Fourmi is the professional name (or simply the site name, I’m not sure) of Belgian visual development artist Sylvie Lacroix.
Lacroix has done art direction, concept art and promotional illustration for a number of European TV projects and films. The Fourmi web site contains examples of work from various stages of the visual development process. You can view the work sorted by project or by process: Colorkeys, Illustration, Character Design, Sketches and Art Direction.
Lacroix has a charming, colorful style that at times is close to the look of cell animation (not surprisingly) and at other times has the look of children’s book illustrations.
I particularly like the illustrations and images in which there is a playful use of contrast in light, dappled light under trees or shafts and streaks of sunlight or moonlight streaming into rooms. Notice also the interesting use of white, or lightly colored, linework over top of darker colors.
Addendum: Fourmi writes to confirm that “Fourmi” (French for “ant”) is indeed her professional name. Also, I was remiss in not mentioning that I first learned of Fourmi’s work by way of Man Arenas (Dodecaden), a suberb production artist and designer that I profiled back in January.
