Animation is breathing new life into Thomas Merceron’s soft grainy scenes

Since we last caught up with Paris-based illustrator Thomas Merceron, the artist has had a number of exciting projects cross his desk from editorial illustration commissions to animations for the city of Paris and the release of his new graphic novel Les Trembles, printed by Quintal Atelier. Although he still occasionally likes to work with dry pastel and indian ink, Thomas’ work has slowly but steadily evolved to sit much more in the digital realm.

Recently, the artist has been turning to the powers of animation “to reconnect with a kind of physicality in drawing that I used to find only on paper”, he tells us, “a certain organic link that can sometimes be lost when working exclusively in digital.” Crafting soft animated loops as well as longer more narrative films, he is finding the medium to be a way to enhance the depth of his minimalist scenes.

A master in the art of evoking intense sensations and a cinematic feeling, even through the still frame, the illustrator’s work feels as if it was made for this latest introduction of a meditative and meandering motion. “Movement breathes life into figures and environments; it stretches time, and brings back imperfections that speak to a more embodied, hands-on process”, the artist says. “It makes things feel more human, more alive.”

Whether it’s volcanic eruptions or sunsets through swaying trees, Thomas has been asking himself which elements might emerge, move across or transform his serene scenes to give them a new sense of narrative. Whilst some of these liminal landscapes are drawn from places the artist has visited some are simply an ode to “those I dream of seeing one day”, he says, “I filter them through a dreamlike lens: bold colours, simple shapes, minimal compositions, whilst always keeping an eye for detail.”

For a recent short for the Olympic Games (Le Plongeon) the illustrator animated a breathtaking sequence of a diver breaking the water in a more classic comic storytelling style. Beginning with a storyboard and creating two sets of sequences: one colouring a black abyss with stark white outlines and the other in full colour using a range of geometric forms. Thomas stitched these two worlds together in an immersive edit that pushes his slower floating works into a new narrative territory, still with the same atmospheric feeling to each frame.

These developments have added an extra layer of mystery and nostalgia to his illustrators world, there’s now a little more time for us to rest in his scenes and run away with our imagination or simply wait in wonder. “I like the idea that my images remain a little-open ended,” he ends “that it’s not immediately clear whether they’re comforting or unsettling [...] I believe each viewer brings their own reading to the work.”