Ένα παιδί που δεν ήξερε καλά καλά να ζωγραφίζει, πλέον κάνει το όνειρό του πραγματικότητα στις μεγάλες παραγωγές με μια ταμπλέτα Wacom Intuos.  Διαβάστε την ιστορία και τα μυστικά του.

Pascal Campion Masters the Timeless Art of Storytelling with Today’s Digital Tools

During his childhood in Martigues, France, Pascal Campion dreamed of one day creating characters for Marvel Comics. But Campion doubted that his dream would actually come true.

“I loved to draw, but wasn’t very good at it. It took me a lot of practice to be able to do decent work,” said 40-year-old Campion, who works as a freelance artist in Foster City, California and develops visuals for movies, TV shows, music videos, children’s books and magazines.

After attending art school in France, Campion moved to the United States and taught himself to use computers and tablets. Through hard work and a willingness to try new technologies, he sharpened his drawing skills and developed his talent for coloring, composition and storytelling. Through his own company, Oogely Boogely, Campion now works on high-profile projects such as the Dreamworks film Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

He’s even realized his boyhood dream.

“It’s amazing. Just yesterday, I finished a job for Marvel,” said Campion, adding that in the past year he has created a Wolverine comic book cover and developed artwork for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show.

The Intuos tablet gives Campion the freedom to experiment with a wide array of colors. “Without the tablet, I probably wouldn’t have arrived at these color combinations, including pink tones, that aren’t normally associated with the Wolverine character,” says Campion. “I think these colors convey the emotion of the scene.”

Learning new tools of the trade
Campion has succeeded in part by embracing modern tools for artists. To create comic book covers and concept art for movies and TV, Campion uses a Wacom Intuos tablet, which he says is especially useful for the coloring process.

Campion has succeeded in part by embracing modern tools for artists. To create comic book covers and concept art for movies and TV, Campion uses a Wacom Intuos tablet, which he says is especially useful for the coloring process.

“With the click of a button, you can instantly apply any variation or a color, and it improves your ability to experiment,” said Campion.

He no longer has to wait for paint to dry, as he did as a student at Ecole des Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg in eastern France. In school and early in his career, Campion had little exposure to electronic tools. In 2000, he stuffed his gouache paints, brushes and wooden drawing board into a large, yellow duffel and boarded a plane bound for Kansas City. When Campion began working as an artist in the United States, he learned to use computers and taught himself Flash and Photoshop. About 12 years ago, he picked up his first Wacom tablet and eventually combined it with powerful software like After Effects to render high-definition 3-D images.

The high-tech overhaul helped Campion progress as an artist, but the tools were only part of what led to his success. Just as important was his eagerness to tell great stories.

“The key to this image is the composition and the spatial relationship of the jumpers and the surrounding elements,” says Campion. Using a tablet and Flash software, he could quickly and easily resize and reposition the people jumping off the cliff without repeatedly redrawing the characters.

Becoming a better storyteller
“When I was a kid and realized I wanted to do comics, I didn’t want to do it because of the drawings, I wanted to do it because of the stories they told,” he said.

As a teenager, Campion enjoyed tales concerning his favorite cartoon character, Brousaille, a college student with a very regular life. “He’s not a superhero of any sort,” said Campion. “What’s amazing about him is how he sees the world. He always sees things other people can’t see.”

Through Brousaille, Campion realized that storytelling requires keen observation, and over the years the artist learned to pay attention to the details of everyday life.

“When I look at things, I try to describe them with words,” said Campion. “For instance, if I see a white light on top of a leaf and it’s a darker shade of green below, I’ll actually tell myself what I’m seeing. Later, I can recreate it from the memory of the words.”

When Campion transforms his observations into artwork, he uses the Intuos tablet, because it allows him to work faster and experiment more.

“The ability to go faster allows you to try so many variations,” he said. “Even if you fail, you might see something you can reuse somewhere. That way, you learn and grow so much faster.”

Experimentation opens the door for happy accidents, which Campion experienced while working on Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  “As a fluke, I drew some conical trees, and that turned out to be something they wanted me to reuse over and over,” he said. “It became a mainstay of the graphic language of the movie. If I had done it on paper, I probably would have erased the tree and redrawn it more correctly.”

At first, it’s not obvious that Campion used only circles and rectangles to construct the various animals in this lively boat. Using digital tools, Campion positioned the characters in a variety of ways until he found combinations that made the scene bounce and feel almost chaotic.

Advice for budding artists
While electronic tools have played an important role in Campion’s success, he tells students and aspiring conceptual artists that the key to success is to understand storytelling.

“They should think about the types of stories they want to tell, what is important to them,” said Campion, noting that people have different ideas about what makes a story. For some, it’s a journey from point A to point B, while others tell stories without using any action at all.

“But everybody has had a strong experience that’s left a big emotional impact — a first kiss or a grandparent who passed away. You can use that as a starting point and build a sequence of images around it,” he said.

With a strong story and the right tools to tell it, you can achieve things that once seemed impossible.

Bio
Pascal Campion is a freelance illustrator and animator. He trained at Ecole des Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg in France. He owns his own company, Oogeley Boogeley in Foster City, California, and does visual development for movies, TV shows, music videos, children’s books and magazines illustrations. He recently worked on the Dreamworks film Mr. Peabody and Sherman as well as the ABC TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Learn more at www.pascalcampion.com.