January 31, 2012

Poignant illustrations

Pascal Campion is an French-American illustrator and animator living in San Francisco whose works have appeared in Dreamworks Animation, Disney TV, MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network,  and PBS. Like many artists, he draws his inspiration from everyday life.  Illustrators are just like writers who have to keep sketching everyday to improve their technique and to bring to life what their imaginations dream up.

Reading about this amazing artist and about his philosophy of sharing his sketches with the world and how vulnerable it makes him feel at times, to be exposed, brings to the surface an artist's wost and most recurrent nightmare: fear of judgment and rejection.  It's reassuring, to some extent, to know that even the greatest, most talented artists out there feel like this to some degree. In his own words, "... the more you draw and the more you share your work, the more you will inspire your peers and people around you, and the more motivated you'll get."

His greatest and most useful advice, "....art and talent is not a gift from god. I don't subscribe at all at all to this point of view. The art of drawing is purely mechanical. The more you practice, the better you get. There's no secret involved, no formulas, no crutch. If you want to become an artist...DRAW! Don't look for formulas and shortcuts." So, YOU artist, yes you out there, go on and do YOUR thing.


My favorite illustrations thus far:













{Illustrations by Pascal Campion}

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