How long have you been in this profession ?
I have been a professional caricaturist or a little more than 30 years.
I started as a teenager to create a portfolio of caricatures of stars, then quite naturally I came to “sketch” the people around me, before taking the plunge on the night market of Hyères in the Var in 1990.
Why did you choose this profession ?
I have always been passionate about drawing and its multiple representations: comics, manga, painting … Reading them took up most of my time.
My reference authors were and remain Franquin and Uderzo, whose extremely dynamic features and the ability to transcribe expressions have always fascinated me.
When I was very Young, I was already drawing, and I came to be passionate about portraiture, where I found an aptitude for grasping resemblances.
I quickly came to caricature for its playfulness and speed of execution.
Your past experience
I started to practice professionally in Paris where I lived for 10 years.
My first contracts as a caricaturist were to entertain trade show booths for pharmaceutical labs, or insurance companies. I quickly extended my activity to events, offering my services to entertain all types of professional evenings: work councils evenings, cocktails, seminars, Christmas gift giving events, inaugurations, product launches …
Then came a great period when I specialized in entertaining night clubs throughout France in partnership with a major brand of spirits: caricatures in night clubs, bars, and casinos for 3 years.
On my return to the South of France, I also broadened my experience to the private sector, entertainment parties, birthdays and weddings.
In summer, I work in the region’s night markets (Var)
Company values
Since I started as a caricaturist thirty years ago, I have always been keen to give the best of myself.
I try to innovate regularly in order to improve the quality of my product and the service I offer: group drawings, role playing of the “victims”, openness to digital technologies …
My role as a caricaturist is to entertain at events and divert the guests with good humor, without monopolizing all the attention: flexibility is a major asset of this service: knowing how to adapt to the type of evening, to the atmosphere of the moment, knowing when and how to put myself forward and make myself known during a cocktail for example, and also know how to be discreet when going to the tables.
What are your ambitions ?
Today, I want to broaden the scope of my activity thanks to the development of communication tools: to offer digital caricature services to companies based abroad, via videoconferencing, corporate facebooks in order to bring them a playful and original side, fashion design services by offering guests the opportunity to sketch their “fashion model” version figure.
And for those who are not yet familiar with caricature entertainment, be even more visible on the Web, in order to make them discover this original idea of service.
What makes me different from the competition ?
In all modesty, I know that each company for which I have worked, each client, each guest, from any social background whatsoever, has always been won over by the power of attraction of this entertainment and by the quality that I offer in service. : whether at the level of the drawing itself, or in my presentation or my flexibility.
The quality of my service translates into drawings that are never vulgar or over the top, but fun and resembling where people can see themselves, while still being pleasantly surprised.
My goal is always to please and not to humiliate or offend.
What characterizes me is that drawing is a passion before being a profession, I always give the best of myself in each portrait and in each performance, even if like any self-respecting artist, I am never really totally satisfied.
Know-how
30 years of experience matter !
I can adapt to any type of clientele, relax the most tense atmospheres, convince the most recalcitrant people without forcing them.
I am responsive as soon as I establish contact with my potential future clients. I listen to their needs and their uncertainties, and based on my experience I have the arguments to reassure them.
My drawing evolves over time: I have resumed a live model training, drawing cartoon characters, character design 5 years ago … training in progress … in order to be able to bring even more variations to my creations. When I’m not in service, I draw an average of 6 to 10 hours a day, sometimes more.
As an artist, I don’t believe in the notion of “gift” or innate talent. I believe in hard work and perseverance. My driving force is envy.
What prompted you to develop this product ?
My ambition has always been to live off what I love and not have to do a job “to make a living”.
As drawing has been my passion from the start, so inevitably it was through it that I have achieved this dream.
Subsequently, what I found in events is the pleasure of contact with people, the variety of interventions, places, social backgrounds, trips, trips abroad (Kuwait, Switzerland, Morocco …).
I love this diversity more than anything and the feeling that every event is unique and unlike any other.
Find me in France in Toulon, Paris, Monaco, Avignon, Cannes, Nice, St Tropez, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille or even internationally in cities like Los Angeles, New York, London, Genèva or San Francisco.