Varenne, Alex

The Frenchman Alex Varenne (born 1939) has given us some of the raciest depictions of the world of erotica and he is a singular master of black-and-white expression augmented with a very personal use of greytones. He also happens to be a good photographer and a clever painter. Varenne got his training in the art world, where he taught drawing when he was a young man. His debut as a comic artist was the album "Ardeur" from 1979, drawn from a script by his brother, Daniel Varenne. It became a series of exceptional graphic novels. In addition to these, a small handful of erotic comics have been published in Danish. But his output after this requires a knowledge of French. Varenne has kept up his high productivity, and there are loads of exciting erotic titles to choose from if you ever enter a French bookstore. Through the years Varenne has moved from the comics medium deep into erotic painting, bordering on the pornographic. Alex Varenne always starts off by photographing his models. Then he draws some quite detailed sketches in pencil - and finally the inked version. Sometimes he adds greytones - and lately he's taken to drawing his subjects in a style more graphic than painterly. Regardless of what he may choose, the result is always exceptional art! Comicart.dk is particularly fond of Alex Varenne's black-and-white, erotic pictures, be they pencil roughs or finished drawings. Varenne's work is still reasonably priced, but we are certain that this French erotographer's art will soon go through the roof, as has happened to other good art in the erotic genre.