Guy Billout

French artist and illustrator

Billout' influences include Belgian comics artist Hergé (1907–1983) for the detail of the works in The Adventures of Tintin, to Milton Glaser, the design director of New York magazine at the time. Glaser loved them and published the entire portfolio. Billout's first assignment came from art director Bob Ciano at Redbook magazine.

In 1982, Judy Garlan from The Atlantic Monthly would offer Billout a bi monthly full page in the magazine. Published under the imprint of Harlin Quist, three editions of the book were issued in the same year it was printed. In 2010 a digitized version for DVD would be released with a musical score, produced by Label Frères and Patrick Couratin, titled Bus 24. Billout added words to his second book released six years later in 1979, By Camel or by Car: A Look at Transportation. According to Connie Tyrrell in School Library Journal this book featured works "simple nearly to the point of austere yet meticulous in detail, with a bold use of color". Thunderbolt and Rainbow would be selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for recognition.

A limited archive of the artist's work, commissioned by the publication between 1997 and 2007, is stored by The Atlantic.

Early illustrations by the artist were done with watercolors and brush and later in his career Billout began using an airbrush. Many years later, he gradually adopted Photoshop. Rough drafts are made on copy paper using a Pilot Razor Point Pen. When finishing a work using Photoshop, the artist scans the drawing and the final color is applied.

The work of Billout is founded in strict attention to the details of the subject matter he is addressing. The artist goes to enormous lengths, visiting a site, photographing details, obtaining documents on the subject in order to obtain exacting representations of what is being portrayed.