Reading up on raphael

Getting physical Raphael Lacoste turns his digital art archive into a book

Concept artist, art director and friend of the magazine Raphael Lacoste has brought a cartload of his art together into a new book. We check it out.

For over 15 years Raphael Lacoste has challenged himself as an artist. He was the art director for games including Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, and was the senior concept artist for films such as Terminator Salvation. His latest challenge is to publish his digital art as a physical book, which he’s calling Worlds.

Raphael had long wanted to create something tangible with his digital paintings, but it wasn’t until he found the right time and contacts that things started to gather momentum. “Last year Patrice Leymarie, CEO and founder of IAMAG, offered to help me work on an art book project,” Raphael says. “He presented me his previous crowdfunded work and I was very impressed by the quality of the print.”

This focus on print quality ties in with Raphael’s aims for his book. “I want to show how important it is to design and work on paper before detailing an image,” he says. Filled with personal pieces and commissioned work, Worlds collects his virtual universe of imagined places.

Raphael hopes his book will inspire artists to learn more about environment design, in the same way that travelling inspired his work. “Sometimes making images from scratch, because I want to create something that resonates with my own soul, is a relief and a real need,” he adds.

Complete with a layout design by art director Brent Ashe, Worlds will be released in September and can be ordered from

I want to show how important it is to design and work on paper before detailing an image

Raphael is proud of developing his technical skills in his Skye’s Old Man of Storr painting. The freedom of working for himself has given Raphael the chance to push his personal universe to the next level. The project has enabled Raphael see how his...