Scott french

Scott French was born in Atlanta, GA. At fourteen, he began to travel while playing in jazz bands between New Orleans and Detroit. On the road, he experienced many cities and was exposed to the nightlife and its diverse range of characters. Fascinated by human emotion and relationships, Scott began to draw between musical sets, recording the scenes around him.

​

After eight years of playing on and off the road, he returned home to Atlanta, where he began to study drawing and painting at Georgia State University. There he met a sculptor, Martin Dawe who was an artist in residence, lecturing at the school. Scott began working with Martin and soon became one of his assistants. He learned to work in three-dimensional forms, assisting Martin on sculpture projects and learning to work with clay in his spare time. This helped establish and inspire a foundation for Scott’s understanding of human anatomy.

​

Although his time with Martin was well spent, Scott wanted to return to his focus on drawing and painting. His need to gain more knowledge working in two-dimensional mediums lead him to enroll in the illustration program at Portfolio Center. That environment exposed Scott to various illustration techniques that would become useful in his exploration as an artist. He met and worked with many modern-day illustrators such as Craig Nelson, The Rudnak, Margaret Dyer, and Gary Weiss. To balance his training as an illustrator, Scott enrolled at the Scottsdale Artist School where he studied Renaissance painting techniques with Thomas Buechner and figure painting with Milt Kobayashi.

​

Many of Scott’s early influences include artists such as Egon Schiele, Nicolai Fechin, Frank Dubeneck, and John Singer Sargent. Among the illustrators, Scott’s work has been influenced by Dean Cornwell, Norman Rockwell, and Malcolm Liepke.