally a good thing ; painting of reproduction is a pleasant process, but the work of creation was beginning to miss me.
On Tubble Gum the study focuses on the realization of a realistic Prop or Set. An Item can be used to be overlay and moved into a scene.
The trouble with a 2d item is that it lock its properties. What the 3d does not do. Like locking relief by shadows and lights placements, or blocking a viewpoint and a perspective. Which means that the scene must imperatively have the same properties as the item.
So, in most of the cases, the 2d Set or Prop is more commonly used as a reference rather than a real usable item.
Finally this digital painting is more a detailed concept art rather than an illustration. Or maybe I have to draw a real background for this Item to melt it on.
III • Illustrations
Illustrations made for fun.
HooperBoy the Changed Sprites
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
HooperBoy the Changed Sprites
Description W.I.P.
Skogarfoss
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Skogarfoss
Variations of drawing styles around the same character
Description W.I.P.
IV • Professional Works
Illustrations made from orders and used by clients as commercial, advertising or internal communication supports.
Le Haut-de-forme
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Le Haut-de-forme
The illustration Le Haut-de-forme is an order for front cover, lower cover, book formatting and page layout of the Brigitte Decuignière's eNovel .
The author had no idea about what she wanted for the cover and give me free hand. The only rule that the graphic charter specified was the client wanted a sober general design.
So, I decided to illustrate one of the significant scenes of the novel. This choice allowed me to condense the story into a strong image that did not reveal the intrigue. And the mysterious effect that comes out matched well with the historical/detective novel genre of the book.
Technically, the illustration is composed of photobashing, overlay textures , photo manipulations and layers of settings on which I painted on.
The narration were quite detailed so that I could create an interesting room that ilustrating at best the ambiences of the book.
Grenades
clic on the center to zoom or anywhere else to scroll
Grenades
The illustration Grenades is an order to illustrate an article on the Veganism that had dedicated to be spread on several websites.
The client had a clear idea of the message he wanted to convey and the general visual of the illustration. The graphic charter was very precise on these points. But he had no particular technical requirements, and the illustration just had to be realistic.
As the deadline was quite short, I decided to start on a base of photobashing and texture overlays. Then I added layers of settings and digital painting to melt the elements together and brought a cohesion.
First of all, the fruit had to be evoked only by the the illustration textures and colors. But I finally proposed the customer to crack the structure to make appear the inside of the object. A detail that gave more realism and improved the composiition of the image.
The real difficulty is to find pleasant working pictures, but which matches mainly in their perspective and lighting sources ; and modeling his own 3d assets makes it easy to bypass these dificulties.
