What do we know?

Blexbolex is a French comics artist and illustrator who creates highly stylized illustrations, often inspired by the films of Jacques Tati and whodunits of the 1950s and 1960s. Blexbolex's style of illustration often consists of the abstraction of human figure, using vibrant colours, experimental design and print techniques. As well as this, he writes graphic novels and children books, some of which have won "Best book design of the world."

One of my favourite graphic novels by BolexBlex is called 'People' which is a stunningly illustrated retro-looking set of silkscreened images. BolexBlex describes his graphic novel as a "book that shows all sorts of people, linked together in ways that begin to emerge page after page. Real, mythic, and imaginary types inhabit this extraordinary, gorgeously rendered world, referring to each other through form and function." I particularly like this novel as each page shows different people that have both clear yet subtle connections that make you wonder who they are, why they are here and what their back story is.

What do we think?

Personally i really like Blexbolex's style as its super simple yet so effective, whilst also being playful as well as professional. The thing i like most about his work is how minimalistic it is and how it mainly focuses on the shapes and outlines of the subject rather than the up close details.

What next?

I am very inspired by BlexBolex's work so i think i will create some of my ink prints in reaction to his work, highlighting his use of simplicity and minimalistic shapes in my own work. When making the paper stencils for this project, i am planning on focusing on cutting larger and blocky shapes instead of small detailed ones as i am aiming to get a slightly animated feel from the prints. After researching BlexBolex's graphic novel 'People' some more, i have decided that i want to develop my work further by creating a stronger narrative behind it, possibly recreating the juxtaposition that can be found in many of his novels.

Some pages from 'People' are shown below.

Research This page is part of the collection 'Unit 2'.

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