Although I'm mostly an oil painter (thanks to Frank!)
this one is going to be digital. However, It will mostly look painted
in traditional media because that's where my heart goes!
I was born
in 1974 near Paris, France. I began drawing very early on, but I found
painting quite frustrating: too dirty, awkward. Of course, the reason
was that I
was clumsy. But the feeling remained until much later.
I think I became acquainted with the work of Frank Frazetta in the
late 70′s, when Ballantine’s
The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta
was published in France. I remember coloring Frazetta’s
pen and ink drawings with felt pens! Anyway, it was quite a revelation
for me. I’d been a fan of dinosaurs since my kindergarten years,
especially all of Zdnek Burian’s stuff. Now, I discovered fantasy art.
There were guys before him, there will be guys after him, but Frazetta
will always remain the greatest for me.
I kind of stopped drawing when I was in my teens. It was probably a
result of my beginning to play the guitar (at age 11). It was a bad
idea, though, as my drawing skills stagnated (at best) when they
should have skyrocketed. I was convinced I couldn’t draw anymore, that
the thrill was gone.
Then, when I was in high school I felt the urge to draw again. I
started honing my skills with photorealistic portraits. I also copied
Boris Vallejo’s pencil drawings (in particular, those in the first
section of
Mirage).
But my second revelation came in '93, when Frazetta's Illustrations
Arcanum
was
released. Now that I’m thinking about it, my ‘inspiration lapse’
lasted until he came back from his forced retirement.
In ’97, I started painting. I suddenly felt confident enough to work
with oil paints. I’ve never stopped from then on. Although I paint
digitally as a boardgame illustrator, whenever I come back to oil, I
remember there's nothing like it. Nothing beats the smell and feel of
oil paint. Ire of the Erinyes is my humble tribute to Frank. It
was done digitally, but I tried to emulate what I would have done with
oils. I hope I've managed to capture a tiny fragment of Frank's spirit
with it. And I hope you'll like it.
Arnaud Demaegd works as an in-house illustrator for Ystari Games. He's
become a household name in the boardgame world over the years. He has
two children, a cat, a PhD in Linguistics and teaches Phonetics at the
University.