Gilles Rainville illustration

Natural disasters have become more prevalent in recent years. We hear of the human cost and cause, but rarely do we understand what cost the rest of nature (animal, plant, insect) pays for disasters which, while are not produced by our species, are certainly encouraged and bolstered by the choices of individuals, companies, industries, and governments.  Manufactured Consequences is the first piece where I attempt to include the viewer as part  of the composition. This is why every animal is staring directly at the viewer. Nature itself is trying to tell you who caused the unfortunate forest fire. Once again, I began the process by researching the elements for this piece. Next, I sketched out the concept I had in mind and created a tonal study. This helped me visualize the idea in my head and solved the bigger composition issues, like focal points, perspective, arrangements and importance of the elements for the viewer.  Once happy with...

A local musician, and old friend, is about to publish a solo album and I felt honored when he asked me to create the art for it. Once he explained his idea for the illustration, I did a quick sketch of the idea that he approved and I got to work. The design was a fun idea involving the musician sitting by a camp fire playing his music in the middle of a mystical forest. After sketching out the design, I started by drawing different areas in chalk to get the general colour palette of the illustration. I continued using a mix of chalk pastels, conte and chalk pencils for the textures and shadows. I had planned to use coloured pencil for these details but the chalk was working out really well. Dave wanted the fire to produce ghost instead of smoke. The chalks lent themselves well to create this effect. I thought adding some small standing stones surrounding the camp site gave the area a more mysterious effect. At this point I had dumped the coloured pencil idea and c...