Modern interpretation of Heart of Darkness

eJoseph Conrad's short novel The Heart of Darkness (the inspiration behind Francis Ford Coppola's amazing film Apocalypse Now) tells the story of the demise of man in an alien environment. He talks of the futile efforts of the colonizing Europeans to tame the wild land and harness its natural resources, resulting in fatigue, sickness and ultimately death. It is a story of man's blinding greed and fragile nature as the deeper they go the more they change.
It is this transition from the original self to a darker diseased self that I found so compelling.
The fall of man.

The the work so far...

So far I have screen-printed over 150 photographs of my housemate showing various emotions, marking the fall into depression. I'm not sure where this is going yet but the exploration into playing with colour and manipulation of imagery, looking to produce a animation at the end.

Playing with the idea of a changing personality, destruction of the original person as it becomes more corrupt and unrecognizable.

 

Basically just throwing paint around the room...

  

  

 

Little life observations

Life is full of little promises, and slightly bigger loopholes. 

 

A common statement among my friends, none of which smoke... well only socially.

European Road Trip Poster: L'Orbite

Poster to advertise the mini series L'Orbite de Lashe road trip.

 Me and 3 friends (Matty Hopper Northumbria University, Chris Medland University of Central Lancashire and Mat Ayres University College Falmouth) went on a 3 week road trip around West Europe in the summer of 2009. Taking in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and Spain (for one short but heavy night!). For us this marked a reunion of old friends and an amazing 3 weeks of sun, fun and miles of tarmac.

Matty filmed the whole thing and after a lot of time and effort produced the mini series of short films, documenting our time on the road. Check his youtube channel mjhopp89 for more short film fun.

This kind of commission gives me the freedom to explore and test ideas that I want to experiment with and don't have the opportunity to use within my illustration course. I have long found influence from mainstream illustrators like Tim Marrs, Miles Donovan and Andy Potts, but want to develop my own style and message within my course work, this poster is a self indulgence where I play with style and form. It works in way to flush out the aesthetic dependence I have, this is done, and I can move on to more considered work for personal or course based imagery.