Léo Roger (24) originally from France and now a London-based freelance illustrator.
"After a period of time working in fashion illustration and sketch, I decided to get back to my roots and confirm my visual style by creating more surrealistic and sci-fi inspired artworks. My influences come from fashion, gay culture, comics, mangas, or even tumblr. Overall I'd say that my background as an artist has really evolved through the years and the lockdown period has allowed me to come to terms with what really inspires and stimulates me visually, whether it comes from the graphic novels and comics I used to read, video games I used to play as a kid or even more adult discoveries like my love for horror films and pornographic content.
Two of my recent artworks that both incorporate fetish culture. "Trahison" (2020) is basically the climax of everything I love in one. A very ethereal background, a lot of colours, and a story of two characters, who could be lovers or enemies, with this "space bondage" that mixes sensuality, and violence. The caption at the bottom says in French "The Moon was high, and his body was burning".
"i'm so tired" (2021) is more editorial and straight to the point, I wanted to give the feeling of a fashion cover while focusing on a very clear line work, a splash of colour, and some acid lettering which says in French "J'en ai marre" (translates to "I'm tired of it", which is literally how I feel in these uncertain times). I focused on creating a very dark and moody character, who's also very sexual and liberated, with this "cape-jockstrap-suspenders" fashion moment hahaha."