[3][c] His first teachers have not been identified, but his early engravings are thought to show the influence of Léonard Gaultier.

Mellan engraved some of Vouet's works and also began drawing small portraits from life.

Many of his engravings in Rome were reproductive works, including, for example, designs by Pietro da Cortona and Gianlorenzo Bernini.

[4] In 1637, after a period of time in Aix-en-Provence with Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, he returned to Paris, where he adopted an idiosyncratic technique, in which, instead of creating shade by cross-hatching, he used a system of parallel lines, regulating tone by varying their breadth and closeness.

[4] Joseph Strutt wrote: The effect, which he produced by this method of engraving, is soft and clear.

"[3] Two examples, for which both a drawing (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm) and an engraving exist, are portraits of Marie-Louise de Gonzague-Nevers (Préaud no.

According to Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, writing in The Dictionary of Art, Mellan's use of the single line gives "an abstract effect"[3] and, "as an engraver he proved sensitive to the classical ideal developed by Nicolas Poussin, Jacques Stella and others in Paris in the middle of the 17th century.