A table full of faces

Half way through the animation process...
Getting all the images into a rough sequence to be painted onto, the fun starts tomorrow!

 

 The first 150 prints laid out

  

 

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.

West Side Story

Commissioned to produce a poster for the advertising of the Bournemouth University Parts dramatic group's production of West Side Story, directed by Jack Diplock.
Printed in a range of sizes from A1 to A4.

 I wanted to put across the Brooklyn back streets feel where the musical is set, incorporating the recognisable fire escapes and windows into a bold and powerful setting within the striking text. The objective is to quickly grab peoples attention through the bold text, then the subtleties of the urban motive and screen-printed texture come into play giving a visually interesting piece that will hold the viewers attention. I screen-printed the original text to achieve the grainy and gritty effect that compliments the urban underdog theme of the musical.

Seeing my work professionally printed on A1 was really inspiring and I'm looking to go back into producing large works, rather than the smaller prints I'm now doing. The visual impact of a large textured image is stunning.

Finishing the String internet

 

After many delays the string internet has finally reached its conclusion. The huge mass takes up half the studio and everyone wants to jump into it. After untangling myself from inside it I managed to take a few photos...

 

 

With more string and a lot more patience I want to fill the room, totally take over every corner, object, and anyone standing still for long enough!

This work shows the mass of the Internet and how the network grows and grows with new websites and more information added every day. In many ways it works much like a natural organism developing and evolving, which is almost the opposite of the digital phenomenon that the internet represents.  This is my response to taking something invisible and digital and representing it in a tactile physical form for people to understand.Thee string is playful, colourful and a simple childlike way of communicating the complex Internet.

Day 1

 

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

 

Getting all tied up over the internet

How to illustrate the internet?  its just a load of string really...

Day 1

Developing the visual explanation of the internet; how does it work, what does it represent?

I'm looking to make something different, break away from my usual work and push my own views on illustration. It isnt just a picture, the process influences the final outcome, documenting the process is sometimes more interesting and informative than the final outcome...