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3DTotal: Hi Cyril, first of all can you tell us a little about yourself and your story so far?
Cyril: Well, my name’s Cyril (pronunciation: ‘sir-&l (see-rl, in English)), I was born in Switzerland, had a European education, and left in my mid-twenties to study at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). I then got a job in the game industry at Turbine Entertainment Software, working on several MMORPGs for about seven years. I eventually realised that my passion really was illustration and I became a freelancer about four years ago. From a very young age I was constantly drawing, so I suppose I should have seen it coming. So far, and I still love it!
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3DTotal: Can you recall the moment that you realised that illustration was your passion? Was there something which sparked the epiphany, or had you been thinking about it for some time? What did it feel like to finally realise this after seven years in the games industry?
Cyril: I always knew that it was my passion. My mother told me that, ever since I was a toddler the only way to keep me quiet was to give me a pencil and a piece of paper and I would metaphorically disappear into my own universe for aeons at a time, to the delight of my parents I’m sure. I was extremely lucky that way, as I have met many a teenager who simply did not know what they wanted to do. After a few too many years in the industry my job started to feel like routine; I was making art and I got paid, but there was no passion in it anymore. I got jaded, or perhaps burnt out, as it were. The problem wasn’t making art, but I felt I was doing it for the wrong reasons and there were also differences of opinion about game design at the time, with management pulling in one direction and personal experience pushing in the other. Retrospectively, it turned out that experience was right, but by the time they realised this it was much too late and I had left. |
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3DTotal: I’ve been told that you were at Comic-Con this year. Can you tell us a bit about Comic-Con and what artists like yourself can gain from such an event?
Cyril:I am not going this year (2008), because they have changed the rules in the Artist Alley (AA), making it impossible for artists like myself, to show our art properly. By “artists like myself”, I mean people who need a display that goes higher than 4 feet and more than 3 feet of table space. This seems to be the new regulations right now and I can't use that space in any way, shape or form. It is fine, for instance, for artists who sign or work on comic pages and don't require to showcase their prints behind them, but that is how I advertise. The alternative was to get a paying booth outside the AA, but that got full really quickly and though a space opened recently, it was already too late for me to change my plans, sadly. It is also quite expensive, even if you share the space with another artist, so I will probably have to write the ComicCon experience as a loss, even though the primary goal is to meet new people, Art Directors and other artists.. |
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3DTotal: Which forums do you actively participate in right now, and which have given you the greatest scope for artistic improvement/development, so far? Any recommendations for artists out there who can’t decide where to invest their time and energies?
Cyril: I do post occasionally on ConceptArt.org and on DeviantArt.com, but it depends a lot on my work schedule and mostly on NDAs (non-disclosure agreements which forbid you to show anything before it is released by the client). Both CA and DA have their advantages and inconveniences. I think CA is more purely graphics oriented, whilst DA has a broader appeal to everything - photography included. I would simply explore both and check what kind of posts get the kind of responses you’re looking for. Of course, there are many other forums worth exploring that have great content. Sadly, I don’t have the time to participate in all of them, but I would if I could.
3DTotal: So what was your role at Comic-Con, this year? Do you have plans for next year’s conference?
Cyril: I was showcasing my art, socialising with fellow artists, meeting old and new clients and selling posters. While most posters are available online, I tend to sell limited editions only at conventions and also tend to show new art there first, if possible (a little appreciation for the effort of showing up). In
clinical terms, I was networking and marketing myself, as it is my bread and butter. Skills matter, of course, but who-you-know or meet matters almost as much, and sometimes more.
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