Camille Soulat's sensitive works use digital techniques in whole new ways

The impact of digital developments is often something that is commented on quite negatively in the wider world. However in a creative context, digital artists have created a community where they share knowledge and techniques, making it far more accessible and affordable than traditional, physical mediums of creativity. Camille Soulat, a Marseille -based digital illustrator and artist, is an exact example of this with her refreshing works.

Originally practising more traditional mediums such as painting and illustration in a “autodidactic way”, Camille developed a huge interest in making work digitally. For the illustrator, it was “first a way to produce easily without having to worry about material expenses or the space needed,” she tells us, “and, it was also a good technique for making vibrant images, boosted by the light of the screen.”

The result is a series of works which begins with Camille tracing back her memories of events, which she then illustrates in a hazy, blurry interpretation – like a foggy recollection. For instance, Float is a series by Camille which acts as a digitally illustrated tribute to her local swimming pool, one she frequented during a particularly low period of her life. “I was thinking too much and floating alone in the middle of a pool helped me a lot,” she adds.

Wanting to recreate this instance as an artistic work, Camille’s vision pinpoints this memory with an eye for detail, mimicking “the sensations of the embracing water and the variation of light on it,” she says. “I also found these feelings of relaxation again by creating them on computer.”

Now with the majority of her working being created digitally, Camille is returning to the traditional techniques which initially piqued her creative interest. She now plans to Riso print_Float_ “because I really like to think about my work entering people’s homes,” she says. Another example of Camille’s creative process going full circle is French Hair with Romancero Gitano, Alain Barthélémy, Benjamin Collet, Laure Rogemont, Chloé Serre and Arebyte AOS Gallery.

A double sided project, French Hair first began with an event at a corner hairdressers in Marseille followed by a web platform to present the contributing artists’ work relating to the event. Camille was asked to create a visual for the robes which protect visitors from hair clippings upon visiting the salon, for which she harks back to another previous memory. Remembering that her dad advised her to hold a key outwardly from her fist to act as a self-defence weapon incase anyone bothered her, her interpretation now adorns the visitors of the salon.

Through using an open medium of creativity but discussing personal topics, Camille is carving out an interesting niche for herself. It’s one we only imagine will grow too, considering the illustrator has joined a new studio with several different practitioners for which she hopes collaboration will be a key factor of her fascinating practice.