Canada-based illustrator and animator, Patrick Doyon keeps a wonderful handmade touch to his work by favouring the pen over the screen for most of his projects.
We take a look at some designs he created for a fun little iOS and Android game called ‘I Love Potatoes’, as well as his 2012 Oscar nominated short, ‘Dimanche/Sunday’.
As he explains below, Patrick not only prefers drawing by hand but also goes straight to pen when working on his illustrations.
This adds a really nice quality to the line and general aesthetic of Patrick’s work. Something that would definitely be absent if he worked directly onto the computer.
My name is Patrick Doyon, I studied graphic design (graduated from Université du Québec à Montréal in 2005) and I am doing both illustration (editorial, children’s book, character design, concept art) and animation. I work in Montreal, Canada.
Regardless of the project on which I work, I always begin the same way: with markers and paper. I never use a pencil because it avoids me the temptation to censor myself during brainstorming periods. Plus, using ink requires me to do again and again the same drawing until I am completely satisfied with it.
I generally don’t make my final illustrations directly at the computer with a graphics pen. I prefer to use a pen, paper, and a light-table.
The computer is used to add colors (the drawing is originally scanned in black & white) and to fix some little defects of my line.
It’s also very useful to do the compositing: most of my illustrations are the result of an accumulation of small graphics elements assembled on different layers. The result is a very messy drawing table with a lot of paper sheets with tiny scribbles on each of them.
I use an old version of Flash to do a a rough version of my animation… but I still prefer to do the final version on paper. Having some handmade touches is a significant way for me to keep an unique graphic signature.
© Patrick Doyon, 2016
