Jean Giraud was a French artist, cartoonist and writer. He was widely nicknamed Moebius and known for his futuristic art pieces. His art often depicts alien landscapes, along with futuristic ideas from the 80s. The subjects of the drawings are usually futuristic landscapes, but there a few close-ups of fantastical people.
Giraud's art is filled with bright pallets, which give life to the compositions. The pallets almost look unrealistic, but they are real-life pallets that have been saturated to make the scenes more enticing. For example, the water in the fourth image is a very bright sky blue, which is an exaggeration of water in real-life. The images are designed to convey personality through these colours as well. In the largest image, the pallet is made up of warm reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. The eyes are drawn to the foreground of the image first, as it is made from saturated oranges and yellows, with the shadows being a bold red.
The linework is also interesting to me, as it describes the shapes of the landscapes and buildings and gives them a realistic depth. Some of the line work is done in quick flicks of the pen/brush, which is used to describe chips in stone, to separate a section instead of using a solid line and to draw parts that are softer at the edges. The lines are also very smooth, as shown in the landscapes. In the second picture, the lines curve round to show the direction of the valley. Giraud recognises that landscapes aren't flat, and draws them with short strokes to show this.
I personally love his style because of the subjects of his drawings. The futuristic architecture is so inspirational because it all looks natural, and like it would fit in with the environment. The people also match, as they are dressed in fantasy costumes that match the quirky, 80s future ideas.
Another thing I love about Giraud's work is the similarities to movies of the time. Giraud was illustrating in the 80s, which was around the time Studio Ghibli had first formed their company. 'Nausicaa Valley of the Wind' bears a striking style resemblance to a lot of Giraud's work. The futuristic setting is the same in principle, and even the clothing the characters in the movie wore were similar. The most noticeable similarities are the hats that the characters wear (which are similar in shape to those which Giraud drew)and also the glider the main character uses. Coincidently, Giraud had a daughter with the same name as the heroine of 'Valley of the Wind.' However, the name came from a character from the myth 'The Odyssey.'
Another noticeable similar between Studio Ghibli and Jean Giraud are the line work styles, as the animators and background artists at Ghibli often use shorter lines to describe ruffles in hair, clothing or in background details. The middle picture is an image Giraud made about a city in the sky. Inronically, Ghibli have a movie called 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky', based on 'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathan Swift in 1726. This movie also shares the same retrofuturistic designs.
I'm in love with Giraud's style, and hope that I can use parts of his style in the future. My favourite part of his artwork is the line work. Without it, it would be a completely different style. I'd like to incorporate more lines and quick flicks to create a textured surface to something. This is something I've been trying to implement in my art for a while now, but it's always made the drawing look messy. However, now I see that it is possible to do it and make it look smooth and clean.
I also love the colours he uses, as they're vibrant and light, which the shading done analogous colours in slightly darker shades. This is a great way of not overloading an image with black, or too much shading, as everything works together.