Renaud studied at the Art Academy in Tournai, and obtained a diploma in lithography. He worked a year in the advertising field, before he began to work as a retoucher for the pocket publications of the publishing house Arédit. He joined the magazine Spirou in 1975. There, he started out with the series 'Aymone', created with a script by Jean-Marie Brouyère, followed by 'Myrtille, Vidpoche et Cabochar' with scripts by Mittéï in 1978.

He moved over to Tintin magazine in 1981 and took on the 'Brelan de Dames' series with writer Jean-Luc Vernal and later Jean Dufaux. This series, which was inspired by the television series 'Charlie's Angels', contains seven albums. He then took on the gag series 'Platon, Torloche et Coquinette'.

Renaud's style evolved from caricatural to more realistic, which resulted in more mature comics like 'Jessica Blandy'. Renaud began this sensual thriller series in cooperation with Jean Dufaux at the publishing house Novedi in 1987. The series was eventually continued in the collection Repérages at Dupuis. Also with Dufaux, he took on 'Les Enfants de la Salamandre' from 1988 to 1990, 'Santiag' in 1991, and 'Venus H.' in 2005.