My name is David Revoy (nickname Deevad) and I'm a French artist living in the south of France near Montauban. I'll have soon 20 years of experience at working remotely as a freelance artist. My skills and expertise include illustration, art-direction, concept-art, storytelling and teaching. In short: I create artworks for comics, books, posters, board-games, video-games and movies. My clients are located all around the world. I'm working only with Free/Libre and Open-Source Software on a Gnu/Linux system, and that since 2009.

Nowadays, I found a good balance to focus my energy on my webcomic project Pepper&Carrot, and in between the episodes, on the illustrations for the non-profit association Framasoft.

Contact

Thanks for trying to reach out to me but I'm currently getting emails at a level I just can't handle.
Before you write me, please see if my FAQ below answers your question. Many thanks.
My email: info@davidrevoy.com.

FAQ:

I get these questions a lot. Is yours among them?
Click to reveal the answer.
Can you make an illustration for me? I'll pay.

Sorry, I can't. Unless you have an offer I can't refuse, it's very unlikely I'll be able to find the time to take a new project. I prefer to get the maximum time for my webcomic project and for my regular clients.

Can you give me permission to use your artworks?

Yes, it's highly probable. You'll always find on the pages where I post my artworks the license mentioned and I often post with a very permissive license. If you click it, you'll have a page that explains all the conditions on how to reuse the illustration. This way you can have the permission today without having to wait for my reply to your email.
You can read more info about license on my dedicated FAQ page about them.

My tablet/computer/Krita doesn't work or has a bug. Can you help me?

It's really hard to help because I rarely have the same operating system (eg. I don't have any Mac or Windows at home) or the same Linux distribution and I don't have all the tablet available on the market. They all behaves really differently. You better ask your question on a specialised forum. I recommend krita-artists.org.

What tablet do you recommend for a beginner?

I recommend a non display tablet, with a surface 'medium' (approximatively around 15x21cm for the active surface, 5.8x8.3inch). You can read more about my experience with tablet on my Tablet History Log.

Can you teach me private course? I'll pay.

Sorry, I can't. Unless you have an offer I can't refuse, it's very unlikely I'll be able to find the time to give you a custom course. But you'll find all my tutorial on this website in free access.

Can you test or review one of our product?

Yes, but under a set of conditions: it has to be related to art or digital-art, it has to run on GNU/Linux, and it has to have open-source driver. If you fill this conditions, please contact me and I'll receive your sample with enthusiasm.

Can you come to my event?

I really like being invited to events and do workshops, singing session and talks. But it also takes a lot of time, resources, and require a budget for accommodation and a lot of organisation. So be sure you'll be prepared to provide all of that before contacting me and explain clearly (and briefly) where it is, your plan, your dates and if you can pay the sessions. This way I'll be able to reply you quickly. Thank you.

I'm an art/design student, I have an homework to interview artists, can you reply to my questions?

No, sorry, I can't. It takes just too much time. I made it dozens of times over the last 10 years, and it took me full evenings to write answer to all your questions. I even rarely got a feedback if the students had a good results after that. That's why I decided to stop now this benevolent task. I hope you'll understand.

I printed or made something using your permissive license, where can I send it to you?

Sure, you'll find my postal address on my support page.

Someone impersonate you or reuse your work illegally on the web, you want to know?

Oh yes! Thanks for the alert. Please contact me and give me the URL address so I can take action and report. It happened few time in the past and I expect it will continue (unfortunately) so your feedback is always precious. Thank you.

I'm a journalist, can I interview you?

Yes, I usually accept this request. Please prepare in your email the list of questions you have and an URL address of the target media you want to publish (blog post/video channel/magazine/etc...). If I agree with it, I'll usually reply the interview on a video-chat or voice-chat while continuing to paint my webcomic or illustrations.

Why do you use only Free/Libre and Open-Source Software on GNU/Linux?

My main big reasons to use a GNU/Linux open-source system evolved a bit from the origins, it is now split into four reasons:
Independence (no one have a control on what I watch, what I use and how I use it).
Technology (performance, scripting, standards).
Transparency (open-source: you can investigate any parts).
Control of my data and privacy (I don't want companies to influence my behavior threw targeted adv).

What's your opinion about NFTs? Can I make or buy one with your art?

You'll find my detailed thoughts and personal statement on my article about the Dream Cats NFT, but for a TL:DR; Do not buy NFT made with my art, do not make NFT with my art.

What your opinion about AI Art like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion? Are you using them?

No, I'm not using them as they are designed right now; I'm against the unethical collection of huge datasets.
There is a deeply ethical issue with the mainstream datasets that feeds the models of the A.I. generative image right now, they are built on top of datasets, a massive scraping of online artworks done without the artist’s authorization or consent. For example, the mainstream dataset of Stable Diffusion, Dall-E and Midjourney has more than 5 billion pictures in it, it's called LAION-5B. But a much more amount of unethical datasets like that already exist and are in use commercialy.
Unfortunately, a dataset like that includes also hundreds of my own artworks posted over the last 20 years on the internet, I checked. You can then understand why I disapprove totally of this situation as many artists do.

On Another hand, I don't have anything against AI tools themself, Generative Art or Neural Networks algorythm. If you know my work, I even offered more than once my art to train neural network for scientific paper and research. I just want the tools to be built on ethical datasets based on scrapping only Public Domain and CC-0 resources before using them (or the work of artists who consent).

I want to be an artist like you, what studies do you advice?

I am a self-taught artist, I was too rebel to make long studies and my family situation was highly unstable and I couldn't afford the studies I wanted. I learned most of the core of my work as a street portraitist when I was young and later, thanks to books, videos and observation I sort of found my way. But, I'll never advice to other to take the same road as I took. I have the feeling it took me longer to learn plenty of things and I still do! That's why I'll advice any young future artist to select a good art school and start by studying the portfolio of the teachers and the portfolio of the current students. They need to be in sync with what the target industry quality is. It's essential to select a classroom where you'll obtain a good portfolio at the end of your studies. You can forget about the diplomas: the only real metric is the quality of the portfolio and classroom are good to build that. So, select the best course to learn and train to obtain the best portfolio to target the industry you want to work into. There is also plenty of good books, videos, and training you can take to boost your skill on the way.

Are you user Deevad on Wikimedia Commons?

Yes, I certify that I, David Revoy, controls the account Deevad on Wikimedia and I certify the licenses of the work I upload on this platform are correct. This message is my global permission statements for each uploaded work. Thank you @Bensin for your investigation and for offering me the possibility to make a general statement via my website.

What's your favorite social media?

It's Mastodon on the Fediverse. My account is here.

I sent you a PM on a platform and... you never replied?

Sorry, I don't check all my social media account. I also have all my notification turned off and I rarely receive email about them. If you have something important, send me an email.

Awards

  • CGallery Trophy - 2009 CGallery, for the 2D artwork "Fantasy landscape".
  • CGsociety Award - 2011 for "Alice in Wonderland".
  • 3DWorld Award - 2011 for the short movie Sintel.
  • deviantArt Daily Deviation - 2012, 1st January, for "Ying-yang of world hunger".
  • deviantArt Daily Deviation - 2013 , for my webcomic "L'héritage en couleur".
  • Ballistic pub. Exellence Award - 2013 , Expose 11, portrait of Charles Darwin.

Clients

    Publishing

  • Editions Hachette - L'ecole des dragons, Atlantis - Illustrator, book-covers.
  • Editions Gründ - Le club des chevaux magiques, Fedeylins - Illustrator, book-covers.
  • Editions Imaginemos - l'île des Dauphins - Illustrator, book-covers.
  • Alki Nea Publishing - Kea, The third Way - Illustrator, book-cover.

    Board-Games

  • Editions Pygmoo - Les Faiseur d'Univers (Philip José Farmer), Lutinfernal - Board game illustrator and art-director.
  • Editions Asyncron - Bobby Sitter, Surenchère - Board game illustrator.
  • Editions Hurrican - SiddiBaba - Board game illustrator.

    Cinema

  • Kipik production - Boy enfant esclave movie - concept-art.
  • Blender Foundation - Sintel, Tears of Steel, Cosmos Landromat, Spring - Art-director on the first,  Concept-artist on the two last.

    Video-games

  • Valve / Blackcat games - Alien Swarm Infested - Character design.
  • Blu-Pix - Chibi-Bomba - Concept-art, Character design.
  • Mindscape / Belle prod. - Troll de Troy, la mort rose - 2D painting asset, matepainting artist.
  • Greensauce Games - Dream of a Geisha 1 and 2 , Joan of Arc - 2D painting asset.
  • Blueflame publishing - Askaryl’s Grimoire , interactive gamebooks - illustration.

    Design

  • Bacata / Boogie bug - hardware designer (computer and device for gamers).

    Communication

  • Framasoft - Illustrations for the Contributopia campaign.

    Education

  • Blender Foundation - Chaos&Evolutions and Blend&Paint - two DVDs of training.
  • University Cergy-Pontoise - High school CG teacher (Krita).
  • Haute Ecole Albert Jaquard - High school CG teacher (Photoshop).
  • CGcookie - Video training, concept-art.