Conspiracy Theories

Taken from dominiquebyron.com.

 

Dom Byron, ex-stockport college student and current employee of the infamous Stan Chow has a new show up at Kosmonaut called Conspiracy Theories. As the name suggests, each print displayed suggests a particular conspiracy still shrouded in much doubt but illustrated boldly and beautifully. As an image, my personal favourite has to be the one featured above. I don't know much about American football but the cleverness of the poster gave me clear idea of the theory under-pining the design, communicates the conflict and stands striking without existing knowledge. Many other posters line the wall and  feature Area 51, the Bermuda Triangle and the mysterious honeybee disappearance.

I really enjoyed the night, such a good turn out of and a great opportunity to speak to Dom and meet local artists. Having an exhibition in a key location such as Kosmonaut draws in a more unusual and varied crowd than a specific art orientated event would, ensuring the work will never fall short of views.

Well done Dom!

Out of Darkness

Main Editorial Image.

Looking back on previous project's always helps me when starting fresh. I find ordering my ideas and showing logical progression through development to be especially difficult now that there's so much pressure to produce a larger body of work. Before Christmas I successfully completed and exhibited the editorial project I'd struggled with. The final outcome of the piece had been turned on it's head after half a dozen mishaps, the plan never quite goes to plan, but resulted in a more organic piece and experimental development shown throughout my sketches and minds-eye.

The final piece for the main illustration 'Out of Darkness' was created using an old projector, as shown in the photograph above and my drawings translated onto acetate. I deliberately sought out a projector that didn't quite work as it should, so I knew the focus would be temperamental and the projection very rough, to create an effect similar to an old cinema screening. The tall figure is based around the character Nosferatu, I had to use various different resources to get the pose of each figure in proportion and taking inspiration from black and white films (where shadow and chiaroscuro were two important factors to create atmosphere) seemed appropriate to the whole aura of this piece.

Wall of fame.

I wasn't entirely sure how an editorial would look on the wall, especially since lack of time meant I had to photocopy my design's on print-out newspaper copies and hash them together as professionally as possible. However, even though nothing was framed or arranged artistically, the wall was significantly more interesting to look at than my midterm exhibition as the variety of work held up individually and collectively.

Photoshop hell.

Not only did the editorial push me to mess-up my sketchbooks and work in a overly logical manner, time-keep and recover faster when things when belly up but I had to constantly challenge myself technologically. Since I've only ever used photoshop when absolutely necessary it takes me triple the time to process information when editing elements together. I wanted to create an alternative piece out of photographic material (self-taken) using a cut-up method, William S. Burroughs inspired. I decided on the background as a corridor, a developmental synergy involving a handful of designs so I bought a cheap disposable camera and hung around the ground floor of the college waiting until it was dark and empty enough for me to take twenty seven photographs of the same corridor without looking like a total weirdo. After developing two sets of the practically the same photograph it took me the best part of eight hours cutting them up and arranging them into something that resembled the original corridor. the visual disjointedness of the composition represents the view of a corridor through the eyes of a terrified child, or victim in this case. The challenge I had lured myself into was then to edit two different types of photographic material, both dark in contrast and conflicting shapewise, together.

I think I did alright.

Let's Ring In The New Year

My 'Historic Buildings' design is featured on the front of the Age UK calendar for next year. It was an absolute pleasure working with everyone from the Stockport branch and I'm overjoyed to see my work being put to such good use.

 

Pen For Hire.

My business cards arrived! It feels very strange to have a business card promoting myself, but I'm really happy with how they turned out. I used two drawings from my portfolio that reflect my strongest technique and work well as stand alone images, the crow in particular has returned much positive feedback already. I wanted to keep them as simple as possible, so minimal information, plain backgrounds and an easy to read typeface. When it came to describing my skills I opted for 'Pen For Hire' in place of 'Illustrator' as I didn't want to box myself within that particular field. I'm still experimenting with context and like to think I have a variety of skills to take on a multitude of projects.

Portfolio Visit Numero Tres.

I had my final portfolio visit of the year this afternoon with Alan Dalby at his cute studio in Hotspur House, near Oxford Road Station.

Sourced from Hotspur House facebook

Alan's room is right next to LaserLea, who I visited earlier in the year, and in such a unique building right in the heart of Manchester. I was excited just to be back there and to visit his studio which was super cosy and very inviting.

Homepage from alandalbyillustration.com

Alan is my 'guru' who I was paired up with by the tutors and I'm actually very thankful for their choice. Although his work is very different to mine and he uses mainly digital methods of working, we have similar interests and work pace. He's established his work, website and social media as a brand that all resonate on a professional and accessible level, something I've been very interested to pick up on. We had a lot to talk about as we've met a few times previous to the guru meeting and I felt comfortable telling him the problems I was having within my technique and issues with my portfolio.

After taking on board the feedback I'd received from my previous two portfolio visits, I'd refined my portfolio, taken the logo out of the equation, created an introductory page and created business cards, so I had a lot of finalised material to show Alan. I was still surprised at how positive he was though, he said he could barely flaw my layout and that I'd found a balance between my work and the surrounding space. The only criticism he had was to ensure that all the text was in line and flowed between every page, and to remove the dates I had affixed to each piece. He was impressed with my business cards and asked to keep one of each, which I of course allowed, the least I could do. He particularly liked the work I'd completed at the end of second year for Noise, Piece for Protest, of which I had included the series of three animals holding weapons. I asked him for any advice with improving the presentation of my drawn pieces and made it clear that I would be happy to spend time removing the backgrounds and completely re-facing them if that would help. In regards to the line drawings he said that was my best bet, to enhance the original drawings and stop gluing them onto scrappy bits of card (a horrible habit I created in second year for some bizarre reason.)

Alan's Tumblr Blog linked to his site.

Portfolio Visit Numero Dos.

This evening me and Dan Gatens met with Ben Jones, graduate from Stockport College, successful Illustrator and currently, multi-tasking teacher. I knew he had a busy schedule, especially before christmas, so I was extremely grateful that he agreed to spend an hour with us.

Sourced from benjonesillustration.com

After seeing Chris from the Media Octopus a week or so before, I'd updated my portfolio by removing a few pages and replacing them with images that flowed much more smoothly and placing each page in In-Design. The first thing Ben had to say was to minimise all of the descriptive text, leaving it just as a title and one line of context, and to remove the logo I had created to spot on each page. Using the space around the images would allow my work to breathe, speak for itself and attract the viewer with the quality of drawing instead.

After reviewing the rest of my portfolio he agreed with me that some of the pieces created with mixed media didn't fit in with the fine drawing and watercolour paintings and that towards the end of the year it'd be a nice idea to refine it further and invest in a quality portfolio, with removable pages.
I really value Ben's advice and was pleased with everything he had to say about my work whether it was critical or not. Unlike my meeting with Chris, the time spent with Ben was more focused around the layout and style of my actual portfolio and some tips toward an editorial I was working on. His advice for me personally was to keep up good habits, listen to my heart more rather than my head and get stuck in as soon as I finish uni. Apply for competitions (worthwhile ones), give every opportunity your all and never complain about being busy.

He's offered to look at my PDF portfolio early on next year and guide me with anything I need help with, which I couldn't be more thankful for.

Sourced from benjonesillustration.com

Beyond The Book; On the Wall.

'Turning Point' Lino print, hand mounted and framed.

Toward the end of Beyond the Book we were given the opportunity to prepare our work as a semi-professional show, taking into consideration selection, presentation and limitations of space. Personally I think this was a great idea and should be done for every project assessment. It allows you to see you work from another angle and consider elements of the development prior to the final result, more critically. Presentation is everything and I found choosing suitable frames to reflect my work and myself, much more difficult than I thought possible. Even after deciding on frames, mounts, wall fixtures and additional shelving there was the wall plan, the summary, mounted name plaque and then actually deciding which work was good enough to exhibit, far more than I originally planned for. And of course you have to account for everything than will inevitably go wrong. Which in this case, was almost all of it.

'Four Sharp Knocks: A Visual Interpretation of The Outsider.' by Charlie Heselton.

Close up image of supporting material, shelved underneath frames.

Entitled, Four Sharp Knocks (based around the line; 'And it was like giving four sharp knocks at the door or unhappiness.' right at the end of chapter 6, part 1.), I decided to use a series of lino prints as the main focus of the show that reflected this chapter. My sketchbook, supporting material and film negatives are shelved just underneath (as shown in the photograph above) and the laser-cut key-rings relative to the theme are pinned just to the right of the central image to restore balance from the shelf.

In The Outsider, Mersualt acknowledges that the action of shooting the arab will cause him to feel unhappiness yet the clinical symbolism of attaching his emotions to a solid object like a door, instead of describing them. Throughout the entire scene he focuses on tangible, physically felt senses e.g what he can feel, see, rather than emotion. For example, he can describe the murder weapon in surprising detail but cannot portray remorse or regret at the fact that he has killed another human being.

Mersualt also eludes to his weakness to the weather and unpredictable surroundings, and remarks that if the sun hadn't been so hot, maybe the murder wouldn't have happened. The way that the beach is described in this chapter is extremely vivid which is why the series of four lino cuts are printed in yellow, orange, red and black, the portray the blinding hot sun.

In accordance with moral nihilism; killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong. My focus on the beach scene illustrates how the 'turning point of the book' is only central in relation to human morality. I wanted to portray my work in a sequence; linear and almost repetitive, to reflect the regimented mentality of Mersault (focal character) and project his descent through the subtle variations of a singular symbol.

My opinion of my 'miniature exhibition' has changed drastically over the course of the last week. To begin with I was happy with what I had produced and how it was hung, in hindsight feeling proud was a confidence boost and although after receiving feedback and looking at my work through much more critical eyes changed my feelings on this body of work, I've tried to not let it affect my confidence. Looking at your own work through rose-tinted glasses can be dangerous and even though I remain pleased at the presentation and framing of my pieces I realise that the work presented was subsequently not as high quality as it should be, especially as the focus. Not only that but I didn't consider variation when selecting pieces, I wanted the series to be shown as a repetition but the central image looked far too similar and the surrounding material lacked aesthetic 'oomph'.

Another important lesson I learned the hard way was to do with hand-cutting your own window mounts. I learnt this lesson about an hour before the show was meant to be complete, I was lying on the studio floor brandishing a craft knife and a mounting tool, I was not smiling. There's a knack to it that I just do not have, one to be left to the professionals. It was an eye-opening experience however and in my defense it could have gone a lot worse.