Meet the Artist: Nicolas Bouvier (AKA Sparth)

#104

Lord Dubu: When I looked over the section of your site devoted to discussing your process, it seems as if you can turn out a piece at breakneck speed. How long does it take you to do a ā€œfinishedā€ piece on average?

  • i probably need a minimum of three hours in order to consider an illustration achieved. however, it can change, mood and dedication can differ a lot from one piece to another.

Lord Dubu: Your compositions are breathtakingā€¦ but the process section of your site gives the impression that you just miraculously pull those amazing compositions from throwing color of varying darkness down onto your canvass. What is your process for coming up with those amazing compositions.

  • i benefit from the things iā€™ve learned in the past. many elements like perspective or composition come naturally now, with just a minimum of concentration. a bit like when you learn alphabet before being able to make sentencesā€¦ all the artists will feel this pleasure after a few years of hardwork.

Lord Dubu: What I love most about your art is the impressionism feel to it. It amazes me how much information your pieces communicate despite the broad and often vague brush strokes. Try as hard as I can, I have been unable to create such wonderful implied detail. Can you give a young (well digitally young anyway) painter some tips on how you accomplish this?

  • never show all the details at once, leave a door opened to imagination, it will stimulate the viewer who will built the rest of the image to his own taste. the way to do this would take ages to explain. if it is ever explainable.

Do you really just throw down color and shade and effortlessly throw down patches of color without first sketching out your composition.

  • no, there is always a minimum of composition before throwing out any colors at all. if you throw everything in your image at the same time, you might end up looking at a marvelous but useless BLOB. :smiley:
#105

arctis: Thanks Sparth,
The ā€œtheorical syndromeā€ was still present in ENSAD in 2002, be confident about it ! :wink:
i agree with you about the need of looking beyond our native countryā€™s frontier. Iā€™m not sure about it, but I have sometimes the feeling that in France, gifted people that donā€™t work (but talk a lot) are better considered that guys who are doing the job on time, (and let their work speak for themselves). At the contrary, I have the impression (on english-speaking web forums) that american artists are proud to have worked hard to become what they are : They prize a lot hard work, while in EnSAD (in France ?), for ex, hard work is depised because it means you are laborious.(for them, laborious=heavy mind=non intellectual=crap for masses)
Do you have similar feeling ?

  • donā€™t worry too much about this detail. it is mainly a student thing.
    in the industry, there is no way to lie on what you can do and not do.
    the philosophy is not the same, but you do know which one i prefer and respect the most :D:D:D
    intellectual concepts have to be put to the service of the image. not the other way around :smiley:

thanx again arctis

#106

karthan: 1). How difficult is it handling people within Ubi.soft?

  • actually i donā€™t handle anybody at ubisoft. iā€™m just an illustrator and concept designer.

2). Ahemā€¦ Know anything about Ubiā€™s red headed stepson, Shadowbane?

  • apart from the name, i couldnā€™t be of any help concerning this matter :smiley:

3). ((Off Topic)) Opinion on Paul Martin?

  • i suppose youā€™re a canadian :smiley: iā€™d say i feel the way you feel about him! :D:D:D

4). This may have already been asked, but what programs do you use normally? Which ones do you prefer?

  • fotoshowpey!
#107

igor: 1) Well this is a novice question. I love how you give texture to your paintings. I read somewhere you scan actual painting and then composite it to your photoshop painting. My question is how do you blend it with the rest? Do you apply it to a new layer then play with the layer mode and oppacity? Or do you use it as a custom brush? How do you do it exactly?

  • all of these above! :D:D:D
    it is true that i often use parts or extracts of images previously done. i rarely grab materials that arenā€™t mine. apart from conventional textures, it may have never happened.

igor: 2) Have you ever thought of doing a comic book? Iā€™m sure some french comic book editors would love your style.

  • yes i did. actually i had a meeting with delcourt just before leaving for canada. i will probably think about it afterwards. but here is one negative thing about the comic world: it rarely pays! :smiley:

igor: 3) One of the multiple things that amaze me in your art is the sense of space, the gargantuan feel. How do you achieve that? Composition, attention to detailsā€¦?

  • being very precise in the way you add human figures and progressive details is important.
    the way to do this is for exemple to repeat similar details on different areas of your image. it adds to the depth.

igor: 4) Youā€™ve been doing a lot of book covers lately. Did you offer your services or did they come and ask you to work for them? Also, when you discover a book while wandering in your local library, how important is the cover art to you? (Peronaly, I would buy a rubish if the cover attracts me. Itā€™s stupid I know)

  • i entered into the french book cover industry thanx to benjamin carre. he had already been doing a lot of covers for years, and publishers wanted his style.
  • the first covers were done for clients who knew about my works but who had to ā€œwait and seeā€ if it fitted in the book industry. afterwards, i admit that all the covers had been asked to me by publishers who wanted me to show my personality and style.
    -same for me! cover art have always had a huge impact on my choices.

igor: 5) Something intrigues me in your personnal work (as opposite to your corporate stuff). While beeing very different from each other, all of your paintings seems to be part of the same universe. Your art is very coherent. Is it intentionnal? Donā€™t you soemtimes think of bringing that world to live in another medium like animation (or comic books to loop back to my second question;))

  • who knows! iā€™d probably be delighted to see my art in other areas than games and books.
  • i just hope that coherence will not kill the surprise on a longer term. i will do everything needed in order to still stimulate your feelings as a viewer.

igor: Last) Please, donā€™t forget to tell us about the artists who insipre you. Iā€™m realy interrested :slight_smile:

there would be too many names to add.
i will just add one: a guy that has been doing amazing stuff, ultrahsu. http://www.iamfrancis.com/

#108

kaktuswasser: My first question is: you donā€™t seem to use guidelines or something for your vanishing point in your process pictures on your homepage. How do you do your perspective? Just eyeballing?

  • i indeed use no guidelines. i am happy being able to concentrate only on the subjects instead of concentrating on perspective.

kaktuswasser: Second: Most of your works seem to have a similar pallette. Do you have a fixed pallette or do you remix everything for every picture?

  • i think i already answered to this one. using a bank of personal texture does give the feel of a similar palette i suppose. :smiley:
#109

fbone: 1. how long did it take you to do such cool stuff

  • a lifetime :smiley: and itā€™s far from being over, iā€™m just 33. :smiley:

fbone: 2. i would wish to enter into the field of CG so wat softwares would advocate i start with

  • the ones where you feel the more comfortable. even more important: chose the program according to your own needs and feelings.

fbone: if you ever come to Africa, Kenya. iā€™ll show you around

  • extremely happy to hear a voice from africa!
    we donā€™t hear you often on the web. time for a change :smiley:
#110

skurai: Are you thinking of making more tutorias or ā€˜Artistic Processā€™, I hope you will.

  • iā€™ll do my best in order to do so.

skurai: I gave a PM on www.conceptart.org about a month ago but i didnā€™t get an answer, maybe
you didnā€™t see it so iā€™ll ask you know.(This Is about the tut thingā€¦)
I was just wondering if you have ever considered a video tut, just a small demo in normal speed and parts or daster spped if you would like that better, if you might think of doing
this someday the use CAMSTASIA STUDIO search for It at google, or follow this link:
http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp

  • well, forgive me really for not being able to find the time to reply. if i did so i would get myself in serious troubles with my plannings.
  • for now, i have had a few talks with gnomon in order to maybe show stuff if itā€™s worth it. letā€™s not rush things, on the contrary, iā€™ll try to prepare myself to this opportunity, but it takes time. be patient.
#111

fahrija: -Your images at first view seem to be very detailed but they often contain loose but precise placed brush strokes. I allways try not to zoom in but I must recognize that I often get entangeled into some areas loosing track of the composition. Do you have any hints to prevent getting to much into the details during working on an image?

  • remain nervous for every stroke you add to your piece. remain opened to changes if you feel these changes have to happen.
  • always analyse you image as a whole. i always work from very far away. i zoom at the very end of the image process, but most of the time, i happen to be ā€œstandingā€ very far from the image. looking it from far away. it allows you to always consider your image as a single entity, without concentrating on particular areas for too long.

fahrija: -will there be a gnomon dvd available of sparth scetching techniques in future?
Why I ask? Because at least IĀ“m just curious to watch a photoshop user painting environments without rotating the canvas for example. :slight_smile:

  • :smiley:
#112

turboff: Hi Sparth, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Iā€™ve just got a quick question about layers. How much layers, for example, did you use for this image? And what is your overall layer strategy? Thanks

  • maybe 40 or 50. however, it is very difficult for me to count all the layers, as i often flatten my images and save it with another name. this way i keep aside all the process and all the layers, without having to concentrate on a heavy file. i canā€™t stand have a slow process, i need speed, as much as i can. doing so prevents me from having slow downs.

my layer strategy: always consider, at a very certain moment, that you will never go backwards ā€œinto timeā€. hence the numerous flattenings.

#113

g-nome: Whats the most important things in concept desing?
exmp: is fotoreal paintingskill necessary, or how necessary is paintingskills at all?
(Feng Zhu vs Erik Tiemensā€¦they both are conceptdesingers rightā€¦but same time their skills are very different)

  • thanx god there is a huge variety and originality among all concept artists. otherwise it would have been an extremely dull world.
  • having first a subject and then being able to show as much as you can with your own soul.
    couldnā€™t really say more than that.
#114

supervlieg: Where do you think you need to grow more? (If at all)

  • character design and anatomy. i feel i can go farth further in this universe, compared to environments. however, it doesnā€™t mean i will reduce my production in background and enviro design.

supervlieg: - How long did it take you to get a feel for the right colors, and lighting?

  • it happened around 2001 - 2002, while working with bengal and benjamin carre. we all discovered a lot of stuff together. especially how to wisely apply color theories to images.
    so iā€™d say four years in all. :smiley:
#115

joat: This was not yet asked, as far as I could see. My question is: On wich size do you usually do your work? Do you scale up during the process (when moving towards detail etc.) or are they big canvases from the start?
Really liked the ā€œprocessā€ section of your site. It was highly informative and tought provoking. Like to watch an artist work live, almost. I havenā€™t read about your educational background, but judging by your use of color, Iā€™d quess there is a lot of traditional painting and color theory lurking somewhere. Another hint in that direction would be your use of brushes.
I admire and envy, but envy is in a very positive kind of envy in this case.

  • no big canvas from the start. i always start small, and then resize.
    (check out previous answers, i replied already).
  • yes i did work traditionally a lot. acrylics, gouache, inks, aquarels ā€¦ did a bit of everything. started in 89, and reduced speed around 99. went completely digital afterwards.
  • envy can be extremely positive, it stimulates too. always keep envy close to admiration, never transform it into jealousy.
#116

denart: one moā€™ thing
whatā€™s more important to you? (and you must choose one! none of that, ā€œtheyā€™re all importantā€ stuff hahaa)

A) The composition/design and flow of a piece
OR
B) The colors of a piece

  • the composition and flow of a piece.
    color is an accessory thingā€¦ well of course if you mean a piece with a fantastic compo and flow but with the CRAPPIEST color ever, i will have trouble to decide! :smiley:
#117

madman1352000: Hey Sparth,
I was wondering what another person asked about doing Gnomon dvds or maybe some kindā€™ve prints or posters to sell on your site in the future?

  • wait and see. :smiley:

madman1352000: Are you working on Prince of Persia 3?(sorry if that was already asked) If so will there be an artbook for that or maybe one that combine art from all 3 games in one book?

  • i actually do not work on prince of persia 3. however there are many more concept artists in ubisoft compared to 2003. i am just a part of an whole team.

madman1352000: On your paintings do you just paint at 72dpi the full time and just uprez to a larger size?

  • exactly :smiley:
#118

blankslatejoe: Okā€¦ so what music do you listen to lately?

  • ambient (biosphere, loscil, gas, autechre, isan), movie scores (graeme revell, goldsmith, glass, vangelis, zimmer, kilar, nyman), indian music, ethiopian music (mamhoud amhed. aster aweke), comtemporary stuff (glass, wim mertens)ā€¦

:smiley:

#119

StormrageJunior: I would like to ask you, how old were you when youā€™ve started to do art, and when have you reached the profesional level?

  • i first started doing painting at 5 years old. i still have these paintings somewhere. i also did stories to go with the images, most of the time i was writing the story of a little pig discovering nature all around him, talking with birds, stuff like that. ā€¦ pretty funny stuff!
  • i reached a level that i considered professional in 97, while working on ā€œalone in the dark 4ā€.
    did a lot of stuff before 97, and i will not reject any of it though.
#120

skurai: okay sparth hereā€™s a question. it may have been asked.

  1. Are you the concept artist in the team that is developing pop III?
  • nope iā€™m not :smiley:
    the pop3 guys already have a lot extremely talented concept artists, and they donā€™t need me.
    my friend david levy (vyle) just arrived at ubisoft by the way.
    if youā€™ve never seen his work, check out his site, the guy is amazing: http://www.vyle-art.com/
#121

kaktuswasser: i got another one. Will it soemday be possible to order prints of your works?
Iā€™d love to have a big print of one of your works on my wall.

  • iā€™ll try to think about it. if i find an easy way to do so. :smiley:
#122

Hey Sparth

I have been a fan of yours for a long time. Your designs and colour usage are inspirational. :thumbsup:

I am starting to work at Ubisoft Montreal in July, do you maybe want to meet up for a drink?

Cheers

Steve

#123

count me in too. and andrzej as well (i think youre friends with andrzej arent you?) :stuck_out_tongue: anyways, good work dood.