Summer School Villa Verbeelding 2024
Rébecca Dautremer
Foto: Boumediene Belbachir
Workshop in English
Biography
Rébecca Dautremer (°1971) graduated in 1995 from the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She captivates her audience with her books L’Amoureux, Alice in Wonderland, Une Bible, Le Journal secret du Petit Poucet, Le bois dormait, Les riches heures de Jacominus Gainsborough, Midi Pile, Of Mice and Men, and so on. Her illustrations are inspiring and poetic and characterized by humor. She likes to use the technique of gouache and works with contrasts to create vivid illustrations. Illustrations by Rébecca have been shown earlier in expositions at Villa Verbeelding.
What to expect?
How to turn an idea into an illustration? Where can we find the concrete elements that help us create some images? That’s the point of this workshop. This is the program by Rébecca Dautremer:
Ideas, text and illustration
Before focusing on pure technical challenge, that can be mastered step by step by practicing, it is important for an illustrator to know what he wants to say, and what tools he can find to do it. I will try to share with the participants my experience as an illustrator for 20 years. How I try to control the creative process of my images. How I try out different connections between idea and illustration. We will look at a few examples (among my works and those of illustrators I admire) and try to understand the different options we have to create a link between text and image, and how these possibilities can generate different emotions.
Composition
We will first have different short exercises, testing the theory. I will offer the participants to follow a specific process to find the composition, the action, the background, etc. Then we will develop a project on a specific theme more deeply. Step by step, we will try to go as far as possible to prepare the final realization. We will talk about light and colored sketches. I will show concrete examples from my own work. The goal would be to control mentally all the details of the artwork before realizing it.
Finalization
For those who already have their project ready, we can talk about the finalization. Participants can come with their portfolio; I will be able to take some time to look into a couple of them (but not all of them!). We will talk about techniques. How to go on and improve their technique, keep something coherent and personal. The last day, if participants are interested in knowing a bit more about my journey, I will show them different projects I have done, and share with them author-illustrator’s experiences.
Location
Hogeschool PXL-MAD
Building C
Elfde Liniestraat 25
3500 Hasselt
What to bring
- Rough paper and any pen you like to draw sketches
- Favorite color technique
- If you have one: a plastic or wooden drawing board (A3)
Here you find all practical info.
