Hello Gabriel, can you introduce yourself to the readers of Pêche.com?
Hello, Gabriel, I am 31 years old and I live in Marseille. I am a computer graphics designer, webdesigner and illustrator since 2011 and of course passionate about fishing.
Can you tell us a little more about your passion for fishing?
My first memory of fishing goes back to my high school years (2007 or 2008). At that time, I was passionate about graffiti and spent most of my free time painting the same wall under a highway bridge where a small stream was running that intrigued me a lot. So I bought a lure rod and some spoons and started fishing.
To be honest the results were not really there and I quickly put aside the fishing.
It is only in 2012, after moving to Marseille for my job that I tried again. First at sea with my brother, fishing for saupe, sars and bogues in the old port. Then I started to fish in fresh water when a childhood friend introduced me to fishing with a toc and allowed me to catch my first trout (in the river where, a few years earlier, I had made my first casts).
By then it was too late, I had fallen into it and was going fishing at least three times a week after work.
Today I divide my time rather equally between the sea and fresh water. From April to October, I look for carnivorous fish with lures (from the shore, in float-tube or in boat), most often in the big lakes of the Verdon. The rest of the time, I look for sea bream and other sparids by surfcasting or cephalopods by eging.
So you are passionate about fishing, but also about computers and you managed to link your two passions, how?
I've been a web designer and illustrator for a little more than ten years. During my career, I worked in the administration, in the associative world and in agencies.
This summer, I had the pleasure to join the communication department of Cabesto stores as a graphic/webdesigner. I am therefore immersed in the fishing world on a daily basis. I work with passionate people like me and I have the feeling to give more meaning to my work.
In parallel, I work as a freelance with my company "Gobie Graphisme" (you can't make this up). Most of my work is graphic design (logotype, graphic charter, poster, layoutâeuros¦) and web design (website creation, application, webdesign, emailingâeuros¦). More and more, I try to introduce in my work, an illustration part.
Can you tell us about your fish illustrations?
I have a particular affection for children's illustration. In 2021, I even had the pleasure of publishing a book, as an illustrator, "The Giant, the Toad and the Fly". What I like most, I think, is drawing animals, caricaturing them to the point of anthropomorphism.
But the job of illustrator being rather ungrateful, very few opportunities, a substantial investment of time for an often irregular and low income, most of the time I was drawing for myself. Three years ago, I had the idea to print on canvas some of my illustrations, first just to decorate my apartment, then to offer to my friends.
Of course, my passion for fishing is never far away and so I often draw fishes! I find that underwater life and its diversity offer an inexhaustible source of inspiration, mysteries and stories to tell.
To draw, I mostly use my graphic palette and my DTP software. I even do my sketches on the computer. It's a tool that has its fans and its detractors, but for me it has many advantages: it's easier to integrate into my professional projects, it leaves more room for error than paper drawing, it allows me to optimize certain tasks and save time.
At the moment, I am working on a series of illustrations dedicated to the sea, and more particularly to the fish of the Mediterranean. My idea is to highlight one species per picture. I have taken the habit of displaying on each illustration the scientific name (in Latin) of the fish. First of all, to show which species it is, but also and especially, because I find these names beautiful. They add a kind of mystical aura.
Do you have other projects?
In an ideal world, I would like to have time to draw every day, but my job is quite time consuming. And I tend to spend my free time at the water's edge more than behind my screen.
Anyway, I hope to finish soon a big illustration project about fishes which is very close to my heart. For the moment, I won't say more but, if everything goes well, this project should be finished in 2023!
