Vivid colors, bold shading, and detailed line work are unmistakable key features of one of Thami Nabil’s works. Regardless of the medium, illustration is his central discipline – developing and experimenting with different styles as his works evolved. Digital or analogue, there is something psychedelic and mystifying about every piece; distorting and mystifying foreign realities as characters expand and contract accordingly.

It’s no wonder that brands such as Carhartt WIP and bands such as The Red Chili Peppers would be potential clients, as his pieces evoke a nostalgia that an audience from the 70’s to the 90’s could easily relate to. Influenced heavily by these retro animations’ atmospheres, the French artist labors away diligently in order to contribute impeccable craftsmanship within our digital age.

Epic, surreal, and full of life, even his static images are filled with movement, and constantly contributing to the conversation regarding spaciality in a piece. Even simple sketches hold an abundance of character, as even one second spent looking away could result in an entirely new image before you. RECSOVERTO procures pieces that excite, playing on the unpredictability of pure imagination.

Hey Thami! What have you been up to lately?

Hi! The last quiet job I did was an animation for the Red Hot with Julien Calemard and Hedi Nabil. Lately the projects I've been working on were in collaboration with Hedi or Julien. It’s allowed me to develop and enrich my work – it's really ideal. It allows us to produce visuals more successfully and faster, and to lead more ambitious projects.

Dream work definitely makes the dream work, and with pieces as intricate as yours, I can imagine it’s no small feet. I find your worldbuilding and art style so incredibly sick! The color grading, your distinct character styles – I also love how your work can go from looking sketched out to airbrushed in a seamless transition. What are your favorite mediums and techniques to use in order to create so much variety in your body of work, and do you have a more recent method you’ve started incorporating into your pieces?

Thank you, it's a great pleasure – these are parts of my work (color grading, composition, texture) that I try to improve. I try to work on the image, the visual. I love drawing – I find the act of drawing crazy. Today everything is segmented into different disciplines like engraving, painting, digital drawing, sketching, tattooing... I gather all this in the world of drawing, and all these disciplines interest me as soon as I have the opportunity to try.

I don't necessarily make a transition between techniques – of course I am aware that each practice has its own history and its own culture that you have to learn and respect in order to develop a personal vision. That's why my production is made of digital drawing, felt pen drawing, and rarely painting. These are the mediums that are currently available to me.

At the moment my favorite medium is digital, as I'm working on animation projects and commissions. It's my main tool as I use it and ask myself questions about it. I discovered it a little more, and I end up liking it.

In terms of working method, I try to evolve to make visuals with more impact and find new textures. My main problem is time – often my production times are just long enough to achieve aesthetics that I master, and for comfort I sometimes prevent myself from risking new aesthetics or methods to start an image.

I think all the time you put into it definitely shows – your attention to detail is impeccable. Aside from exceptional stills and pictures, animation is also a major part of your works. I love the 60s/70s psychedelic influences in both the art style as well as the editing – the first thing that came to mind was Yellow Submarine (1968) and other animated interludes in films back then. What do you think called you to take this vintage avant-garde approach to your work and how does it aid you in expressing yourself?

Thank you for this compliment; indeed the 70's that I didn't live in are years of references in animation for me. I like the colors, the grain of the video, the drawing, the stories.... but I'm not stuck to those years only. When I was young I came across the work of a director that I liked right away: Ralph Bakshi, and those films made such an impression on me that I got interested in that era – but more than the era, I'm attracted by images, atmospheres – I'm not stuck on a precise period I try to see a maximum of things…

There are so many painters/designers who have created iconic objects since the 50's; even seeing archive videos from the 50's to the 90's around the world reveals a lot about the atmosphere, the mentality, the life of the times; it's incredible, they are sources of inspiration.

But I must admit that I was particularly marked by films like Wizards and CoonSkins. So, when I tried to make animation, well, these are the references that imposed themselves on me – but it was with a lot of naivety and innocence because it takes a lot of time and resources to make an animated video with a narrative.

A labor of love for sure! I’m also super interested in the music videos you’ve worked on – some of my personal favorites being the Foam video for Divino Niño, and the Poster Child video for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. What would you say is the key to creating an amazing visualizer, and how would you describe your progress?

I don't have a recipe to make a good video – honestly I try to do the best I can each time within the framework I'm given. I also figured out that it’s more interesting to work in a small team for the animation, alongside people who have different ways of approaching the image and the animation. It’s allowed me to progress well, and the final result is more interesting.

Concerning my progress, I would say that it has been irregular but since a few months I take more into consideration the factors that play on the quality of an animation: time, money, narration, editing, colorimetry...and I believe that by focusing on these aspects, I could surely make more qualitative videos, and the style of the drawing will be more interesting if it is put at the service of the production constraints.

I definitely agree – I think this aspect is exactly what distinguishes a visualizer from a music video; the attention to narrative and forming a story elevates the experience entirely. Speaking of commissions and collaborations, I’ve also seen that you’ve created promotional work for brands like CARHARTT WIP and Nike, as well as designing and creating pieces using your own artwork. Do you feel like fashion is also a medium you would want to dive into deeper? What about your work links you stylistically to brands like these and helps to make the creative process smoother?

It's always very pleasant to work with brands – I don't know what really links me to the different brands, but they have another approach to the image of the drawing, and it's enriching to see what interests them – especially in my work – that allows me to develop aspects that I didn't necessarily think of. In the majority of the collaborations that I have, the brands came by and pointed out a series of images that they liked and what I could do, which was the starting point to develop a universe from these images. This process is very interesting because you do not know immediately what your work will give, and so yes – it develops my creativity.

Fashion is a vast and big world, but on the other hand in terms of media I do not project myself absolutely in it – I have too limited knowledge in sewing, cutting, or textile to be able to pretend to make my place there. My only ambition would be to make shirts unique piece by piece as I have already done – more by pleasure to see a visual exist on a tissue.

Thank you so much for answering my questions! I’m so entranced by your work, and I can’t wait to see more. On a final note, I noticed that you used to post a lot of photography on your instagram as well. Do you think your skills in composing and executing amazing shots helped to inform your illustrative pursuits? Do you see any similarities between your processes for both, and maybe any potential to combine them both within future works?

Thanks to you for these questions and all these compliments – I hope to have been clear.

I'm not really comfortable with photography; what I posted are moments of my walks in Paris, let's say I did it instinctively, it was not really thought out and there is no ambition behind it. I don't think I'll post again. I don't know enough about this medium to use it with/for drawing.