Pierre-Paul Pariseau discusses his surrealist influences and creative practice
“Sites like LinkedIn can be a good source of potential clients”
Pierre-Paul Pariseau is an illustrator who has worked for a wide range of international clients across the commercial, consumer goods and publishing industries. His creative practice has been recognized by a number of design and illustrative bodies and he exhibits his personal work on a regular basis. You can view more of Pierre-Paul’s work in Pictoria Volume.1, The Best Contemporary Illustrators Worldwide.
© Pierre-Paul Pariseau
Who are you and what do you do?
Pierre-Paul Pariseau, freelance illustrator
How would you describe your work?
Collage and digital, mainly surreal.
How do you go about creating your artwork? Do you prefer to work digitally or with traditional media?
Kind of both. I scan paper cuts and transform them in Photoshop to create an image.
© Pierre-Paul Pariseau
What are you working on at the moment?
Many pictures at the same time.
Who or what are the top five inspirations for your work?
My big influence at the beginning was the surrealist artists like Dali, Magritte, and others. Everything that was surrealist, in painting but also in literature, in poetry and in movies. Photomontage pioneers also like John Heartfield, Max Ernst, Jacques Prévert. Rapidly although I became inspired by a lot of things coming my way, in my surroundings, to a point that it is difficult to name anything in particular now.
© Pierre-Paul Pariseau
What's one resource every artist, illustrator or designer should know about?
The web, of course. Sites like LinkedIn can be a good source of potential clients for example.
What is the most valuable lesson you've learned during your time working in the creative industries?
Learning to persevere.
© Pierre-Paul Pariseau
What is the hardest challenge you have faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?
Ups and downs. To overcome this I persevered.
What are your professional goals for the next year?
To do simpler image.
© Pierre-Paul Pariseau
