This article was originally published on February 28, 2017, but we think it still rocks!
A few years back, Canadian animator and artist Jean Francois Painchaud, a.k.a. Phazed, found his psychedelic erotic artwork banned on Facebook. In the social media age, the ban worked in Painchaud’s favor. After decrying censorship, he began attracting droves of followers on Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. While the psychedelic erotica brought him a much wider audience, it’s not the only trick up the illustrator’s sleeve. Painchaud also makes trippy non-erotic artworks, where there is a similar emphasis on color, psychedelia, and girls. But, these non-erotic works veer into science fiction and fantasy, with Painchaud going on sci-fi adventures with his cat, or with third eyes opening on a girl’s head.
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Painchaud tells Creators that erotic artwork is something he did for fun. Typically, he moves between erotic and non-erotic works, depending on his mood, and when not working full-time at an animation studio, Painchaud also dabbles in electronic music.
Painchaud says that the erotic works came about because could tap into sexual energy that had been left unused. He also felt that there was a bit of a void in erotic art. The stuff he was seeing was wild and exaggerated, but from his perspective it was expressing neither love nor affection. Painchaud wanted to do the opposite: give the work emotion, while suffusing it with psychedelic color and patterns, most notably with GIFs.
Painchaud says the psychedelic and vibrant colors come from his experience with psilocybin mushrooms. From his teen years to the age of 20, he struggled with depression. During this period, everything was dark, even his drawings.
“After my first experience with magic mushrooms, it felt like my depression went away overnight—it was the most profound and beautiful experience of my life,” says Painchaud. “The visuals I experienced inspired how I’ve done my art ever since. It also helped me overcome the worry I had of what other people would think of what I draw, [and] it allowed me to feel comfortable being myself, and expressing myself genuinely.”
“In a way, I also find myself in a position that I have to represent psychedelics in a positive way,” he adds. “I want to put it out there how beautiful it is and how helpful it can be.”
Painchaud uses Photoshop and draws with a Wacom Cintiq 27QHD. Some pieces only take a few minutes to finish, while others take several hours, depending on the concept. To make some of his GIFs, Painchaud uses rotoscope animation techniques. He also makes them from scratch, or by using photographs as references. Occasionally, Painchaud might work from random photographs encountered on Pinterest or Tumblr.
“Another method for the GIFs is to redraw my line work for each frame to bring the lines to life,” he explains. “It’s a similar process with the animated rainbow effects—I change the colors on every frame.”
When making his non-erotic works, Painchaud isn’t really thinking about an audience. First and foremost, he wants to satisfy himself. If people find his work aesthetically pleasing, or get inspired to create their own art, then all the better.
Painchaud’s erotic work, on the other hand, is designed to elicit a response. Ideally, he would like people to feel a bit differently about pornography and sexuality after seeing it. Beyond that, he wants people to see how beautiful sex can be—that it really shouldn’t be a taboo subject, but openly discussed.
Click here to see more of Jean Francois Painchaud’s work, and here if you would like to support his solo work.
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