[Focus On] Guillaume Singelin

I would like to start our online “Focus On” series with Guillaume Singelin. Someone who has been on my awesome-artist radar for a long time now. Guillaume is a French artist who is quite well known in Europe for his work on “The Grocery” and “Doggy bag” comics published by Label619. He recently worked on the preproduction of the (very) crazy animation movie: Mutafukaz.

Guillaume is also very present online. He regularly shares mini series of drawings via his tumblr page that build his unique universe a little more every day. He often describes his world-building process by sketching around one idea, including key scenes but also every day chores which definitely settle the mood and the background of the idea. Many of his online mini series revolve around the concept of a main character and a sidekick exploring different environments, such as gigantic space computer station, the infinity of space or the wilderness.

He has a unique style with simple cartoonish shapes but with a lot of detail. I am quite a fan of his series on street fashion war, where each character is distincly unique with a unique credible outfit and improbable weaponry but still everything with a fair amount of tiny details. And following him on tumblr is a deligth, because you get to see the evolution process or links between one idea to another. Such as the start of magical girls from a colorful to a clear dark style. Japan’s influence can be seen in a lot of Guillaume’s work and I will one day have to look into why so many French artist are influenced so much by the Japanese culture and lifestyle (not that I am complaining).
I am trying very hard to not place all of Guillaume’s work in this blog post and I would recommand you go and explore his tumblr, where you will find more than 50 pages of goodness, from dark dungeon fan art to stunning Otomo tributes.

 The project I would like to spend more time on is one of the longest series you’ll find on his tumblr. His project called “PTSD/Trauma Soldier” started as a series of sketches a few years back and progressed slowly with more sketches, then watercolour sceneries to pages and finally a forthcoming comic book. The comic should be published by First Second Publishing later this year and promises to be a good “graphical slap”!

The story is pitched as follows:

In a fictional Hong-Kong style metropolis, Jun returns home from a failing, unpopular war. Suddenly she finds herself as an ex-soldier returning to an unwelcoming civilian world. Through PTSD spurred by the war, Jun is about to fight her inner demons.

As a story focusing on PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) of a female soldier it is definitely a unique topic and an untold problem.

Once more it’s been an amazing project to follow. So many posts, with so many different characters and individual personalities gradually filling up this fictional Hong Kong. The initial sketches where already promising an interresting universe and as you continue to discover more stunning details you find yourself wanting to know more about the recurring characters, depicted in detailled still life drawings. I can’t wait for the comic to come out!

For now I’ll leave you with more comic pages on this story, used as a teaser for the whole project.