Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

As you may know, Geek-Art is a partner of Chromaa, the festival dedicated to artists from film, publishing, and video games taking place in Nantes, France on May 23rd-24th. I’ll be dedicating several newsletters to this fantastic event, which will bring together some of the very best in illustration and concept art.

For this first interview of May, I’m delighted to ask my questions to one of the artists who will be giving talks during the weekend: David Levy, art director and concept designer. A major figure in the industry, he has worked on iconic universes such as Avatar, Star Wars, and Dune, as well as with studios like Disney and HBO. Passionate about imaginary worlds, exploration, and the future of design, his work and storytelling inspire both film and video games.

Many thanks to him for taking the time to answer my questions—and see you at Chromaa!

Force à la Création !

Thomas

David “Vyle” Levy : the interview

First things first : can you introduce yourself to our readers? Where are you from, where do you live… and what first pulled you into the world of illustration?

Hi my name is David Levy, I am originally from Montpellier, France, and I have been living in the USA since 1999. I am currently based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where I work from home for the movie industry. I used to draw a lot as a kid, mostly cars, Nasa vehicles, spaceships and astronauts.

I then got two diplomas, one in industrial design in Toulon and the other in Interior architecture in Maastricht, Holland. One of my friend got me hired as an intern for a video-game company, and I have been working in entertainment and aerospace design for thirty years since.

How would you describe your visual universe? How did you “lock it in” creatively, and was there a specific moment when you thought: “That’s it, this is how I want to draw ”?

I was always extremely inspired by the movie designers and illustrators from the original Star Wars trilogy, but also Alien and Terminator and Blade Runner. Particularly Ron Cobb, Syd Mead, and also oil painters such as John Berkey and Victor Spahn and line artists related to sailing such as Jean Olivier Heron. Of course I was also a big comic book aficionado. From french comics to American and Japanese, also Indian comics.

Of course as a french person from the 70’s, Tintin, Enki Bilal, Moebius, Franquin and many many more. For many years I never saw drawing or illustrating as a goal or a job at all. It was just a solitary pleasure where I felt at home where my mind could surf waves on inspiration without judgement. When all this inspiration began mixing with industrial designs, that’s where I felt the most at home. Technology and art.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone dreaming of becoming an illustrator?

Most importantly, always do what you love doing first and foremost. Make sure you have a way to make money, but always on the side make sure you do what you enjoy as it will most surely lead to your future job. Make sure you keep an eye on your finance, learn how to manage your budget and a financial portfolio to prepare for difficult times or when you want to take a break. Illustrating can be tough on life, always have a safety net.

Also, be ambitious, but don’t be a dick.

From your perspective, what’s the reality of the job, and what are the toughest parts?

The difficult part of the job is juggling your personal life. Family, money, finding contracts and so on. Illustrating takes literally years of practice and dedication. It can be hard on your psychological balance.

AI is the hot topic these days, all over conversations and social media. I’ll be honest: Geek-Art does not support generative AI at all, for obvious reasons. But it is really interesting to get the artists’ point of view. How do you feel about it?

To me, production art and art have been going through a separation process for quite a long time already. Expanding demand for content, mixed with budget reductions and competition for viewership have created a perfect storm for artists to fall into, and AI is kind of a fatal blow right now.

It is way too tempting for productions to not use AI in the future as it allows them to remove artists from the process and in their eyes save money.

Now is it entirely true? Definitely not, since creatives will always generate more interest than finance teams ever will, but that fight between pure profit and art has existed since the dawn of time.

Right now AI is decimating our industry, does that mean that it will have the last word? Definitely not. I expect that artists and creatives will ALWAYS have the last word. I am just not sure which shape it will take or what it will mean for our tools and jobs. It is too early to tell.

If you had to pick a single favorite piece from your portfolio, which would it be and why?

I suffer from a horrible case of impostor syndrome, and I can barely look at any of my work without feeling that they only deserve to live in a trash can.

The only work I produced in the past that has not made me upset is probably the multiple portraits of my daughters done through the years.

(note: then I will post my own favorite ! Thomas)

Finally, what keeps your creative spark alive? What inspires you the most?

What inspires me the most for art are: outdoors, sailing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, snowboarding technology, space, architecture, books, technology and nature.

Follow David Levy on his portfolio, Instagram and Artstation !

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

This week, in my selection of fantastic portfolios, I went in search of truly original worlds with bold, radical visual styles. First, the incredible concept art of Ekaterina Yakovleva with its 2010s video game vibe; the mecha battles by ONE, in an old-school, almost punk comic style; the dreamlike creatures of Nurika Benuri; and the collage/textured style of Angela Wu, especially in her DC Comics covers.

In these difficult times for artists and illustrators (with the recent news of massive layoffs at Disney/Marvel, affecting creative teams among others), let’s show them our support and strength. Their creativity is our inspiration.

Force à la création !

Thomas Olivri

PORTFOLIOS

Soutenez les artistes présentés en vous les suivant sur les réseaux via les liens en fin de newsletter !

Ekaterina Yakovleva

ONE

Nurika Benuri

Angela Wu

LES RÉSEAUX DES ARTISTES DE LA SEMAINE

Ekaterina Yakovleva : Artstation - Instagram

ONE : Instagram - Artstation

Nurika Benuri : Pixiv - Portfolio

Angela Wu : Instagram - Artstation

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

This week, I once again invite you to discover fascinating graphic worlds from across the globe. The incredible concept art of Hanho Lee, the strange and unsettling world of Neg, the beautiful illustrations and concept art of Papayou, and the dark fantasy universe of Benjamin Giletti.

As always, I encourage you to share my selections with others and help spread the word about this newsletter, which is growing day by day!

Please note, exceptionally there is no interview this week, so I’ll see you next Monday for a new selection of portfolios!

Have a great week, everyone!

Force à la création !

Thomas Olivri

PORTFOLIOS

Support the featured artists by following them on social media through the links at the end of the newsletter!

Hanho Lee

Papayou

Neg

Benjamin Giletti

SOCIALS OF THE WEEK

Hanho Lee : Artstation - Instagram

Papayou : Instagram - Twitch

Neg : Pixiv - Skeb

Benjamin Giletti : Instagram - Portfolio

[Read this interview in English by clicking here]

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

This week’s interview features the work of Fjell, and I’m delighted to introduce him to you! This incredibly talented Norwegian artist has developed a visual style I truly love, somewhere between comics and manga.

But above all—and he explains it perfectly in his answers—each of his illustrations tells a story you instantly want to dive into. Mysterious places, endearing characters, a sense of mystery and adventure… always that little “something” that pulls you into his world. A real treat!

Many thanks to him for taking the time to answer my questions!

Force à la Création !

Thomas

Fjell : the interview

First things first : can you introduce yourself to our readers? Where are you from, where do you work… And what first pulled you into the world of illustration?

Hello! I’m Fjell, a Norwegian artist. For the past three years I’ve been living in Sydney, and just recently I moved back to Europe. I’ve been drawing since I was little, but I first started taking it seriously and creating storytelling illustrations around 2020.

How would you describe your visual universe? How did you “lock it in” creatively, and was there a specific moment when you thought: “That’s it, this is how I want to draw ”?

I would describe my visual universe as whimsical, melancholy and colourful. Visually I’m inspired by artists like Miyazaki and Tove Jansson’s Moomin. I also take a lot of inspiration from classical children’s literature and stories. There’s innocence and beauty in them, but they also deal with dangerous and difficult themes that you find in more mature work. I find this contrast incredibly captivating. The Hobbit, The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables are some of the stories that I love.

When I was younger I only drew characters and painted a lot of portraits, but always felt very unfulfilled with my illustrations. About six years ago I became friends with another artist who gave me the push to try drawing environments, and that made something click.

My primary goal with an illustration now is capturing a moment from a story. When I’m sketching, inking or colouring an illustration, I always focus on what it makes me feel. When I capture the feeling that I’m after, that’s when I know I’ve got something, and it’s incredibly satisfying.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone dreaming of becoming an illustrator?

I think the most important thing you can do is use reference and have a critical eye. When I was a beginner environment artist I improved a lot with every piece I did, simply by using a lot of style reference every time I made a piece. There is a lot of value in critically comparing your own work to the artists you admire to see where you have room to grow.

I would observe and take mental notes of the shapes other artists used in their ink, how they balanced detail in their composition, and how they simplified and stylized things. If you work in a vacuum and do the same thing over and over without comparing where you are with where you want to be, it will take much longer to get there.

From your perspective, what’s the reality of the job, and what are the toughest parts?

I’m always working, but never really making enough. Working a lot suits me personally, and there is tremendous freedom that comes with the freelance lifestyle. I work from home, I’ve travelled and lived in multiple countries, but I’m often stressed and crunching during the holidays and times I would rather spend with my family.

I also very rarely have time to work on personal projects. I would love to animate more, make videos, write stories, but I very rarely have the time.

AI is the hot topic these days, all over conversations and social media. I’ll be honest: Geek-Art does not support generative AI at all, for obvious reasons. But it is really interesting to get the artists’ point of view. How do you feel about it?

I agree with the artist’s consensus on AI, of course. However, I choose to have an optimistic outlook on the future. I personally don’t think AI will be the end of artists or the art industry. I think AI has an inherent issue in its lack of scarcity. A hundred films that have been generated by “no one”, en-masse, with no soul or story behind them, will fall short compared to a single project that has love and time and knowledge poured into it by real people.

Regardless of what happens, I will never stop drawing or sharing my work. The joy of creating and connecting with other people and artists is what matters to me.

If you had to pick a single favorite piece from your portfolio, which would it be and why?

“Mage” might be my favourite piece that I’ve done! I’m still really happy with the mood that I captured, the storytelling of the character emerging from shadow into light, and the detail balance in the piece.

Finally, what keeps your creative spark alive? What inspires you the most?

I get a lot of inspiration from video games and other artists! I’ll often see a location in a game that I’m playing that will give me an idea for a scene or moment that I’d like to illustrate.

Suivez Fjell sur Instagram et sur Artstation !

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

This week, a portfolio selection highlighting primarily the female figure in imaginary worlds. Dive into the dark universe of Juan Gomez Cabello, the shamanic colors of Kotomi Mo, the esoteric graphic style of Mingyi Gan, and the softness of Sophyucha.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to announce that Geek-Art is the official partner of Chromaa, the first festival dedicated to artists from film, publishing, and video games, which will take place in my city of Nantes on May 23rd and 24th. I’m very happy to contribute to what is already shaping up to be an exceptional festival—I’ll tell you more about it in upcoming newsletters!

Bonne semaine à toutes et à tous !

Force à la création !

Thomas Olivri

PORTFOLIOS

Support the featured artists by following them on social media through the links at the end of the newsletter!

Mingyi Gan

Sophyucha

Kotomi Mo

Juan Gómez Cabello

SOCIALS OF THE WEEK

Mingyi Gan : Portfolio - Instagram

Sophyucha : Instagram - Artstation - Bluesky

Kotomi Mo : Instagram

Juan Gómez Cabello: Artstation

[Read this interview in English by clicking here]

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

If you’ve been following the Geek-Art newsletters, you’ve definitely come across the work of Hazem Ameen, also known as Canine Brush on Instagram, a few weeks ago. This illustrator based in India fascinated me so much with his portfolio that I reached out to learn more about his journey and his vision of the illustration world.

He kindly agreed to answer my questions : many thanks to him! I hope you’ll enjoy this more intimate dive into his work and inspirations. I feel that Middle Eastern fantasy is a genre that is really, really underrepresented in Europe, a real mistake in my opinion, which I’m humbly trying to help correct here.

If you enjoy his work, don’t hesitate to follow him and show your support on his social media, which you’ll find at the end of the interview!

Force à la Création !

Thomas

Hazem Ameen : the interview

First things first : can you introduce yourself to our readers? Where are you from, where are you based… and what first pulled you into the world of illustration?

My name is Hazem Ameen, and I’m a freelance artist based in Kerala, India. Like many artists, I’ve been drawing since I was a child, but started to take it more seriously in my highschool years when I discovered the career realms of concept art and illustration.

How would you describe your visual universe? How did you “lock it in” creatively, and was there a specific moment when you thought: “That’s it, this is how I want to draw ”?

My visual universe has changed over the years. Originally, the very act of making a digital painting was satisfying enough that I tried everything from superheroes to sci-fi, while gradually settling on Fantasy, a genre I’m very interested in, because it’s a combination of my two great loves, history and mythology. In more recent years, I’ve been leaning more into Fantasy art representing Middle Eastern and Indian cultures, which is closer to home for me. This has resulted in my first fantasy artbook ‘The Shrines of Araartu’ based on Arab and mesopotamian myth, and my upcoming graphic novel made in collaboration with author Deepak Thomas ‘The Headless Horselord’ based on medieval Indian history and folklore.

I don’t necessarily need to ‘lock in’ in order to draw. The mark of a professional is to do the job whenever and wherever you can and get it done on time. I take a very workman approach to art in general, and just like a brick layer does not need inspiration to start his job, neither do I. The very first time I saw the work of famed fantasy artist Even Mehl Amundsen, I do remember telling myself that if I could emulate that, I would be pretty happy with myself.

What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to someone dreaming of becoming an illustrator?

Know why you want to do it. This is not an easy career, there are many who like to draw but don’t go down this career path, and keep it ‘undiluted’ as a hobby. If you truly feel a calling, and a burning passion that can get you through the muck and mud of grinding your skill for years on end on a lonely road (not that it has to be that way, but this is my personal experience) then I would say cling on to why you wanted to do it in the first place.

From your perspective, what’s the reality of the job, and what are the toughest parts?

The reality of the job is that it is a job like any other. I might like it, I might feel really invested in certain projects and less so in others, but the reality is that what was once an unreachable dream becomes a mundane reality. The trick then (almost like a marriage) is to remind yourself why you fell in love with it in the first place.

Nowadays I (and many others) have started their own projects to tell their own stories. Working for yourself sometimes can be a great reminder of why you love art. An artist’s toughest enemy is always their own mind. Leaving the art bubble to do the things that we artists usually don’t, like forming relationships, exercising, traveling and having other interests truly add to your toolkit as an artist and help you in the long run as a person.

AI is the hot topic these days, all over conversations and social media. I’ll be honest: Geek-Art does not support generative AI at all, for obvious reasons. But it is really interesting to get the artists’ point of view. How do you feel about it?

Even after the last few years, I don’t really have a strong opinion on it. I cannot support unethical AI use that feeds on the work of artists to displace them, and the corporations that are too eager to do so and the cost of the environment and their employees. But at the same time, I don’t see a future where AI is made irrelevant as it grows in other fields and markets as well. Maybe we will learn to work with it, maybe we will reject it altogether and bring out the oil paints. Maybe it’ll open up new exciting possibilities or new dystopias too horrifying to imagine. I expect all of that to happen, but we’ll see.

If you had to pick a single favorite piece from your portfolio, which would it be and why?

I would choose ‘Al Uzza’. It’s a painting that I toiled over during my vacation break while I was studying in 3dsense in Singapore, and the great Stanley Lau (Artgerm) gave me some pointers that improved the piece. It was also my road into depicting ancient Arabian mythology, which would eventually blossom into my fantasy artbook ‘The Shrines of Araartu’. (Note : it is my favorite too ! TO)

Finally, what keeps your creative spark alive? What inspires you the most?

What inspires me more than anything is the impact that art and stories can have on people, including myself. There are many instances where a piece of art, a novel, a movie or a game has deeply moved and inspired people to reflect on their life. To be able to play a part in that or do it myself would be one of the greatest honors I could have. But most of the time, it's because something looks cool and exciting, and the childhood wonder can sometimes overcome the jaded adult cynicism and be happy about creating again.

Suivez Hazeem sur Instagram et sur Artstation !

Retrouvez son travail dans son livre illustré “The Shrines of Araartu”.

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

Today, I’m diving into portfolios that will delight fans of Warhammer, Magic, League of Legends, and fantasy in general!

These are experienced and incredibly talented artists who have brought our favorite universes to life with great skill. Don’t forget to follow them on social media via the links available at the end of the newsletter!

I hope you’ll enjoy this selection—if you do, feel free to share the newsletter around you!

Force à la création !

Thomas Olivri

PORTFOLIOS

Support the featured artists by following them on social media through the links at the end of the newsletter!

Akreon

Anna Podedworna, aka Akreon, is a Polish concept artist and a veteran of the entertainment industry. She has worked for Riot Games, CD Projekt RED, and Wizards of the Coast. Pretty impressive! Exceptional illustrations and definitely an artist to keep an eye on.

Diego Andrade

I’m a huge fan of the visual universe of Mexican illustrator Diego Andrade: his very fine, precise linework and beautifully chosen color blocks. His dragons are especially stunning!

Hung Nguyen

Another fantastic portfolio, and a Vietnamese artist who takes us into a dark, richly crafted, and wonderfully badass fantasy mythology!

Neil Roberts

A heavyweight of British illustration! Readers of Games Workshop’s Black Library will recognize the covers of their favorite Warhammer 40,000 books. A British touch that works especially well (unsurprisingly) with the worlds of Judge Dredd and WWII Commando comics. And those colors!!!

SOCIALS OF THE WEEK

Akreon : Instagram - Artstation - Tik Tok

Diego Andrade : Instagram - Portfolio

Hung Nguyen : Instagram - Threads - Facebook

Neil Roberts: Artstation - Artstation