For illustrator Thibaud Herem, it’s all in the details. Known for his architectural illustrations, his level of detail is mind-boggling. Windowpanes, doorknobs, even bricks, are all drawn carefully by hand, with his work including detailed recreations of the Grand Budapest and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
“For each drawing I find that there is something special about the building that drives me,” noted Herem in an interview with Uncube Magazine. “For ‘the Grand Budapest’ it was the symbolism, what the film’s story represented for me, and the great respect that I have for the director,” he further relayed.
“Drawing ‘fiction’ was a first for my practice and something that I enjoyed a lot.” According to Herem, he spent 600 hours (!) on the drawing before adding the watercolors. “It was the fictional aspect of the building that felt most present to me when I was working on it,” he says.
But incredibly enough, Herem wasn’t trained to be an illustrator. Born in France and currently based in London, he comes from a background of graphic design. “I always wanted to be on the illustration side of things rather than the design side,” he explains. “I’m very interested in the aesthetic aspect of architecture and I find that graphic design allows me to learn about this through the construction of images of buildings. In this way I learn about the history of buildings too.”
You can explore his illustrated universe via Instagram.
