The idea of mashing up my passions for both Gypsy Jazz and illustration could have been obvious but only popup in my mind a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t take me long to let myself inspired by Mr Django Reinhardt for a sketch I started last Sunday.

I then realised that Le Quecumbar – UK temple of Django’s music – was about to celebrate it’s 7th birthday on Wednesday and this ongoing piece will problably fit very well there. So, for the first time I decided to illustrate for an external purpose. I really love Le Quecumbar since I moved to London three years ago and the idea of adding my two cents to this magic place excited and motivated me as never before. The deadline was a bit tight tight – two days (well… nights) – to finish the drawing and colorize it.

It’s been exhausting but very rewarding and helped me out to evaluate how long I need to do something like this. Moreover Sylvia Rushbrooke – Le Quecumbar owner – and her super friendly staff gave me a very warm feedback on this. Thanks a lot to all of you; not to say that the night and the music (and the wine) was thrilling as usual :).

Following my previous illustration resolutions I’ve been very careful at using a limited desaturated colour palette. In my opinion it helps to highlight the line and fits the vintage theme pretty well.

Following are some of the key steps I followed, from scribbling to framing:

Here is an illustration done for the release of Little Big Bouche‘s first demo, the French Gypsy jazz trio I have been playing with for a few months now. As the artwork shows above, Aurore does the vocals, Yann is the guitar soloist and I do the comping. We play in the Django Reinhardt style, but, thanks to Aurore, we have vocals for both lyrics and improvisation on top.

Our demo can be listened to on our “Showcase Your Music” page, but for regular update you can join our Facebook group. So far we’ve done a couple of gigs in London. The last one was a month ago at the UCL Union Jazz Society. We’re planning to do another gig at least before the end of the year, and hopefully, our demo will help us find it! We’re also looking for a double bassist inspired by Gypsy jazz. So if you are happy and available to join us (it seems double bassists are a rare find) feel free to get in touch!

Last, a quick note on the illustration that has been done with Colors! on a Nintendo DS and processed on Photoshop for the final colours and the logo.