FAQ (in English) (Patreon)

Good morning all ! ^^

Here is finally the FAQ! (sorry it's a bit long ^^ ')
I hope there's not too much english mistakes.

first of all my journey:

Just a few lines on my journey. So I did technical studies in industrial design (high school diploma+2 in industrial product design). I was starting to get interested in manga right before high school (I was about 18 ) and tried to draw a bit in that style. Then, I did 1 year in computer graphics in a small training course where I notably met some future colleagues and friends including Tot, future boss of Ankama.

I then got my first job as a background colorist on the T’choupi series (french tv show) for 1 year, then 3 years in a startup in Lille where I coded and designed mini flash games. Thanks to my flash skills, I was hired by Ankama (which had already existed for 1 year) to start working on the Dofus game which was at the prototype stage. It was really at this point that I got more serious about drawing, learning anatomy, sketching a lot etc ... (I was already 25 years old).

I really did everything on dofus at the beginning: a lot of 3d isometric backgrounds! , animation, spell FX, game sprites, and a bit of character artwork. As this is what I liked the most, I was given to do more and more often until I became more officially character-designer.

Dofus was a hit and allowed us to move on to all the other ankama game (dofus Arena, wakfu, Krosmaga) and animation (Wakfu, Dofus the movie) projects. After 15 years in Ankama, I decided to be freelance. During all this time, I tried to be fairly consistent in learning to draw. Even today I feel like I still have a lot to learn, it's a never-ending journey.

How did you meet your challenges in your career.

My biggest challenge was working on The Wakfu Series right after working on Dofus Arena. Indeed we had no experience in animation except animations with Flash software. We therefore experimented with a method combining traditional animation and “puppet” style animation with Flash on the short film “Goultard le barbare”. It was also at this time that I drew a lot in the evening to try to level up in drawing. Especially since Ankama hired a lot of young talents from Gobelins (very famous French animation school) and I had to not look too bad in drawing ... In this case even if many had 2 mad 3 times My level in drawing, we manage to gain the respect of others by dealing with the strengths and weaknesses of others to achieve the same goal. It was not always easy humanly, artistically and technically, but we still managed to make a series that we liked.

In general, to meet the various challenges, it is of course necessary to work and continue to be interested in everything to progress and expand your field of knowledge. On a common project, it is also necessary to succeed in dealing with the weaknesses and strengths of others. It takes both understanding and humility.

My desktop (larger image in attached images):

How to create connections with other artists? Make friends in the drawings, exchange ideas, get advice etc.? (Because sometimes it's hard to get the attention of a designer or artist you follow).

The best connections, I first had them when I did my training year since I met Tot (boss of Ankama, the company in which I worked for 15 years), who was also a student before become the boss of Ankama, and other friends with whom we will later create the game Dofus.

In the end, my best encounters have always been in the workplace, especially since at that time there were no social networks, a drawing exchange site etc ... It remains the best way , I think of making a network and beyond that of new friends with whom we have a lot in common and common passions. All this creates a lot of motivation and emulation! It seems difficult to me to form such strong relationships only via the web and that is why I would strongly advise young illustrators not to stay in their corner and to try to gain experience and contacts within companies.

Contacts can also be made in schools (specialized or not).

Can you share a bit of your day as an illustrator?

I have roughly the same hours as when I worked in Ankama. I get up at 7.45 am for breakfast and then prepare and drive my youngest child to school by bike (I have 3 children: 7 years old / 13 years old / 15 years old). I start work at around 8:45 am, I check my emails, answer them, then I get started. I take a break of 1:30 at noon. As my wife or children often come home for lunch, I cook for them (often not haute cuisine at lunchtime! ^^ '). Then I like to take a nap of 20 minutes before getting back to it. I also try to do some stretching because I feel that my body suffers a little from this sedentary life .... I then continue my day until around 6.30 pm. Of course, I take a few breaks during the day to have coffee, to hug the cat, to look outside to rest my eyes, I also sometimes do a little shopping (post office / convenience store etc. .). I try to get up at least every hour because I feel more and more difficult to sit for a long time. I also strongly recommend that designers do physical activity, I have a lot of friends who, after 40 years, start to have back, arm and posture problems. Don't make the same mistake they and I. (I am not an athlete). I also catch up with certain things on weekends. I also have to think about communicating on the networks, responding to fans etc ... in general I do that in the evening after having eaten and do a little cleaning.

Fortunately, I don't have to look for work and prospect too much because I almost always have something to do.

Any advice when you're feeling down on your design?
Where do you find inspiration?

 Of course you have to try to find topics that interest you. For my part, the female body is one of the subjects that inspires me a lot, so I try to find outfits, posings or situtation that could enhance it. In addition to erotism, I also like it when there is a little touch of humor, an original design idea or something "cute" that emanates from it.

Sometimes you have to take a step back if you don't have the inspiration. That is, take a break or do something else. It could be another creative activity (sculpture / 3d / etc.), learning (anatomy, drapes, posings), or even a passive activity (reading, cinema etc.). It allows you to stay in a dynamic of creation or learning without getting stuck in front of a blank sheet.

When I need to unblock a situation quickly enough, rather than surfing the web after inhaling (it's not that often efficient), I will take a shower or go for a walk ... in short, an activity that lets the mind wander. mind. Take the opportunity to spin your idea cool without being distracted by a screen or an avalanche of reference images. Often ideas emerge. In general, if you have a good basic idea, the rest: drawing, colors, composition, follows more easily.

Something I rarely do (and that's a mistake) is to carry a notebook with you to jot down ideas that come to you at any time of the day.

Some of my fav artbooks :

Do you sketch a lot? Often? Or do you prefer to complete your ideas 100%? (Rather doodle or Illustration?)

Yes, a lot ! Maybe less today, but when I got serious about drawing (when I was 25), I drew almost every night of the week, to try to understand the anatomy, the poses etc ... also reproduced drawings that I liked. I easily went up to between 5 and 10 double-sided pages per day. It was a period in which I learned a lot, although the progress was very slow, it was often discouraging.

Today I continue to scribble, when I feel that my line is losing momentum. Frankly, I find my line a little slack these last months, and I know that it is because of my current lack of time to doodle, research, experiment, learn ...

Which anatomy books do you recommend?

“Anatomy for Sculptors” is really good! (Also available in French) but quite expensive:

https://anatomy4sculptors.com/collections/books/products/anatomy-for-sculptors-understanding-the-figure

There is also the series of books "Morpho" by Eyrolles editions, which are also very good for example the "synthetic forms". In addition, they are small, easy to install open ... in short, you can take it everywhere with you.

The one who wrote this book was teachers of morphology in the biggest French animation schools (les gobelins) and it is explained very clearly.

What are some online drawing tutorials that you would recommend to others?

-On Pinterest there are lots of interesting references. Just type "anatomy drawing" in pinterest

-For the French, I know that the site http://designspartan.com/ is very active, there are no exercises, advice and tutorials offered.

-The books and sites "How to think when you draw"

- full of references, inspiring images, tutorials, on the ARTSTATION.com site, we can also say that many image professionals are there

Do you make any commissions? (for individuals)

No, first of all for lack of time. And on the other hand, generally individuals have very low budgets. I can not afford to spend a day at 30 € / day for example. I have 3 children to feed (and a cat! ^^), and they eat a lot!

For information in France, if you want to live properly as a self-employed person, you have to invoice at least 350 € / day (In france we have about 1/3 part in social charges+ taxes and I have no paid holydays). So, besides my professional work, I prefer to keep my time of creation for Patreon / Gumroad or for myself: I try, when I have free time to progress further in drawing, or to test other means of expression (3D / sculpture / gundam for example).

maybe more on your pro / personal balance. What beach do you dedicate to yourself (or do you do hard?) For the pro? Do you manage to clearly define your life as a professional designer from the rest? Do you draw a lot outside of your "work"? If you have a family, or if you are in a relationship, is it fluid?

I am married with 3 children, so indeed, I have sometimes busy days ^^. Despite everything, I always found the time to create. I have had several great periods in my life.

I will start with the period when I worked in Ankama. At that time I had my first child: Charlotte(I was 28 years old). As she was very cool as a baby, and a baby naps a lot, I had a lot of free time to draw without any worries (in addition to my job at "ankama"). For information, pure drawing, I learned it more at home than in Ankama. In ankama, I learned more to work with others, to organize my work etc ...

It is a period when I learned a lot by sketching in the evening and on weekends.

When I had my 2nd child 2 years later, it was more difficult. 2 young children, it's hotter to manage, especially since it took Tom 2 years to get a good night's sleep ^^ '. Despite everything, I managed to produce all the illustrations for the wakfu game by working weekends and evenings to make ends meet, but I admit that I was quite tired.

When they got a little older, it worked out pretty well. We also moved closer to Ankama, which shortened my journey time to 30mins. So I always managed to save time to draw in addition to my work in Ankama. . Sometimes there are video games that grab me well (Skyrim / Zelda / assassin's creed) and that lower my productivity, but it also takes time to recharge and relax, it's essential.

My wife is also very understanding and knows that I need this creative time for my balance on one side and also to try to stay up to date with drawing, software etc ... Overall so it's been weeks of work and fairly dense family management, (my wife also works), but luckily we offer each other nice weekends quite regularly to "meet up" and unwind.

Afterwards, do I manage to delimit the pro / personal time? It's not always so easy, when you set out on this path it's sometimes a little obsessive, it's part of my life, and I always think about it a little, a lot, or passionately, even when I'm not not in front of my tablet. I compare it a bit to the blue and red Matrix pills. If you decide to take the drawing pill. Be ready to invest yourself in it, body and soul, to enter all these gigantic universes around creation, even if it means that it is sometimes too addicting, obsessive. With all that it entails as a very rewarding moment and more difficult moments of doubts. In any case, for my part I do not regret choosing the right pill, the great times I had, the gratitude you share with me, are well worth the effort! ^^

Do you plan your character design before the sketch? are you looking for inspiration or reference, what do you think of as you doodle?

In the case of a character design for a video game or animation, we generally have a description by the scriptwriter or game designer of the character. In this case you have to try to transcribe the role that the character has through the design. Whether through colors, shapes or even accessories. There are certain codes that are often used and make sense: dark colors, purple, red, angular shapes for bad guys, massive shapes for a physically strong character etc. But of course, all of these rules can be broken. You can also use accessories, or a companion to accentuate the idea for example. Generally I offer several ideas to the screenwriter to try to understand as well as possible what he is looking for.

Yes I often look at references, especially when inspiration does not come. Even though I sometimes don't look at anything on purpose so as not to be overly influenced.

For an illustration, I also sometimes make a "mood-board" of which here are some examples below. This is useful and sometimes even necessary if I have to draw something existing (a specific weapon for example) or obviously when I have to draw an existing character for a fanart. I also have a lot of artbooks that I look at regularly.

A moodBoard example (I use the freeware "Pureref" for mood boards)

Any tips for scribbling faster?

We must sketch , sketch and still sketch 😉. Don't hesitate to do quick drawing sessions, so you can quickly capture a pose, spending no more than 30 seconds or 1 minute per drawing.

how do you find each new pose and concept?

For each drawing it's quite different, sometimes I draw without asking too many questions with the ideas that come to me at the time while drawing. And at other times I can hang around long enough before I have what I think is the right idea, the little thing that will make the character interesting and that will make the creation process smoother. Other times, when I don't have a deadline, I let ideas hang around long enough in my head to mature them a bit, without rushing too much.

Sometimes also I go into a drawing and walk around without ever getting something satisfying, it's often quite annoying, disappointing, disheartening, but it happens relatively often. I have quite a few of these hiccups in my files.

In short, as you can see, there aren't really any rules. Inspiration and envy come and go, and I try to ride these waves the best I can. It comes with a very rewarding time when I get there and very difficult times when I draw bad.

For poses, I often draw several before finding one that suits me. The vast majority of me do them in my head, although again this may be a mistake, I think I should use photos more often to renew my repertoire.

How to create a Fanbase these days ... It's so hard and thankless ...

Difficult to answer this question as social networks and tools evolve very quickly. I started with Deviantart which seems to be on the decline for a while and the platform at the moment seems to be Instagram. The place to Be for graphic designers seems to be in perpetual evolution, and for each platform, I notice that the contents are often adapted (privileged portraits for insta for example).

As for the content, I would always advise to stay yourself and have fun, I think that's how we progress best, that we provide quality things and that suddenly, we stands out. Don't do it the other way around: try to get noticed before working on your design. Even if you orient your work a bit towards the platform, always keep in mind to have fun and not always deliver what people expect of you.

What's your plan's

my plan is to edit a new artbook for the end of this year ^^ and maybe after that i would like to work on a mobile game and still continue to draw some pinups ^^

Do you like pineapple pizza?

ah ah ^^ there's not lot of things i don't like but i really don't like pinapple !! and pizza is not also in my fav because i think i have a too tiny stomach for that !! (i'm only 61 kg weight)

Bulk some advice on drawings, feedback.

-draw a lot

-Do not wait until you have the pencil of your favourite designer, the € 5,000 crazy tablet , the 3-year training at € 8,000 a year before you start doing things. A pencil or a lambda pen, any A4 sheet of paper is enough to learn and do extraordinary things!

-When you are looking for poses, do not draw too big (like 5 cm), it allows you to have a more global vision of the pose / personal. Ditto on tablet, avoid zooming in too much (this is one of my flaws that I'm trying to correct).

-For the posing, also avoid having too many axes of direction.

- I consider that I lost a lot in drawing by going from paper to the graphics tablet. I don't know if this is due to the too easy CTRL + Z, the zoom, the pointer / pen offset related to the thickness of the screen. I am not the only one to see it. In short, be careful with that.

-There is now a multitude of content in terms of video games or series, in short, there are many ways to procrastinate and waste time on learning. Try to focus on content that brings you something and evacuate others, like games that have no end ... I have always found incredible those who complained of not progressing in drawing and who on the other hand knew all of them. the series, had played all the video games etc ... To progress it takes time to spend drawing, and today, we still only have 24 hours in a day to do everything ... But hey That said, I'm like everyone else, I have moments of weakness.

My technique for stopping an addicting game: I quit overnight, I uninstall the game, I get depressed for 1 week and it's over!

-If you are young, do not try too quickly to have "a style", try to vary your influences, your techniques for learning.

-When I started drawing more seriously, especially when I arrived in Ankama, every evening I really tried hard as they say today… I fought like a lion, with the eye of the tiger, in short, all expressions relating to big cats, to improve my drawing! A bit like a die-hard man, I crobed all kinds of things to try to understand the anatomy in particular. I think it's good to push yourself through at times with a pretty specific goal in mind, that's how you get results.

- That said, the results take a long time to come, it often takes 2 or 3 months of follow-up before seeing the progress. It’s quite daunting, but you have to hang in there and have a little patience.

-When you do this kind of drawing session, consider the first half hour as a warm-up. It will rarely come out of good things. Strangely enough, the best would often come to me when I was thinking I was going to quit, like after 2 hours of sketching ^^ ’.

-you can try to set goals in mind, and tell yourself they're video game bosses ^^.

Examples:

-for 3 weeks I make 3 A4 pages of hand / foot drawings every night)

-For 2 weeks: Every evening I do a learning and drawing session on a subject: Monday the torso, Tuesday the head + the neck, Wednesday the arms, Thursday the legs, Friday the drapes etc ...

-At times you can be tired, not wanting to draw at all, it happens to me and I know it happens to others. You have to try not to feel guilty and take the opportunity to do another creative activity, or learning. For my part I have tried sculpting, 3d modeling, Gunpla (gundam models), or even English lessons, in short doing things that will still teach you something while trying to relax.

-You can also take the opportunity to watch movies or books that you missed ... etc ... until the urge returns.

-If you want to work in the video game or animation industry and feel that you are not creative or not cut out for drawing, remember that there are also many other professions possible in these areas, from the most creative to the most technical.

-Do not hesitate to enter a company by the back door or for a position that you did not quite aim for. Indeed, character-designer positions are quite rare for example.

-Meet other designers. Several means are possible: at school (clubs, etc.), Drawing school, Work, etc.

For a young cartoonist just out of school, I would advise getting his first experience in a company rather than freelance solo. Not only does it allow people to exchange views and learn to work with others, but it is also how we make contacts, which is important for professional life. I myself am very shy, and still managed to meet a lot of very interesting people and share unforgettable moments. Especially since Freelancing alone in an office is not for everyone.

- it can also be very beneficial to have healthy competition with a friend. To try to amaze the other, and in return to be amazed by the progress of the other. I know several couples of friends who have progressed in this way, by challenging each other.

-For a few years, I drew a lot in the evening after my intense days in Ankama. A hot shower gave me about 2 hours of energy in the evening. In any case it worked for me ...

-Have a concrete project that can be completed in a short time, perhaps very motivating. Alone or with others.

- Pay attention to your posture. When you're young you don't have too many worries, but some friends who are in their 40s have arm or back problems. If you want to last, try to be careful, do some stretching exercises every now and then or play sports. I am not a posture specialist but you can easily find information on this subject.

-Be aware not to stay in your comfort zone. coming out of it expanded your knowledge and your comfort zone.

-It's not a very easy subject, but be careful not to be exploited, your work has or will be of value:

example of bad customers:

- "I will pay you in visibility"

- " come ! We're a bunch of friends, we're going to make a game that rocks! and in 1 or 2 years, when the game works, we will pay you "

- "we need 200 illustrations for a card game, it's paid 10 € for illustration"

  Character Design Tips:

 -Try to tell yourself the story of this character; where is he from? what are his intentions? what is his character? What are the strengths and weaknesses? how old is he ? what are their areas of interest? all of this can lead to a strong idea.

-Avoid having too many different ideas about one character. It is often good to have a design element that hooks and gives a strong identity to the character. Spend time trying to find this eye-catching element, you don't have to stand in front of a blank sheet of paper to find this idea, you can do it by letting your mind wander.

-Avoid putting too much detail all over the character, let it breathe in places and leave the details in particular places.

- also think about the silhouette which helps to instantly identify the character

- Also think about his attitudes? how does it work? what are his iconic poses? his favorite expressions etc ...

-good and every now and then just forget about it and do whatever you want eh :).

Thanks for reading me, hoping you have some interesting things there.

take your pencils !!! ^^

Additional interview (in French on Digital Painting School)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgH0A4S6JZE