Illustration Teardowns: French Illustrators
French illustrators got that certain je ne sais quoi that takes viewers to a magical place…
First off all, I need to disclaimer this post by stating that I am not from France so this list is certainly not meant to be comprehensive but more a subset of French Illustrators that I happen to really enjoy. Secondly, a few of these illustrators are expatriates—disclaimers out the way…onwards!
You’re probably not too surprised that I’ve decided to kick things off with some personal work from Malika Favre’s self-initiated Le Crazy series:
I’m a big fan of Malika Favre’s work and so I did some digging to figure out who some of her influences are. I’ve read in places I can unfortunately no longer find that she’s influenced by Op and Pop art, and in this interview she stated:
“I am a huge fan of Bridget Riley, a keen admirer of anything Bauhaus and I love the boldness of anything 80′s, as well as the music”
You can see the influence a bit in some of Malika’s work that features repetition and pattern. Interestingly, Bridget Riley was, in turn, influenced by a post-impressionist French painter Georges Seurat who’s infamous works using pointillism (and general color and compositional style), have likely influenced many of the artists I’ve featured in this article.
Another quote from that interview which turns out to be a great illustration process tip—given that she possesses wonderful figure drawing skills yet produces works that reflect detail despite the minimalist approach—is this gem:
“I believe that you actually need to draw every single detail to know which ones to then take out…”
Although she was referring to her overall learning curve in her art education, I’d also apply this to if you’re trying to do an illustration intended to end up as a vector; you might actually choose to start in a raster program like Photoshop to work out the details and even create a first rendering, then, take that in to a vector program for one more pass—it’s definitely a lot of extra work, but might be the right approach for certain projects.
Her work reminds me a bit of a painter from Milan named Amleto Dalla Costa who painted sensual and sophisticated female figures in silkscreen:
Speaking of pop art, I’d also throw in Patrick Nagel of 80’s fame for the figure and portrait style.
Another French illustrator at the top of my list has to be Tom Haugomat, who at time of writing is being featured and has posters at the Kiblind store (I have absolutely no affiliation but it’d be nice if he gets some sales from this!):
According to an interview I dug up in Vhcle Issue 9 Tom’s influences are:
“I am very sensitive to the illustrations of Margaret Kilgallen, Blexbolex, Eyvind Earle, John McNaught; and to the photographs of Shoji Ueda and Roger Eberhard”
Here are links: Margaret Kilgallen, Roger Eberhard, Blexblolex, Eyvind Earle (especially look at his Serigraphs), Jon McNaught, Shoji Ueda
Related to Eyvind Earle, I have to also mention Disney background painter Thelma Witmer who’s featured at the end of this article alongside the awesome Mary Blaire.
Ok, sorry for the Disney background painter digression but I since he already mentioned Eyvind Earle, I thought it worth mentioning Thelma Witmer too!
According to his bio, Pascal Campion was actually born in the states, but his family is from France so gets included in this round-up!
Born in River Edge, New Jersey…At the age of three, his family relocated back to the south of France
His ability to capture endearing interpersonal moments we can relate to, with his impressionistic use of light (especially his cityscapes) make him stand out:
Maïté Franchi is an illustrator based out of Lyon, France with a wonderfully whimsical style:
It’s hard to imagine that illustrator of all things decadent Monsieur Z hasn’t had an influence on some of the younger illustrators we’ve seen so far with his amazing jet set themed illustrations. Here’s a couple of example:
If you’re a fan of this style of illustration, you may want to check out the travel posters of Charles Avalon as well.
Olivier Balez is an illustrator and graphic novelist and has done a lot of work in French comics that span well over a decade. When I perused his gallery, I noticed that he sort of has a few styles depending on the format. I’ll feature the more illustrative work I like but do click through to see more…
Quentin Monge uses color and visual rhythm beautifully, and what I really love is the simplification of complexity presumably in gouache or some other opaque medium…
Yes, there’s a something that’s hard to explain about these illustrators that results in very pleasing to the eye and harmonious works. There are more, but this post is already running a bit long already, so honorable mentions go to: Thomas Danthony, Jean Julien, and Cruschiform.
Previous in series: Matteo Berton. Next in series Background Details.
Rob Levin is a freelance illustrator. Portfolio: https://roblevin.myportfolio.com/ For illustration work enquiries, collaboration, or to say hi: roblevinillustration@gmail.com.
Also, you may like to read more of the illustration teardowns articles.
