Afters – Alexis Marcou’s personal project juxtaposes appetite with destruction

Sportswear, athletes, vehicles – Alexis Marcou has established himself in some of the most energetic industries since he first set out as an illustrator in the late noughties. His realistic pencil work and shading, combined with swashes of digital colour, seemed very of the moment back then, but his style has endured, and his all-action clients have just kept on getting bigger. Nike, the NFL, PepsiCo, BMW…

It's never dull, exactly, drawing powerhouse sportsmen and women, or the latest fast cars, but sometimes the creative itch can't be fully scratched in the commercial context. While scrolling through the thousands of images in his reference folders, Alexis noticed that his subconscious might be steering him toward something new.

"I kept seeing food photography appearing alongside all the sports imagery. I'd always admired porcelain artwork, and at some point, the two things connected; the idea of placing a narrative inside illustrated desserts arrived rather than being planned," says Alexis.

And so, his personal series entitled Afters was born. Using Delft ceramics, with its distinctive blue glazing and famous Willow pattern as a backdrop, he began drawing various kinds of deserts. It looks delectable, both literally and metaphorically.

"The tiramisu came first, and it was entirely literal, the narrative of the dessert placed inside the plate with no intended tension," continues Alexis.

In that first image, which oozes both realism and artistry, the plate features hints of something more modern than the Willow pattern, while continuing the traditional approach through its floral and organic elements.

However, as Alexis continued to draw images in the series, he began to exaggerate the juxtaposition between the desirability of the food itself and a sense of human conflict reflected in the earthenware's glaze. There is sorrow, strife, destruction – one image even depicts a mushroom cloud. The calm and tranquillity of the Willow pattern has been subverted.

"The scenes kept getting darker. By the time I drew the sponge cake, I was illustrating a death scene from Puccini's La Bohème," he says. "I had a plan going in, but the project kept breaking it, which in the end told me more about the concept than the plan ever did."

Something you'll notice about the plates in the images is that their edges dissolve away here and there. This allows the focal area of each image – the dessert – to breathe, and to attract the eye. The Delft pattern is quite powerful on its own, and he wanted it to be more incidental, like a side effect or a memory.

Originally working in graphite on paper, then scanning it in, Alexis moved his entire process to Photoshop five years ago. He now creates on a custom desktop setup with a drawing surface separate from his screen. He looks at his zero-reflection display as he works, so his hand isn't in between his eyes and the image. It ensures his posture isn't an extension of the drawing surface, which he prefers.

What does Afters mean to Alexis, creatively? "It was a stress test more than anything," he says. "I'm used to working with motion and aggression in the subject matter, so deliberately restricting myself to something static was a way to see how far the style could carry without that energy to lean on."

What pleases him most is when viewers return with comments that show they understand the work. "One described it as forcing the viewer to look past the surface of indulgence and consider the timing and cost of our modern success, which was exactly the intention," says Alexis.

Next up, he's working on a commission for an aerospace client and something for Car and Driver magazine. On the personal side, he's developing a project on street fashion and sports, but it is still taking shape.