Julie Mellan Interview by
Lon Levin
When did you first think about art as something you wanted to do? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors? I always loved drawing, since I could hold a pen. As a child, I used to draw and paint all day long, and I simply never stopped. When I was 5, I told my mother that drawing for children books must be a pretty cool job… Luckily, my parents told to my brothers and I that we could do whatever the jobs we wanted as long as we did it well, and with passion. Yes, I felt encouraged by friends and family despite I knew that working as a freelance won’t be a bed of roses everyday. What kind of kid were you? Where did you grow up? What were your influences? I was a regular, happy little bookworm! I’m French, always lived in France. My family is a real cliché: my
parents, my two brothers and I lived in a suburban area with our Labrador in the late 90’s. I was surrounded by friends of my age in this lovely neighborhood and (when I wasn’t reading), we spent entire days playing in each other’s backgrounds or rooms… We also watched a lot of Disney’ s movies. I definitely was inspired by these in the first place. After the high school, I entered an art school, in order to learn the animation. There, we studied academic drawing, painting, illustration and animation. But when I had to choose my path, I rather preferred illustration: its delightful for me to spend several hours painting a detailed scene, but a real pain when it’s for hundreds of animation’s keys gestures. Your style and take on creation of art is very unique. Did you work on developing a style or is that what naturally came out of you?
I don’t have the feeling I have my own style yet !
