French comics artist Ouinesh, a.k.a., Vincent Roucher, never intended to become a vintage pinup illustrator. It is fair, however, to say that Ouinesh has played a role in resurrecting the lost artform via his popular Instagram account. His illustrations vary from the pornographic to the merely titillating, but are always artistically attractive. Like erotic illustrator Pigo Lin, Ouinesh's work celebrates women not just from the pinup era but from 20th century comic books as well. In one illustration, Wonder Woman is reimagined as a seductive pinup, and in other, Cat Woman looks as if she's about to attend a BDSM affair. To his own credit, Ouinesh has created a vast array of female characters in a number of styles and all manner of poses.
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Pinceau
Ouinesh tells Creators that his is the usual story of a child who wanted to make comic books after reading comics. In the late 80s, he went to art school, then actually began making comic books in France. Many of these comics were created alongside his pal Stan as the part of the duo Stan & Vince, under which the two create storyboards for ads and movies.
Catwokat
"I started drawing because of my addiction to other artists, mostly American, and some French and Italian," says Ouinesh. "When I was a kid, Jack Kirby rocked my world. Then John Byrne's X-Men came, then Bernie Wrightson with both Swamp Thing and Frankenstein. Whoa! Coming from France was Gotlib and his hilarious comic book rubrique à brac. Then Moebius, and then, my big shock, Tanino Liberatore with RanXerox! That guy: he was God on Earth for me."The pinup illustrations started in a rather roundabout way. Ouinesh would include little drawings in faxes, and later do the same in emails. For him, they were a bonus to his communications, and little slices of entertainment. Ouinesh soon noticed that people liked the pinups more than the other drawings, so he began making more of them.
Catwokat
After years of doing this from time to time, the famous Swiss artist Zep asked Ouinesh to do an erotic graphic novel called Esmera. Although it is currently unavailable in English, he says it earned him the reputation of "the guy who draws naked women" but in a good way, he insists. Ouinesh currently works a side job for an erotic-themed pro-zine called La Bateau ( The Boat), and is now creating hundreds of drawings he hopes to soon collect into a book.
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"Some of them go on my blog, some others on Instagram, and some are just for friends," says Ouinesh. "And some are too X-rated, not to be shown except to very special people."
Croby
"Technically, they're mostly drawn on paper, the old way," he adds. "Pencil first, then pigment markers, or occasionally deep black pencils. When they're in color, most of the time it's computer-colored. But still, some are done in real colored inks like acrylic inks."Lately, Ouinesh has tried his hand at oil painting, but says it's "damned difficult." Mostly, he draws to put on paper whatever is currently manifesting in his mind. If people look at his artwork and get hot and horny without feeling uncomfortable, then he is successful."My egoist dream is to have women liking my drawings as [much as] most men do," Ouinesh says.
Inspired by a series of pictures by infamous British photographer Mike Dowson.
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