Bernard Breulheid

After a classic course, via the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium (Liège,) I started drawing 25 years ago. After briefly exploring various techniques or classic subjects, such as drawing, Indian ink, pastels, acrylic painting, figurative art or even abstraction, I have, for twenty years, found my own way and my own style. I opted for a technique that at first seems quite basic, but I'm surprised to see that few artists use it, because I get very successful results: a simple white pencil on a black drawing sheet, and … nothing else. At first glance, if you stay a few meters away, the result could be mistaken for a photo, the drawing being precise and accurate. The animals or models depicted appear alive. The technique, well mastered, gives an overall rendering very close to reality. It's when you approach that it becomes bluffing. Up close, we can see the pencil lines, sometimes pressed, sometimes very light. We can clearly see the dense or light layers, the hatching that overlaps to give nuances, from bright white to gray barely visible on black. I finally only use one color, white. The black being that of the paper. After careful examination, you need to take a step back again, or even move closer and then several times, as if you wanted to better understand the technique. Perhaps the most intriguing being to imagine that, while drawing, I am necessarily "within reach", a few centimeters from my drawing, but I manage to place an effect, a finish that will only be visible. distance. I have fun playing with your eye, trying to figure out how to draw you in from afar and make you want to come and see how it's done up close. Finally, I must add that I have to deal with an additional difficulty, given the choice of the black sheet as a support: impossible to erase anything without leaving an unsightly mark. So I don't have the right to make mistakes ...