Ben Tallon

Back in April I went to a lecture led by Illustrator Ben Tallon. Out of all the guest lectures I have been to this year I'd have to say this is one of my favourites. The content of the lecture was more visual which I think is what kept me engaged throughout, Ben Tallon was very down to earth and open about his struggle to find work, giving tips and ideas on how to get out and get work if you are struggling to get a job after uni or are struggling to get to grips with being freelance. 

It was interesting to see how he discovered his style and how he learned to branch out and become more experimental in his art to attract work. Ben was very honest in how much of a struggle it is to get work after education, yet made it sound possible to find work at the end of talk unlike so many others forget to do.

Sea

I've been playing around with some ideas in After Effects and creating gifs in Photoshop, this one had a few issues with playing online so I've had to upload it to vimeo as well. The idea for this experiment came about when looking at someones visual research during a lecture, the image was an illustration of the sea which was in a handcrafted style, I particularly liked the shape of the waves in the image I saw, after looking at it for a while I might add some pattern into the waves and some texture to give it more depth.

Atlantis Research

Before my visual appendix I wanted to look into a video - specifically one I watched as child to take reference from in my work. I felt it would be cheating the main purpose of my essay subject if I were to create objects that are meant to be fake artefacts without looking into the history I wanted to manipulate as that would have been the same process that Fontcuberta would done before creating his work. The video stirred a lot of thoughts and ideas however before I started I wanted to clear my mind of the unnecessary ideas that didn't benefit my appendix even if it was the spine of my work, so I've taken to writing as part of my outlet.

Below is the video which helped my initial research for imagery. Produced by BBC Timewatch and first aired in 2010.

Atlantis: The Evidence

Spencer's Lecture

I've always had an understanding of Spencer's lectures they have a way to work their way into your mind without you even realizing how much of an impact they have on your thoughts and ideas. The main lectures that have stayed with me were the lecture about exploitation of women in art and the lecture in which Spencer talks in depth about the design of the cover of the novel Crash by J. G. Ballard. At some point around those lectures something unlocked in my brain and even though I thought I understood it before, I now feel I understand it more I see the connections be made as different links being connected in the brain for example the brain could find connections for a tree > plant > soil > earth > earth cycle.

What really stands out in Spencers lectures are that thought process and how similar it is to mine with my work, I feel that the theory module has really influenced the way I work I may have written ideas down before for safekeeping but I took it for granted and never seen the whole meaning and thought process through my own ideas and visuals. One of the many things I have gained from the lecture program this year is that I found it has helped me to express my ideas through a more precise outlet.

Windows of Huddersfield

These illustrations were really fun to do, I really want to get around to doing more at some point maybe creating a series from different cities I go to over the years. The more visually successful ones I think are the ones with higher contrasting colours, my favourites are mechanic's warehouse and that piazza building.

City Windows

I've wanted to do something like José Guízar's Windows of New York illustration series for a while. Like him I really enjoy looking at the architecture of buildings whilst traveling, I like to wonder about the stories behind a mark or a scratch on a door, window or brick of a building. The contrast of cities really interests me whenever I go on a journey from Huddersfield back to my home in York I notice the grass is a greener shade, flooding everywhere (usually in winter), older more historical buildings and lots more farmland in contrast to Huddersfield. Huddersfield however boasts factory structures and greek inspired architecture made around the industrial period, I am really insterested to see the contrast in style between the original work and Huddersfield. After creating these illustrations I hope to create a collection of some of York someday. The photographs above a sample of some I took a day walking around Huddersfield with a camera, passing buildings that interest me and catch my eye on day to day journeys.

Below is an illustration from José Guízar's Windows of New York

Type - The Departure of the Candlewax, Part 3

This is the final experimentation from the last lesson and one of the most surprising. At the beginning of the lesson I was mostly looking forward to the outcome of the rice, this idea was a last minute one just as I was about to walk out the door I noticed a collection of toilet rolls which has been left by a messy flatmate (Hi if you are actually reading this) I took these to create a personalized message for him, later on toning down the language. The quality of these images are amazing and were surprisingly easy to edit, taking on the camera of my new phone I noticed how much detail had been kept. Each letter is from an individual photograph and then edited together, the background was easy to piece together with them all originally having an off white background. I really wanted to keep the shadows in the piece so instead of awkwardly cutting each letter off the background and editing my own shadows in I decided to rely on my eye for tone and colour and play around with tone, colour and contrast editing each letter to match the last one.