Pas de tir

more productions from this year. "Pas de tir" is a fast iteration based on an existing photo that i deconstructed to the point of no return. The first cover was used for the "best science fiction and fantasy of the year volume 5, a compilation done by Jonathan Strahan.

medieval interlude sketch

First of all, Halo4 has been announced by Microsoft and 343Industries.

i'm proud being part of the adventure.

on a side note, I have been experimenting with so many techniques during these last months... it's sometimes healthy and fun going back to plain brushes and concentrate on shape balance and visual flow. here's a doodle done this way.

Survol

Using reference is for me a bit problematic. if i decide to go with a strong ref, i end up not being able to extract what my brain wants. i get glued to the reference, unable to express myself fully. and vice versa, no ref at all means i end up with a strict product of my imagination. it also means my image will be lacking in realism, or rather, this dear "believability factor" that we all strive to obtain, especially in Scifi pieces.

i didn't use any ref for this one. the only thing i was having was this photo of a piece of glass i had found online, probably coming from an industrial constructor showing a sample of their glass stuff for marketing reasons. i found the tones fascinating and got inspired. i guess the whole thing made sense at a particular moment. :)

on the technical side, i have been painting a lot with the smudge tool lately, thanks to mister Thom Scholes himself. The smudge tool can allow a great control of your shapes via displacement of entire pannels and areas of your canvas. it's fascinating.

more art from these last weeks

i'm always thinking i have a lot to say, until i decide to update my blog and then nothing comes up. so here's the art. enjoy.

Images for Japan (des images pour le Japon)

My friends from the french art site Cafesale.net have started a project in order to help Japan and the dramatic situation going on right now in the North East. the project can be found here: Tsunami - Des Images pour le Japon it's all in french, but the images don't need words do they?

Here is my modest contribution for their fantastic and courageous initiative.

Images - First selection for 2011

I should probably not even wish a happy new year to all since we're in february, but anyway. here's a (late) first post for this new year. I've been preparing and gathering quite a lot of new images for a second book that will happen sometimes this year. there's still a lot to do but it's already coming along fine. I will probably have a section dedicated to specific methods i have been using these last years and i hope it'll be a nice helper for some, or at least a visual stimulation that will give more food to any creative process. More soon.

On the custom shapes front, i have been experimenting here and there. The medieval interlude posted above, as i call them, has been done using this technique a lot. it totally gives a fast and effective result. Very exciting. However, the images done this way need to be counter balanced with smoother brush work and visual junctions in order to cut some of the obligatory harsh edges given by custom shapes. One way to do this is to use the smudge tool in order to erases some of these edges. the blue space piece was done the same way, but i skipped the last smoothing steps a bit, and it shows. The more textured piece is just a basic sketch that transformed itself into a more achieved image. More weirdness soon.