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.

Dowtown faune...

Des amis des artistes, des aficionadios du café... la bibine m'a rendu fainéant, ce soir là... peu dessiné. Un peu déçu d'avoir raté le portrait de la jolie demoiselle a l'écharpe rose...
J'aime bien le black au borsalino! Ca c'est du look!

Au Downtown Café...

Invité par Franck, un pote inscrit sur Facebook, a une soirée d " 'amis virtuels " qui avaient décidé de se rencontrer dans le monde réel. Là, un petit bout de fille plein de peps et d'originalité, parmi d'autres artistes, a interprété ses compositions au violoncelle et chant. elle commence par des boucles vocales et à l'instrument, puis chante la mélodie par dessus.

Les amis avec qui je suis allé l'ecouter... Franck, Fabrizio et Denis...

Fabrizio, façon Café littéraire, on dirait, un peu...Non?

new design test

Something I came up with on the train, heading home, one evening...

Un p'tit crobard que j'ai fais dans le metro, en rentrant un soir...


... and here is what it was intended to be.
... Mais voilà ce que j'avais en tête comme resultat final.

comedian promo poster

I was approached, thru a common friend, by two comedians, to work on their promotional poster for a famous french summer festival. After a few drinks in a café, with the two crazy and insanely funny guys, I started to throw a few ideas on paper. The pencils you see above where done in a café, waiting for them on a second meeting.
This served as a test, since they had so many great ideas. I would push this one a little further and see if it worked.
Their sense of humour is mostly based on non-sense. The caption under the "Loïc and Seb save Willy" goes " Come on, l'il Squirrel... Fly!" They liked the rendition of their concept, but to be honest, we agreed it looked too much like a comic book cover. That could misguide the audience. Plus they came back with a bunch of new ideas, as fun as this one. I had worked on concepts too, and proposed this art below. They liked it, but not as much...




... As this one - which was their idea - which happened to be also my favorite.
They decided later to change the color chart to red instead of blue, for the type, but I think this one works better.

des crobards que j'aurais du poster depuis...ouhlàà! Doodles long overdue

Des crobards faits a St-Malo, il y a quelques mois. Je m'etais promis de les mettre en ligne... et puis vous savez ce que c'est... Le boulot, la spirale vertigineuse du quotidien, la flemme devant l'ordi... tout ça...

Bon a part ça, je compte bien retourner au cimetierre de bateaux! Quel source inépuisable de dessins!

St-Malo is really a great source of inspiration for sketching. The region has a strong history that spans over hundreds of years, mostly about corsairs, pirates and promises of adventures, dramas, all related to the sea. As some of you may know, the Old Towne was built as a fortress, to prevent possible invasion from our oh-so beloved brit neighbours. And guess what? They won, eventually. Last we heard of, they were settling in Dordogne, way down South-West.