Friday Illustrated : Interview

Let’s talk about creating an illustration from scratch. How does that process look, for you? How do you start, what steps do you follow?

When I work for a client, most of the time it’s simple: I get a brief that I need to stick to (subject, size, colors and references of illustrations in my portfolio for the colorisation). But for a personal illustration I use to think a lot (maybe too much) before starting a new piece: Which size, composition, colors, theme, atmosphere, technique etc…

Then I start looking for inspiration on the internet (Pinterest is a great source for it). For me this process can last several hours until I have a click. Then I actually start building my illustration by mixing photos together. The most difficult part is to stick to what I decided at the beginning! Then the ‘production’ step begins: Drawing most of the time with a pencil or a pigment liner. After that I scan my drawing and start colorize it digitally in Photoshop (you can see a step by step video here).

What kind of projects did you use to work on, in the beginning?

In the beginning I mostly worked for private portrait commissions and French magazines. Some of them weren’t very famous so I didn’t get a lot of money from these jobs at the beginning.

You came to a point where you get to create art for brands like Nina Ricci, Laduree or Rochas and magazines like Elle, Marie-Claire and Cosmopolitan. How did you get here? How did you first start these collaborations?

The most complicated part in this job is to get the contacts. Especially in Advertising. For this part I think an agent is very helpful. My agent spends a lot of time doing prospection in agencies which is something I wouldn’t have the time for. Some of the Advertising jobs I get come from my agent. Other clients discover my work online and contact me or my agent directly....

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