8. Charlotte Delarue

Interview With Charlotte in Vice Magazine:
The French edition of Vice shares an office with a “creative company” called Surface to Air (we call them Surface to Gay behind their backs). But one good thing about them is that they employ the most beautiful, feminine creature ever to walk the earth. Her name is Charlotte Delarue, and she is an artiste. It’s too bad this issue is all illustrated because a picture of Charlotte would show you barbarians in other countries what French charm is all about. Oh well. C’est la vie and shit like that.

Charlotte’s work focuses on the sweet, the cute, and the adorable. Let’s talk with her now. (You can’t hear it, but her voice sounds like a magic fairy bell.)

Vice: Do all these strange and pretty little things that you draw come from the imagination that is inside your brain that is inside your beautiful little head?

Charlotte Delarue: No. I mostly work from pictures I find on the internet. It could be an old image, like the one with the two bears and the girl. It has a cute 1970s erotic edge. Then I print it on tracing paper and I fill in the blanks.

Oh, so you cheat. Well, who cares? You’re still really pretty. So how much time does this take?

It depends on the quality of the picture. If it’s good quality, there isn’t much contrast so it takes me a few hours. If it’s a really small picture, which is often the case with the ones I find on the internet, it can take days.

The guys from the office wanted me to tell you that you smell good.

Really? Who told you to say that?

Mathieu.

He’s cute.

He also wanted to know if you use a no. 2 pencil.

Ha. I don’t really know what I use, actually. I have a lot of mechanical pencils—anything with soft lead is good. But I’m also starting to paint oil portraits in a fan-art style. I work from a photo and I use paint I found in a dollar store.

You know, I just love watching you work. It’s so relaxing. Especially on days when I have a horrible hangover, like today. Does it relax you too?

Yes, it’s very soothing. It’s only reproduction, you know. It’s not like I have to invent something. So it’s very relaxing, yeah.

Do you stick your tongue out like kids do when they draw?

Maybe I still do, I’m not too sure.

No, I don’t think you do, you just kind of curl up your nose like that. It’s supercute.
You know, for us you are the new Brigitte Bardot. Except nicer and smarter. We want there to be a sculpture of you in all the town halls in France.

I think I’d like that too.


See Charlotte Delarue's blog HERE