Interview with Melanie Delon

Hi could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in CG and are you self taught or taken some training?

I’m a freelance illustrator based in Paris. I’m a self-taught, I started to work and discover Photoshop quite lately, and I was 24/25 years old. At this moment I was in a 3d school (I wanted to create video games), but I quickly realized 3d wasn’t my thing. I was spending my time drawing instead of modeling/animating…So I started to work on my 2d skills alone, it was quite difficult at the beginning, Photoshop was a stranger to me, and drawing with a tablet was truly painful for someone who has always drawn with traditional pens.

Why you decide to become the Illustrator and from where you got the inspirations?

It just happened; I was showing my stuff on the web, different 2d forums, just to have feedback on my work. I found my first contracts and my publishing house this way. Internet is really a good way to get known and find professional contacts. Regarding inspiration, it comes from a lot of things, could be from a movie scene or something I saw in the street, or a song…It’s quite hard to tell actually, it’s a kind of huge mixture.

What software program(s) do you use for your illustrations and why?

I usually work with Photoshop (CS4) and Painter (XI). They are complementary I think. Photoshop is very good and optimized to paint small details, and Painter brings more “traditional” painting feeling to the image. I can’t really tell why and when I switch to one or the other, I just feel it. It’s really personal I guess. One thing I’m sure of is that I can’t work without Photoshop or Painter, I really need the both.

How you think of a life without a graphic tablet?

HELL! Really! My tablet is my best friend since years, now I couldn’t live without her (yep it’s a girl: p). More seriously, it’s a fantastic innovation, working with this kind of tool, not only the tablet but the whole computer and painting software, are a revolution in the art field. It brings us so much freedom in the creating process; I think I couldn’t go back to traditional painting.

How much you enjoy creating an illustration for the book covers, comics and magazines? Which type of instructions you receive from the client?

This kind of work is pretty different from my personal stuff. I do what the client wants, so I usually don’t have a lot of freedom, but it’s quite a good exercise and very fun. Usually the art director gives me few instructions and details about how the composition should looks like, and what kind of character they want. After that I do a quick sketch and wait for the feedback, if they like it then I can go with the finished illustration, if they don’t they explain what they didn’t like and so I do another sketch with modifications etc…It’s a team work actually.