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3DTotal: You’ve mentioned comic strips a fair few times throughout this interview, so what is it about comics that inspire you so greatly, and how does this inspiration transfer to your more painterly digital artworks?
Morgan: A comic strip is the media which I knew first of all at school, and for which I had at once a huge interest. It was the first time I met professionals because we had professors already known in the comic strip industry. It was, for me, one of the most interesting classes because I really understood that a comic strip is a true relationship between the artist and the reader. You have a story to tell and there are codes
to follow, as in the movies, in order to make the reader feel what you have in mind. A comic strip is, according to me, a true science of storytelling. Line art and colour are also stages of storytelling. The result is more than clear to the reader, and you learn your errors very quickly.
The link between text and images is essential; the way your eyes go through the pictures has to be as clear as possible, which represents a whole lot of work beforehand. I consider comic strips as real, personal commitment in the duration: a true adventure. I find in every frame of comic strips an illustration; the framing is meant to say something to the reader and the drawing also serves the subject. It is maybe the reason why I try to involve it in the illustrations I create today. I am also much more attracted to the boards coming from either graphic novels or authors’ books. Perfect inkings/unblemished outlines
speak less to me than one simple line art or a direct colour work. I feel the intentions of the author in this kind of work much more. I thus take these things which are appropriate for the comic strip and try to use them in my illustrations. Having no personal graphic style in comic strips (although it is something on which I’m working) I use the knowledge I have as a basic starting point in illustration.
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3DTotal: Your character work is quite interesting in contrast to your landscape paintings; they can be either highly stylised, or highly detailed and realistic looking. Which method do you prefer, given the choice, and why?
Morgan: I would say that I have no preference. It’s just that realistic drawing represents for me a technical challenge, whereas cartoon is a real relaxation. For instance, I like working with attention on the modelling of the faces: it is a thing in which an artist can easily be restricted to his own tricks, and thus it requires a constant return on foundations, anatomy and analysis of bodies and movements. To succeed in making characters understandable, as precisely as possible, the expressions, anatomical specificity, clothing details and body language is a really interesting challenge. Instead, cartoon style allows us to have complete freedom. Stylising a character, finding other forms, being more nervous in the line art and letting your pen go on the sheet, is something incredibly fun… I particularly like working on general forms, being mostly more satisfied with my preparatory sketches, rather than the finalised one. |
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3DTotal:I find you choice of canvas sizes very interesting: some of your works are panoramic; others find themselves as tall, thin canvases. What decides on the size of your canvas when you start a painting?
Or do you find that your canvas size is constantly changing whilst you work on a piece? What decisions do you make when framing your paintings to keep the viewer excited by your subject matter?
Morgan: I generally have no precise idea of the format I will work on when I decide to make an illustration. My personal works are often born after I have seen an interesting photo or movie. So, I have a very first idea which comes to me, and I put it very quickly on the sheet. Then, although it may not be the best way to go, I often re-size my images to keep focus on what I want to convey. I often start on a vertical format which will be finally a wide panoramic. However, if the subject strongly fits itself (in particular when characters are high-angle framed, allowing me to express the idea of a person swamped by his/her environment), my format remains constant throughout the process of creation. But generally, and my pictures don’t contradict me, I work set designs in horizontal format, and for more intimate subjects I try
to work them in a less conventional format.
However, there is a media in which I force myself to define beforehand my frames: comic strips. To keep the viewer excited by the subject I’m working on, I try to create the path that the eye will follow during the first visualisation of the image. I think it is a truly important part in the preliminary study, and one which I always keep in mind throughout my process of creation. Indeed, I often ask people who surround me to peek at my image and try to tell me which path their eye followed, and thus what they deducted from it. This test is very important and helps me to quickly realise if the visual is meaningful or not. I usually
make this test when I begin to get swallowed too much by details which could possibly turn out obsolete.
Finally, I draw this framing ‘science’ from the pictures of other artists that I have looked at every day. For me, if my glance circulates in a natural way across a picture, then goes into the details, I feel that the
artist has already made fifty percent of the work and this is what I try to reproduce in my own works. I always keep in mind that the viewers’ eyes never make mistakes. |
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3DTotal: It’s interesting that you mentioned ‘science’ in your last answer, as I was thinking the process in which you approach your comic strips sounds quite like a scientific formula. Do you get more overall satisfaction from your comic strips or from your digital paintings, or are they equally satisfying?
Morgan: I would not say that it is similar to a scientific formula, but rather to codes. In my opinion, even if we have the most accurate drawing, if the framing or the composition does not serve the drawing, the image will not be interpreted as wanted. This “science” in comic strips is something very apprehendable, but also very rigorous. Paradoxically, some artists do everything to break these rules and manage very well, but it is a risk to take with regards to the reader. The only boards of comics which I have made at the moment were for school, and a few years later I feel more satisfied with my current illustrations. However, I try to use the daily learning in the field of concept art to approach the creation of an album of comic strips. |
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People say that, for a young author, a first album is never anticipated, but a first draft can very quickly create a good or bad reputation. It is thus a question of taking time and being sure to have in hand the elements which allow approaching a project in a serene way. Making an album - just one - has been a true dream since I was a young boy, so you can imagine what satisfaction I shall have when it happens,
or when I put the last brush stroke to the last frame.
3DTotal: It has been a pleasure speaking to you, and I wish you all the very best of luck for the future.
Keep in touch!
Morgan: Thank you for the interest you have put into my work and me. Of course, we will keep in touch!
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