The Adventures of Marvin and George

A beautifully luminous image inspired by 2D games

Subtitled Escape from the Forest of Lyess, this was inspired by Geoffrey’s experience of games such as Rayman Legends, and Ori and the Blind Forest. “I wanted to push myself a bit with stylisation and shapes, as well as mood,” he says. “I had been doing a series of practice pieces, where I’d include Marvin (the small white line-art character), to add some life to them.

“I really wanted to try pushing that a bit and see how it might look in an environment similar to those games. At first I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to go for, but as I kept developing the image, I went for a moody forest that the characters could explore. Simple, with mostly trees, but with highlights of colours and controlled lighting to guide the eye.

“I wanted to show something that could be dangerous – lots of height, gnarly tree shapes, poisonous mushrooms – but depict it in a way that makes it look pretty. It’s been a recurring theme for me for a while. I love taking something scary or freaky and painting it in an appealing way.”