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.

Specialization in art has a long history, from the Dutch genre painters of the 17th century who specialized in still lifes or interiors, or the artists who specialized in painting birds or other animals and would contribute their specialty to another, more recognized work (e.g. Frans Synders painting the eagle in Ruben’s Prometheus Bound), to the modern practice of Japanese manga artists who specialize in buildings or mecha.

You’ll also find specialization among entertainment concept artists, who often contribute specialized concept design skills to the creation of films or games.

Long way around to point out that concept artist and designer Scott Robinson specializes in vehicles. He does paint environments and other types of concept art, but vehicles are his thing, and that includes all kinds of vehicles – cars, bikes, trucks, prop planes, jet planes, helicopters, sci-fi craft, boats and even retro-futuristic steam locomotives.

His web site, DrawThrough, has galleries of both his professional and personal work, a bio, information about workshops and instructional DVDs.

His work displays a masterful understanding of perspective and the geometry of objects, refined draughtsmanship and beautifully appropriate rendering technique. Don’t miss his wonderfully fanciful renderings of futuristic bicycles.

In addition to work on films like Minority Report, Robertson has also done a lot of product design for companies like Nissan, Volvo Yamaha, Raleigh Bicycles, Fiat and Nike. He teaches drawing at the Art Center College of Design and is an instructor with the Gnomon Workshop, which carries a number of his instructional DVDs.

Robertson founded the publishing company Design Studio Press which specializes in instructional art books, and publishes titles that feature several of the concept and sci-fi artists I’ve profiled on lines and colors.