Encouraged
by Laudator the photographer
and by Fred Beltran the drawer, Beb Deum is little by little leaving
behind his brushes, his airbrush and his felt pens in order to tame
and master the computer. "Computers have always fascinated me.
I have always been attracted by the digital images because I felt they
had something ideal, complete and palpable."
After
graduating at the “Duperré École Supérieure
des Arts Appliqués”, Beb-Deum made his début at
Métal Hurlant and at “l’Expansion”, some 20
years ago. Illustrating became his source of income in the press, the
publishing business and advertising. But his great passion – comics-
is subject to the mixed influences of the thirties, Kafka, Moebius,
Japanese culture. So far, Beb-Deum can claim a rather wealthy personal
production of eight comics among which Région Etrangère,
l’Album, Bürokratika published in the late
eighties by “Les Humanoïdes Associés”, Ma
vie est un bouquet de violettes (1992, Albin Michel), La théorie
des dominos (1997, Casterman), Éloge de la moue
(1999, Editions Hélène Chantereau and PMJ Editions) which
works like a self-portrait… “I often pout my lips”,
he will say in a deadpan face. A collection of traditional drawings
and digital images, Éloge de la moue gathers a caricatural gallery
of grey and smooth portraits accompanied by texts filled with humour.
Even in front of his Macintosh, Beb Deum will pout : “I love
computers and I hate them at the same time. There is no half measure.
For me computers mean getting my kick or else they mean feeling like
smashing everything.” We must admit they pay him back indeed
… Beb-Deum is a self-taught man and he knows what having a hassle
means.
And yet, this new tool has conquered him. “Computers open
up breathtaking prospects. They are an ideal tool to obtain most effective
blended shades, to achieve bold page make-ups and to manipulate typography.
If I don’t agree with the shape of a hand, I can modify it in
a couple of minutes. Before that, I used to cut off pieces of paper,
I would achieve preposterous and painstaking pastings. It was dirty.”
Beb Deum signed his first digital images at Libération newspaper
in 1998 in the weekly "Cahier Multimedia". “I systematically
start off drawing a formatted sketch. Once I have scanned it, I get
it back in Painter. I trace the picture and I resume my work sharpening
the lines. Then I quickly get on with colours. My favourite tool is
still the airbrush. When I represent a character, I use the crayon tool
so as to provide the skin with some texture. I love textures. I make
them myself. I love metal, walls, fabrics…” A bit realistic
? “I have my daughter, my girlfriend pose for me… But
my first model is myself. I think the best means to touch others is
to speak of oneself first.”
Cyril
Cavalié
Computer Arts october 1999
