Con sketches from Orlando... Des crobards de la convention de Orlando.

I did those in Megacon, and decided to play a little bit with the textures I gathered or made myself, to give the usual worn out look.






This one just had a blue filter layered over.

Des petits trucs faits à Orlando...Little doodles in Orlando

This Darth Talon is one of the first con sketches I did at Megacon, Orlando, just today. Didn't get to do many, but I had a great time on the piece. As always when Gary comes to me with those Star Wars characters to draw, it's something I know I'll really enjoy drawing.



That Batwoman for Darby is not too shabby either... Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me!

Blazing Saddle!

Karine, mon premier modèle et la personne qui a cru en moi depuis le début, se prête - trop rarement - au jeu de la pose pin-up. Vous êtes comme moi, vous vous dites que vous voudriez qu'elle le fasse plus souvent, non?

Karine, my first model and the person who never doubted my art would lead me where I am now, kindly accepted to strike the pose for me one more time. I'm sure you'd love her to do that more often, right? Well, someone has to work, ya know? She's also my colorist, every once in a while. Might be colored versions from her, on some of my drawing for the Pin-up Girl Book. Quien sabe?

Zatanna comes to life. Part 2

On se rapproche de la version finale du costume de Zatanna, le personnage que je dessine depuis quelques mois maintenant pour DC comics. Avec un modèle comme Sandra C, la moitié du travail est déja fait, vous ne trouvez pas? Le chapeau de la Reine de la Magie lui va comme un gant - Si tant est que cela veuille dire quelque chose...
Une tête bien pleine dans une tête bien faite, Sandra la multi-casquette a plus d'un tour dans son chapeau... Allez donc jeter un oeil sur sa page Myspace en cliquant sur l'intitulé de ce post.

Getting closer to completing a comicbook-accurate version of Zatanna's costume for the next millenia! Once you've found the right model for it, I'd say half the job is done! Sandra C. is a professional model, singer, perfomer that instantly fitted in the hat of the Mistress of Magic. Working with her is a delight. Go check her facebook ( Sandra Cardot ) or Myspace, by clicking on the title of this post.


Une vue avec la cape. Ce n'est toujours pas la version definitive du costume, mais on s'approche. Manquent les cuissardes et le gilet satiné/doré...

Here is a view with the cape. Eagle eyes may notice that the high boots are still missing ( but Hey! We have the fishnets! ) The costume is not completed yet.





Sandra est le modèle qui a servi pour le dessin du précedent post. Mais vous aviez remarqué, j'en suis sûr...

Sandra is the model for the Pin-up Art below. But I'm sure you'd noticed that, too..

Dessins, dessins! Tn'A stands for Table and Art...

De retour sur mon terrain de prédilection... Le dessin au crayon! Vous pensiez quoi? Bande de perverts?
Plus sérieusement, une des premières pierre a l'édifice de l'année pour moi: un projet de bouquin d'illustration de pin ups. Je retarde la mise en place de ce projet depuis des décennies! Sisi, je vous assure... Ceux qui me connaissent bien sauront de quoi je parle. Un peu de manque de confiance en soi, deux ou trois grammes de travaux alimentaires, un gros quintal de flemme... Mais la conscience du temps qui passe trop vite, les opportunités de mener à bien ce projet, les rencontres précieuses, la fierté qui en prend un coup, quand je vois les potes y arriver - simplement parce qu'ils s'y mettent! - me portent definitivement vers ce but, et avec de l'appétit, encore. Et vous, vous la sentez la faim de loup de Tex avery?


Back to basics, folks! I meant pencil drawing! What didja expect, ya pervs! Seriously, the mojo's back and this image can be seen as a stepping stone to this years' personal project: a Good Girl Art book. A project of decades in the making, no BS... My fellow french buddies who've known me for quite some time now, could concur on the following. Missing self-confidence at times, distracted by an interest for animation and its assignments that paid the bills, A fair amount of laziness...
And then you get mixed notions of time; the one that flies by, the one that bring great opportunites to actually do the stuff. Decisive encounters, too. Not to mention hurt pride, when you see your buddies who are already there - why not me? -, everything drives me to that project. And with Tex Avery's wolf's appetite! Can you feel it too?

Zatanna comes to life. Part 1

Hey fellas, long time no see, or read or whatever! Missed quite a few occasions to tell you more about li'l ole me, but, as always, I'll catch up sometime. Anyhoo, here is my latest field of interest: creating, on my spare time, an outfit based after the design of the character I'm drawing these days. The name's [Zatanna] and she's a super hero/magician in the DC Universe. I thought it would be cool to have a model don the costume and stand around at our booth during conventions, to promote my work on the title.
So let me show you the work in progress that will eventually lead us to a sexy girl in a costume that includes fishnets! ' nuff said!


First, of course, everything begins with a sketch, so that I can explain what I have in mind to my friend Marylise. She accepted to help me on this project by sewing the whole thing together. And man, thanks to her skills, this costume is going to be simply awesome!

A week or so before, we went to the fabric district in Paris, to get the right stuff for Zatanna. She deserves the best. Geez, those chicks don't come in cheap, ya know? Anyway... We had the silky black fabric for the outside and a red satin for the inside. You know when you've found excatly what you had come for. This was no exception for Maylise and I agreed on the rolls of fabric instantly!

So i drew quickly and handed the doodles to her, she made a few changes and suggestions to make the cutting easier, the folds more ample... That was my main concern: I wanted heavy folds on the cape so that it'd convey a sense of wider stature to the character.
Once we agreed on how long every part should be, we started measuring on the paper that would serve as a guide for the cutting. and drew a pattern.
As you will see later, the cape consists un two longer pieces in the front -so that idealy, the cape, when spreading over the shoulders, would be in the shape of a butterfly ( that's me tapping into my feminine side, now let's move on... ) - with a tail as in a tux, that would accentuate the butterfly feel... Here we indicate with different colors, what would be the extra fabric we need for the hem ( black ). The brim of the cape being indicate in red.

Marylise started to cut ( while I was still cutting... She's faster, no hesitation, no flaw of the hand... when I was shaking, afraid to ruin the pattern or later, the fabric! )

It's a task of patience... pinning the pattern to the fabric, in order to cut the exact shape you've just designed ( make that thirty minutes ago... I said I was slow, and afraid to miss! )

So I'm a joker, so what? Meet Zatanno, mortals... And cower!

We were so busy cutting the fabric that none of us thought of taking picture of that moment... sorry guys.

Just know that it went well... And that Marylise started to pin the four pieces of the back together ( two black pieces to red for the inside, shall I remind you... ) to get a glimpse at what it should look like, in the end... after all, we are only half-way done: there's still the whole sewing process! " It's the easiest part. " she says...

So here's what it looks like so far. Not bad... I can see we are on the right tracks. Note: the fabric is not as shiny as one would expect. Of course, fellas and fellettes! We work inside out, to keep the good side of the cloth protected!

After a fex hours in the afternoon, I had to run out and thought Marylise would wait for another session together to finish the cape... But she was so excited in working on sucha unique piece, that she went on with it! she kept sending me text messages on how much she enjoyed helping me with this! She sent me pictures in the evening, to show how it looked once completed.

On the back view below, you'll notice the tux tail.

We're gettign closer and closer to a pretty nifty Zatanna costume, wouldn't you say?
I told her to take a few pictures on the next day, with a top hat that I knew her boyfriend had. She also had a bow tie that fitted to a T!

Voilà, Ladies and Gents! More pics to come soon, for we are trying to have this costume ready for the french con in February! Not to mention these will hopefully be with the model who's actually going to wear it there... heheh. Behave, boys!

Con Tour, Part I - Tour de Cons. 1ere partie.

Posting again, after a long while. I'll just mention that over the past two months, one was well occupied by roaming around the US to attend conventions. Let's start with Long Beach, which took place beginning of October. We had a lot of space, two tables for Eric Canete and me, which Jason takes care of. Displaying the sketchbooks, prints, and original art for fans to purchase.


I love attending to cons, because it's a good occasion to meet fans, of course, but also, gather with friends I've made over the years, in the U.S. Drawing sketches is almost always fun, and easy but knowing I'll hang out with buddies, artists or collectors alike, that's great! Never anticipated that would be the highlight of my trips, back in the days when I was struggling so hard in being a nobody in dat wonderful world of french animation! Hahaha!



Okay, so we're all set, and look who's working now? Eric and Jay. I'm judt playiong with the camera, right? That one was taken at the very beginning of the day, so it was starting slow... But usually, things get wild pretty fast for Eric and I. Lots of people on the sketch lists. So keep in mind to show up early if you want a piece from us...



Always the joker, Eric hides behind his art. Then again, don't we all?



A quick headsketch. with that new brush I bought shortly before arriving. It is so easy to use, the fluidity of lines, the quick textures I come up with makes this tool one of my favorite in a long time! I actually endend up drawing a lot of sketches thru out the cons, with this new tool - and therefore, a new style - but I was concerned the fans might be disturbed or upset by this change in my work. Fortunately, I have great fans.


Here is another example of what that pentel brush can do. It's been on the market for quite some time now, I had almost forgotten about such a wonderful tool. But getting back to live sketch, in the bus, bars , streets and such, I had to look for the perfect practical tool to express myself in a different way from a regular comic book page ( see the www.frenchbulldogstudio.com for that or my CAF page: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=9211 ). cartridges when refill is needed. and Voilà!


I like this one vedy vedy much... Strong type, yet feminine. not the exactly the brainless bimbo...



The dream team! who could imagine behind those two actually hide Shaggy and Scooby? I'll explain later...


One of the sketches I did at the Hero Initiative booth. for those not familiar with the H.I check here http://www.heroinitiative.org/

I can't explain too much here, just keep in mind Eric seems to like disguising himself into Iconic characters of Pop Culture. Just remember I mentioned Shaggy and Scooby above. Pop culture because I've never seen him in the guise of Plato, or Rameses, or Sigmung Freud, but hey, the guy's full of surprise. Who knows? Anyway, with his white hooded sweater he cracked us up by making an impression of Princess Leïa sending coordinates to the Rebel alliance. Where does he get those zanny ideas? That matches the point of Eric's blog current banner: His brain's always in motion...


Okay guys, now that was an easy one... What is it with you americans and big french butts? Scott in Charlotte ( http://moulinroux.blogspot.com/2009/06/bon-alors-bien-sur-oh-riiiiight.html ) now Eric in Long Beach... Geez.