Alinea Collective: Interview with Mélanie Foster

A few months ago, I had mention the intention of creating a illustrators' collective.
Well, I have been working on this idea really hard and the collective is starting to take shape. The name of the collective is Alinea and we are still looking for members. If you want to join, contact me.

For the moment, I would like to introduce to you one of the members of the collective.
Her name is Mélanie Foster and she is a very talented illustrator from Québec, Canada and the co-founder of our illustrator Alinea.
Here is an interview of Mélanie, where she reveals a little about herself.


Interview with Mélanie Foster, illustrator and member of Alinea

Can you tell us a little about your work as an illustrator?

I think that the work of an illustrator is to give the viewer an emotion through a very special art vehicule : illustration. The colors, shapes, transparency and composition come as one and can be interpreted in many ways by people watchering the illustration.

How did you find your style?
I have always loved materials, drawing and painting. At university, I could adapt to any style of illustration but I didn’t have a real personal style and technical skills. When I decided to be a professional illustrator, I had to do a lot of research to find my style. In the end, I decided to work principally with vectors, after few years of experiments with paint and other materials. I also love illustrating faces and living beings. Sometimes I still use traditional techniques but I prefer to work with vectors.

Can you explain your process ?
In the beginning, I search for artists that I love and I group words, sentences and images that inspire me. Then I draw about ten sketches to find original ideas and compositions. After that, I take pictures of persons and objects to help me to draw my illustration. I make a first photomontage in Photoshop with the principal colors. I draw versions in black and white and in colors. Then I scan my images and I begin my work with vectors. I trace the outlines, then I add colors and I use Photoshop again to incorporate textures to the final image.

What is the most important to you in your illustration work?
The most important thing to me is to see the result of my work and the happiness it brings to people. My style is in general very soft and includes many pastel colors. I think it’s important to find some lightness in every day.

What would be your dream job as an illustrator?
My dream is to only live from my illustration. I have studied in graphic design but I consider myself as an illustrator. I would like to work on children books projects and graphic novels. I like the imaginary of children stories.

Do you have any upcoming projects or plan?
I’ll work on my personal Web site for 2012. I also want to produce promotional objects. I’m in the early stage in the making of a graphic novel that I want to edit. I will participate in some exhibitions in the next months. Of course, the Alinea collective is going to keep me busy and it will give me a lot of good projects to work on.

Thanks Mélanie for the interview
You can more of Mélanie's work on her website: http://www.fostermelanie.blogspot.com/