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In university Geoffroy Thorens studied graphic design and advertisement, which led to his career in concept art and illustration. However, he considers illustration not only as a job but also as a pleasure. He started to seriously work on illustrations in November 2006 when he first discovered the world of concept-art and his career in this field started when he followed a job announcement that led him to work on Sega’s Sonic game for Aoki and after that on the illustrations for the role game Polaris

IT’S ART: Where are you working presently?

Geoffrey Thorens: I’ve been working with “Éclair” for two months now as a VFX concept artist on the movie “Blood: The Last Vampire.” I will also be the matte painter on the same movie.

IA: When we visit your site we can feel the advancements that you have made in multiple fields. Can you tell us more about the evolution of your style and techniques?

GT: With concept art, I have learned how to paint fast by fully exploiting the personalized brushes of Photoshop. I have created so many brushes since I started and I am trying presently to reduce their number. I would like to simplify my creation process, but to be able to do so I must feel more familiar and comfortable with drawing. That’s why today I’m motivating myself by working with a real pencil and on real papers.

IA: Can you tell us more about your influences?

GT: There are many of them. I started drawing by copying comics and Mangas. The older brother of one of my friends helped me a lot in evolving my skills. I then studied graphic arts, typography, history of art and many other interesting courses in university that I learned a lot from. During this period I went out to museums and copied the works of famous painters and sculptors then, with the help of the internet, I discovered many artists that have inspired my own work, specifically Craig Mullins.

IA: You have created many portrait illustrations this year, is this a coincidence or a choice?

GT: What you can see on my website is just a small portion of the work I’ve done, some projects are confidential and I can’t upload them on my site. At the end of the year many of my works are orders for clients and not personal drawings.

IA: While looking at your Speed Paintings we can see that you have found a new way to express yourself by playing even more with the colors and the shapes. Can you please detail to our readers the concept of colors in your work?

GT: I usually start my work around a hint of the general mood. I build up the background following this initial idea by applying heavily the colors (or levels of gray) and I start refining them as the work goes. When the composition and the forms are well defined, I add the lighting. The finishing is made by accentuating lightly these areas with Photoshop density tools that lightens the work and at the same time saturates the neighboring colors.

IA: How would you define your style today?

GT: I wouldn’t know how to define it myself. I guess I’m leaving it for others to define my style.

IA: We have also noticed that you have comic projects on your website? Is this a new interest? Is it personal or was it a project?

GT: This was my graduation project in 2004-2005. Doing this project really helped me improving my pencil drawings, and I haven’t tried to draw comics since that period.

IA: What do you think of comic books? Video games? Or other forms of art?

GT: I would really like to work and create in both fields mentioned above, and add to that the cinema.

IA: Do you have any projects coming up that you can tell us about?

GT: A friend and I have already worked on a scenario for a comic book. I’m just looking for the time to start with it.

Geoffroy Thorens Homepage on CG Gallery

Geoffroy Thorens Official Website

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