More Happy Days

Day 10. Purple Socks.

Ever felt that twinge of joy when you look back to watch someone walk away, and that someone is looking back too?

This exercise is really starting to pay off. I'm rather excited to see what comes up next...

Peces en el cielo

It's been ages, hasn't it?

I'm hard at work, elbows deep - but in the meantime that doesn't mean I can share stuff when I got'em. So here: this poster was created as a proposition for ACID, an independent association of Cinema for Cannes. The idea was that of discovery: this fish was hence out of the water, discovering the world, flying and discovering Cannes from a different point of view (which is what Cinema does, after all). It was, to my taste, the perfect mix of poetry, metaphors, fantasy and acidity - I really liked how the colors came up! And having never been in Cannes, it was fun to take a virtual tour via Google Earth to pick out the buildings and areas that would give it the characteristic feel of the town.

In other news, I've also started a 100 Happy Days Project over in Twitter. Today the 5th day came up: if you feel like following, feel free to do so! In the meantime, here's my day 5: Getting stuff in the mail :D

 

Happy Holidays!

Here's to wishing all of you a more than Merry Christmas!!

La Llorona - BD

It's BD* time!

*BD= Bande Dessinée. I like to make the distinction in my head between BD and comic as in the American sense, since I find the BD waay more interesting and wide in terms of art styles, themes and narratives.

Let us proceed.

This is the project I prepared for a bit of a contest in Angouleme, based on the mexican legend of La Llorona. It was made in ink with the tiniest itty bitsy brush that I could find, and a normal (but apparently for people still pretty small!) one. And plastic. I worked on a plastic, transparent film that allowed me to make the tiniest, teensiest strokes. I'm just obsessive like that. C:

ANYWAY. As you can clearly see, the story revolves around a woman who had an affair with a gentleman who then wouldn't marry her, and got dumped with two children - which for society in that era was completely sinful. Hence the red, representing temptation and sin. In order to get rid of said sin, she allegedly drowned her twins in the river - but regretted it instantly, condemning her soul to just mourn for eternity crying for her children. Happy ending, huh? Mexican bedtime stories for you.

La Llorona is pretty a well known character - but she's even taken this evil personality in games and stuff, which is why I found it rather interesting to tell her story. Sort of the "Origins" side to her. And according to my mom, she won't steal your children - she'll just cry and wail and scare the crap out of you.

Sweet dreams :)

Edit: And happy 150th post :D

Transistor Radio - Cloud Cult

...."I heard Grandpa on my Transistor Radio..."

As per usual, I took my inspiration out of a song for this piece. This time it was one of my absolute favorite bands in the entire Universe (not joking here), Cloud Cult - with their ever-smiley Transistor Radio. What better visual way to tell a story than via a medium that's not visual at all?

The song (that you can listen to right here, although there's also a pretty beautiful live version on KEXP radio over here if you wanna keep going) talks about a boy that hears his dead grandad on his transistor radio - you know, those really cool and portable radios from the 50's and the 60's. Which obviously meant I'd have to set this tale in a 50's ambiance... can you hear the excitement resignation in my voice as I type this? :D

So! Radios telling a visual story. 50's ambiance. Brightly colored radios. To add coherence to the scenario, I decided to treat it in black and white as if it were some sort of 50's animation. And there you go :)

And well, in the end, the boy finally finds what his granddad wanted to show him (if you haven't heard the song and the lyrics yet FINE, I'll tell you what it ends at, but SHAME ON YOU for it's gorgeous :3): "Where I am, Where I've been, It's the Show". It doesn't get deeper than that :)

I particularly love his grand dad - a smiley skeleton is one of my favorite cultural elements that I just don't get tired of. And of course, the clouds are a nod to the band's name - do listen to them, their music and their lyrics are guaranteed to lift you up, I swear!

Moon Labyrinth

Sooooo... this is the reason why I had been away from the computer lately. Or at least, one of the reasons. Still got more stuff coming up...

Anyway. All of this was inked in a beautiful 60x60 cm format (the labyrinth at least: the other figures were each at different sizes, although the nymphs and deers were rather small. Super, über small... because I'm crazy like that :D) The idea was to create a labyrinth for Artemis, Moon Goddess, as a representation of the passage between two worlds and the quest for oneself: you're trying to find yourself and you get lost in the process, but getting lost can be a delight in itself! Also, I got way into the different connotation across the times given to the labyrinth: at the beginning it was thought to be a representation of the most intimate nature of spirituality, and after the Renaissance ended it acquired a profane signification - which is when I decided to add the forest as a symbol for the frontier between civilization and wilderness. And of course, nymphs and deers are happily joining in, along with the 4 seasons united with the 4 elements :D

I could go on and on about it - however, I'm super super happy with how this turned out to be, even if it was rejected. I discovered a few superpowers in here, so expect some other super massive update - I also finished my sketchbook, so it's time to scan it while I begin the new one... :D

Mako

It's been a while, hasn't it??

I'm back in France, full speed mode on since I've got a TON of work. Now and then I get to indulge in a tiny tad of personal art - but this one had to make the trip with me since I painted it on summer... And finally here it is :D

I just had to go on and celebrate Mako's fairy tale in Pacific Rim. The music, the colors, the story, the shots, the lightning... pure poetry :)