Story-telling through illustrations: Pascal Campion

San Francisco based artist, illustrator, concept designer, character designer and animator, Pascal Campion, popularly known for his ‘Sketch of the Day’ campaign, tells iridescent stories through his illustrations. Read on for a ride along his inspirations, and imagination that sees no bounds!

Pascal Campion
illustrated by Shobhit Sharma

Q. You recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign, congratulations on that! Is this what you had in mind when you started out “Sketch of the Day” back in 2006?
A. When I started doing daily sketches, all I had in mind was to be able to do the next one. My original goal was to get enough sketches to make a book to take with me to comic con the following year, but I wasn’t sure it was really going to work.
I was also looking for a way to stay creative, and just draw since I like to draw so much and at work I wasn’t doing nearly enough of it.
The Kickstarter thing just happened this year. One of my friends was telling me about it last summer, how he had done a couple of projects with Kickstarter and how well it went for him but it wasn’t until we were talking with the Center Stage Gallery about doing a show that the idea for doing a BIG book of sketches came along.
We thought that going the Kickstarter route for it would be a great way to get the word out and help us finance the project. We really didn’t think it was going to be such a huge event.

Q. So, what’s the ultimate guide for any rookie in your profession?
A. I think it changes for every person. When I started out, my goal was to simply be able to make enough money with my art to live.

After that, I wanted to become the best artist and storyteller I could be.

For a few years it was through animation, and now it’s mostly through images. The medium might change again, I don’t know. For now, I’m happy with the images, and I am still learning new things all the time. When I feel like I am not learning anymore, I’ll probably evolve toward something else. It could be a different style, a different way of telling my stories, different stories, or it could be an entirely different medium. Eventually, I’d like to do much more teaching and mentoring than I do now.

That said, every artist is different. Some dream of working in big studios, some prefer being freelancers, some want fame and fortune, and some just want to be left alone.

Every artist has a different personality, which is something that I love about art and storytelling. Ten people could be given the same theme to illustrate, and come up with ten completely different images/animations/pieces of art based on the same theme. And because everybody has a different personality, every body has a slightly or completely different goal.

A lot of times, younger artists tend to think that aligning your goals with what the majority of people’s goal is the only way to go. I meet a lot of younger artist who ALL want to work in the same studio, do the same type of work, and climb the same ladder. But they don’t really know what that really entails.

The reality is a little different than the dream, sometimes it’s a lot different than the dream.

I say this because I had this realization myself when I was younger and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted my life to be like, and even longer to get it to that point.

I know that being able to do my own work is capital for me, so there are quite a few professional paths that I avoid just because I don’t want to lose myself in them. Whereas, those same paths might be perfect for some other artists.

We’re all different and because of that, we can’t let anybody tell us what is better for us, or what we need to want. We just have to experience it and see what works best for each of us.

“Here we are again!”
“Yup.”
“In a park, in fall…. not very original, you know?”
“I know, BUT, this time I brought a red balloon.”
“Nice touch.”
“I thought so.”
“Funny.”
“Does it get me points for originality?”
“Hmmm…maybe?”
“Does it get me enough points for a kiss?”
“Hmmm…..”

Q. You said that your older brother Sean used to give you the task of “copying” comic book covers in exchange for reading them. Which comic book was the most influential in your development?
A. Well, I started out by reading French graphic novels – all the Asterix, Tintin and Lucky Lukes series. I loved “Les Tuniques Bleus”, still love them in fact.

The first American comic book I was able to was called Srange Special Origine, and it featured Thor battling Silver Surfer. I was so impressed by it. From what I remember of the plot, Thor and the Silver Surfer had been duped into believing that the other was the bad guy. So it was two noble heroes trying to do the right thing. The drawings were just incredibly powerful. That made a huge impact on my life. Thirty years later, I still remember it.

Later, when I was in High School, I fell upon this graphic novel called Broussaille and one episode in particular called ” La Nuit du Chat”. The story was about a student called Broussaille who had his own apartment and a cat that he really liked. One day. the cat slipped out of the apartment and got lost in the city. Broussaille then went on an adventure through the night to find him. It was something completely new to me. It was a story that didn’t involve bad guys, or saving the world. Through the night, Brousaille meets new people including a girl that likes him among a group of students celebrating the end of the school year, and an old man that built his own private beach in his house. He “spies” on people in their apartment without really wanting to. It was a completely different type of storytelling and it made me feel like I was under a warm blanket in the middle of winter. It just blew me away.

Q. Has there been any life advice from your parents or certain stories that they used to tell you that have helped you reach where you are now?
A. My dad was an incredible storyteller. When I first saw the movie Big Fish, I thought it was a movie about my dad. He had this ability of taking everyday events and creating great tales around them. He would sometimes tell mind-boggling stories, and half way through the story, I’d suddenly realize that he was only talking about me riding my bike down the street in a fantastic manner. He “pushed” reality a little, but it was always for the benefit of a good story.

My mom is a much more rational and factual person who instilled an incredible sense of order and discipline in me. She is the more organized person I know. I remember her sitting down with me and teaching me how to LEARN. When studies got really complicated in high school, she sat me down and taught me how to memorize lessons, understand them, process them (Most schools never teach you the “how to learn” part unfortunately). It was incredibly helpful for me because I wasn’t always the best listener in class, and often tended to drift off into daydreams.

This is why Pirates don’t take baths.

Q. What’s the most romantic part of your profession?
A. Seeing images that reflect something I have felt previously.

Emotions are not physical; you usually experience them when some sort of action is taking place. Sometimes those actions are fairly broad, like the feeling of being scared on a rollercoaster. But most of the times, these actions can be small. A piece of music can make you happy or sad. A smile from a stranger can make you feel good about yourself.

When I see an image that is able to recreate these moments, it feels magical to me. I try to do that with my art, but very often I feel like I fall short of what I want to do. Once in a while though, I get it just right. Sometimes I’m able to get close enough to capturing a moment so perfectly, that I can almost feel it.

When my wife or my kids look at my images, and tell me that what they see is exactly what I had in my mind,

I feel extremely elated.

Q. When you draw from your life experiences in your daily sketches, who do you draw for? Is it for yourself, your family or for all your fans worldwide, sharing bits of your life with them?
A. I draw for me, for my children, my wife, my family. I draw for all the people who are not artists – people who don’t necessarily care if whether I’ve drawn the right number of ribs on my characters, or if the windows on the buildings don’t align. People that just look at images for the stories they tell.

I do appreciate it when artists tell me that my images are pretty and they look cool, but it’s not my main objective (unless the “look” of them is part of the emotion I want to display.)

“Dad?”
“Yes Max?”
“I’ll always stick with you. Even when I’m old, and I have to go to college and get married.”
“Why do you say that Max?”
“Because I love you so so so much…and I love mommy so so so much.”

Q. What do you do when you run out of ideas? Where are your inspiration vaults?
A. I don’t run out of ideas actually. What I do run out of sometimes, is energy. I think it’s the same for most people. Ideas are all around you always. I could probably make a sketch of me writing this email on my computer while my children are painting in the next room and my daughter is having a playdate with her best friend from school.

Just today alone, between getting bagels for everybody in the morning, and watching Hercules on the TV with my family, I’d have ten different ideas for sketches. So, it’s not about the ideas. A lot of times though, I have mental fatigue and NONE of the ideas I have seem interesting to me. It might be because I didn’t sleep well the night before, or because I have other things I need to do that are taking away most of my energy.

So when this happens, I do little things. I draw funny animals, a rainy scene, a person sitting down and relaxing. I don’t have to worry about the quality of the idea, or the grandness of it. I just focus on getting it done. And I move on to the next thing.

If I don’t have to work that day, I just go play with the kids, talk to my wife, go on a bike ride. Mental fatigue happens a LOT, I use to hate it, get depressed and frustrated. But now, it’s more like…Here we go again… time to sit back and relax… I am not going to blow the roof with creativity and that’s OK!

Q. All artists have favorites, right? Do you have a favorite or let’s say the most memorable piece of work? Something that you look at longer than the rest? Something you can look at for hours?
A. I would say that Big Love is one of my all time favorites. It’s the one where a family with a mother, a father, a little girl and a dog are on a beach. It’s a foggy day, the little girl is running , playing with the dog and the mom and dad are together. All the characters are very small in the image, but it’s mostly about the mood.

It was my first piece where I dared to do what I wanted. I didn’t just want to make strong characters or strong emotions. I wanted to capture the light outside, the warmth of the air, the shifting of light when a cloud blocks the sun. I tried something different and it opened a door to hundreds of explorations.

Big Love

Q. Did you ever want to be something other than an artist when you were young?
A. I wanted to be stuntman for a while. I even looked up schools for that. I also wanted to be a football player, an adventurer, a spelunker etc. But by the age of ten or eleven, I knew I wanted to tell stories with art.

I thought I was going to come to New York and work in the Marvel Bullpen for a long long time.

Q. Have you ever visited India? If there was one thing you had to draw about India, what would it be?
A. I haven’t visited India, though I definitely want to.

I would LOVE to do something about HOLI. I just think it’s simply beautiful.

I like Bollywood movies too, when everybody breaks into an incredibly synchronized dance, and everybody dances, and moves in such a beautiful way. I am always so impressed by the choreography, not just of the people, but the way the colors are coordinated . Bolywood movies have some of the best dance numbers I have ever seen.