David Revoy
1981– · French illustrator and comic artist, creator of Pepper&Carrot
David Philippe Revoy (born 1981 in Reims) is a French illustrator best known as the creator of the webcomic Pepper&Carrot, a series translated into 27 languages and published under free licenses. His work sits within contemporary digital illustration, and his best-known role for a general audience combines artistic production with an open distribution model.
Before turning to comics, Revoy worked as a street portraitist in Avignon from the age of eighteen, and later as a traditional painter, illustrator, concept artist and teacher. In 2003 he gave up traditional painting to work with digital tools. In 2009–2010 he was art director of the Blender short film Sintel, and he later worked on other Blender films such as Tears of Steel and Cosmos Laundromat.
The first episode of Pepper&Carrot appeared in May 2014. It follows Pepper, a young witch apprentice on the planet Hereva, and her cat Carrot. Revoy aims for each episode to hold a small story in which a character grows. When the publisher Glénat approached him about a book edition, he declined a traditional royalty contract in order to keep the Creative Commons license and creative control, and Glénat became the webcomic's top patron instead.
His work has also had a notable effect on free software. He has used Krita exclusively since 2012, reported many bugs, and in 2018 contributed to the default brush kit for Krita 4.0. His images, including the well-known remix of the yin and yang symbol, have been reused in research, theses and derivative works such as short films, cosplay and games.although