Snowman: my process

I really enjoy seeing the creative process of other illustrators. It makes me feel like a fly on the wall of their studio. It's so inspiring and I usually learn so much! So I thought I would return the favor and share with you my creative process with the creation of the illustration The Not So Abominable Snowman.

1- I first start with doodling some concepts. Here I finally choose this idea of the snowman eating some popsicles. I liked the color palette that the popsicles brought to the illustration and the repetition of shapes between the popsicles and the teeth. The general idea was that the snowman is so comfy, happy and warm in the North Pole that he enjoys eating some popsicles to cool off. Plus, for me, this concept has a little touch of global warming awareness. In some way, it shows that the North Pole is geting so warm that even the Snowman needs to cool off.

2- Once the concept is chosen and the doodle with the final composition is done, I scan the drawing and import it into photoshop.

3- Then, I do a lot of image search. I have a very big collection of old engraving and I go trough it in search of the perfect eyes, nose, etc.

4- Once I have found my images, I placed them on my doodle in photoshop at the right size and angle.

5- I then print the result on bristol paper with the doodle at 10% opacity

6- Now it's time to draw everything else. I use my micron pen and some white gouache to get the wanted result. In this case, there was a lot of fur to draw. Once I'm finished, I then scan everything and clean it up with photoshop

7- the final step is adding the color and voilà with have a not so abominable snow man

Hope you enjoyed seeing my creative process.

I use various technique but this gives you a pretty good idea of the way I work

My process for the illustration Propagate

By popular demand here is my process for the Propagate Illustration posted earlier this week.
My process is not always exactly the same. But I think that this post will give you a good idea of the way my illustration are created.

At first, when I receive the topic, I do some research about the word and all his variations. I search the word in the dictionary, read quotes with it, and try to find themes that fit with the word. While I'm doing this research, I sketch some ideas in my sketchbook. I do a lot of thumbnails with different ideas and different compositions. Here is one of the pages of my sketchbook.




Then I select the final idea and the final composition of my illustration and blow it up. I use this sketch as a base for the rest of the illustration because I want to keep the movement and composition that the small thumbnail has.


Then I do a lot of image research. I look in different books and websites for vintage images of birds, of eyes, of profile, etc. I then select and place the images on my sketch.

Once I'm satisfied with the look of the collage, I print the images on a bristol and take my micron and inks. I ink the every element that needs to be drawn. In this case, I rework the eyes, the wings, the body, the clouds, the beaks and the border.


I then scan the image and clean up everything. This is my final sketch.

Then, I take a moment to think about the colors, texture and overall feeling I want to give to the piece. For this illustration, I wanted a textured background, with lots of blues and colored birds.
For the background, I did a texture with acrylics and scanned it.


Then I put all the elements together and filled every element with the right color.

And voilà !
All done
I hope this post helps you have a better understanding of my illustration process.
Feel free to ask me any questions, you might have.

my process, step by step

A lot of people ask me about my process. How do I create my images ? So to help you better understand my process, I decided to show you my process step-by-step with these photos. Here you can see how I created my Pierrot illustration for moly x 70.

First, I do a rough sketch of what I want to create


Then, I find images in books or on the internet and print them in various sizes. I cut them and try to find the right ones for the illustration.


I clue the chosen pieces


I blend everything with white gouache


I start inking everything up with all my favorite pens ( find out more about the pens I use here )

half the inking is done


Time to add the last touches


done !

well I hope this answers all your question about how I create my images.
You can see the final piece here