Drawing Alan Turing

There are many images of Alan Turing in books and online, often looking very sombre and every inch the mathematician and logician and scientist that he was.
I wanted to portray a different Alan Turing, one far from the posters found in I.T departments of high schools and colleges throughout the country.
I wanted to portray him, as the happy go lucky, friendly and outgoing person I discovered him to be during my research.
I began drawing a likeness and experimenting with different media, from coloured pens to screen printing, coming away with many variations and results, again another good feather in the proverbial cap when it comes to generating ideas especially when it is for such an important project.

Above are two examples of some of the first attempts of capturing Alan Turing in a more natural guise, 

In an attempt to portray him as an every day man, and not just the scientist that he was.

While exploring the idea surrounding the apple aspect of Alan Turing (the one with which he administered the fatal dose of Cyanide to himself).

I toyed with the idea of creating a portrait of Alan Turing, depicted within an apple itself.

Although tricky to do, I had some success, by scratching the flesh of the apple, and allowing air to dry it out naturally which in turn accented the marks that I had made, after a few attempts, varying the level of pressure applied to make the marks, 

This was an idea that I was keen to move on with, as the results were actually better than I had anticipated but after further attempts it was clear that the results were unpredictable and sporadic to rely on going into the later stages of the brief, so I was happy to leave it as a good idea and have it in my development file.

Final Major Project

Heading into the final major project of my degree course was a daunting task,
But after reading the brief and learning it was pretty much 'show us what you can do' I relaxed a little.
Being given a fairly free run at my own brief, I decided eventually that I would like to do something a based on Manchester, its people and history.
As I am a proud Mancunian I wanted to not just show off Manchester but to celebrate some aspects of it, and its people.
I spent much time trawling the Internet and libraries for information on the history of Manchester and famous people who have hailed from the city.
As expected the usual suspects cropped up a lot, new era celebrities, and sportsmen.
The Gallagher Brothers of Oasis fame, Ryan Giggs and Ricky Hatton amongst many many others.
I had already painted many of the people I was coming across connected with Manchester and since I wanted to highlight the importance of Manchester throughout history I kept digging further into Manchester's past.
A few names started to stand out and intrigue me.
Namely, that of Alan Turing, although he was not born in Manchester, he lived and died here and is celebrated on numerous sites throughout the city.
a Bridge and statue in his honour as well as a main thorough fare on the outskirts of the city centre named Alan Turing way.
His story is one of great achievement, tragedy and injustice.
The fore father of modern computing, who developed and built a machine capable of deciphering the Nazi German enigma codes used by their U-boats to communicate in secret.
The code breaking equipment proved pivotal in bringing about the end of the second world war but even after such a level of service to his Country, Alan Turing was charged with Homosexuality and chemically castrated with injections of the female hormone oestrogen.
The intrigue of the man and his story, as well as his almost anonimity amongst a generation who rely on gadgets he laid the foundations to create for ease of day to day living helped me decide that Alan Turing would be a key component of my final major project.
I set out to find out as much as I could about Alan Turing and his life.
throughout the reading I repeatedly came across passages mentioning the fact that Alan Turing had a soft spot for the story of Snow White and The Seven Dwarves.
The first motion picture animation of the story had been released by Walt Disney in 1937.
Alan turing committed suicide by eating an apple laced with Hydrogen Cyanide in 1954, after years of persecution at the hands he of the government he had served so dutifully during the world war.
The apple of course became central to my ideas generation as it was a direct connection between Alan Turing and The story of Snow White, since the fabled princess also fell victim to a poisonous apple.
This was the connection that let me move away from research and start drawing and playing with ideas.
With subject matter that is so full of emotion, injustice, greatness and achievement coupled with the fun brought about by Walt Disney's factor in the equation, I was excited to get started and experiment with some of the things that had filled my head since the idea came about.

portfolio visit 2

My second portfolio 'visit' was more of a showing as It was executed via E-mail.
In the second year of my course we were prompted to start contacting practitioners, one of the people I contacted was Benjamin Wachenje.
A full interview with him makes up an entire post of a previous blog.
Being inspired by his work on the Grand Theft Auto Computer game franchise some 10 years prior, I had become an admirer of most of his work as I felt that I could relate to his work and his subject matter since we are from similar backgrounds.
During the process of interviewing Ben I seized the opportunity to show him some of my work.
some of my own work and a couple of reproductions of his own work that I had I done in a 'deconstructing an art work' project in the first year'.
The feedback was all positive.
This probably was a good thing but led me to tread water.
It had left me with the idea that Benjamin Wachenje thinks my work is 'dope', no need to change anything and just keep doing what I am doing.
Where as when Chris Howker cast his eye over my work, he gave me a critique that was the catalyst for me wanted to evolve my work,
So because of the portfolio visit process I have learned two very important rules so far.
the First is not to be over awed by anybody whether you are a fan or not, it can lead to delusion or disappointment if what they say isn't as positive as what you are expecting.
I cant think of many more things more dis-heartening than being negatively fed back to by someone who you admire.
The second thing I have learned is not to take criticism personally, take it constructively and use it as fuel to evolve your work.

Merry Christmas Bloggers :)

Website Review

I have recently started making enquiries about creating and maintaining my own web page.
A friend of mine put me in touch with a two web designers and was quoted from between £120 and £380 the assessment was automatic.
With web pages you get what you pay for.
That is not to say expensive is better or that being good looking is better than functional.
Each come with their own unique pro's and con's
I will compare and contrast 3 different websites, the first one I am going to look at is Benjamin Wachenje's online studio. http://www.benjaminwachenje.com/home.php
This website is brilliant, an 80's theme bedroom desk setup, using the same artistic style that defines much of Benjamin Wachenje's work.
Navigating through his various portfolio's and clearly labelled sections by using a roll over amstrad style joystick, bright and functional, with relevance to the artist and his work alike.
It is a fun place to be speaking in terms of online, in opposed to say the direct.gov website which is all very uniform and to the point and a chore to operate but also relevant to its task.
A website should be personal and have a streak of the owner throughout it especially one belonging to a creative mind.
Many leaves could be taken from this website's book in terms of design, personality and originality if that is way I feel to develop my website into
While researching for a previous post, I was looking for images and information regarding Noma Bar, the highly published illustrator so visited his webiste, which I must say, I had allowed myself to expect something mind blowing, and here it is http://nomabar.com/
Disappointed? yeah so was I. Nice imagery but unless I couldn't work out how to get beyond the contact details and everybody else did, its not a very exciting experience, there is however other web sites that do have galleries of his work, but I am concentrating on personal domain names not sections of other department store style websites.
One would expect Noma Bar to exhibit work on the website bearing his name, but to just have contact details, on a jpeg with albeit a nice image just seems slightly pretentious, and even though it contained contact details it made me he was more inaccessible.
If simple and efficient is the way I am compelled to take my own website then this, http://www.lizlomax.com/ would be an ideal example of simplicity meeting creativity but not to an excess.
Liz Lomax's website, is bright, clean, crisp and light hearted, made fun by the nature of her cheeky 3d artistic caricature sculptures of celebrities.
There is a feeling of welcome with this website, an excited eager feeling of 'come in and look around',
but with an air of gratitude, 'of thanks for visiting' when in contrast to Benjamin Wachenje's
site which leaves you feeling satisfied after play.
Fun and playful or simple and effective, both good choices I could see myself adopting for a website, I m not sure which maybe both?.
One thing is for sure, it wont be just my phone number, that what business cards are for.
I want my website to be an extension of my personality, something that stands out, its functional but not boring, I know what I wont do and that is set myself a budget as that instantly limits my options, plan and design then present the idea to a designer and then ask how much it would cost to bring that to life I understand money is a factor for many people and who knows what opportunities may come along because of owning my own web space,
An exciting prospect.

What is Illustration

This is a re-post as the original made very little coherent sense although it made sense to me, but thats not the point of a blog really is it, so here we go again..

What is an illustration? A question put to me while being interviewed for my place on the Illustration course.
'It's an image to accompany words' was my reply.
Now two and a half years on, I realise how much more I could have said after being asked a variation of the same question.
After nearly three years on the course I have been duly woken up and ceased to become a 'man at a bus stop with a narrow mind, brushing off that which I do not understand entirely, as 'crap'.

I am know of the understanding that illustration is far greater than a published image stood beside a blurb or a colourful hungry Caterpillar, more importantly it is the journey an idea takes from initial inspiration to becoming a finished piece of art.
How the illustrator nurtures an idea from seed to full grown and complete using unique research techniques, thought processes, ideas generation, experimentation, critique and evaluation, that is illustration.
Illustration is power also, used to incredible effect as propaganda during the two world wars by both Nazi Germany and The Allies.

The British Using children to Manipulate men in an attempt to shame them into signing up for war

A Nazi antisemitic propaganda poster from Serbia

Commercially, illustration is a heavy weapon.
Advertising can be illustration at its strongest, if you see 2 golden arches on a red background, as you hurtle past on the motorway, you think McDonalds, a thought created by an illustration in a millisecond.
If you see those familiar arches in Japan, Dubai or Guatemala you understand what it means, Illustration can defy language barriers. it is a communication device.
It has been relevant since its inception, since man rubbed resin onto cave walls it has survived and been adapted, it is a man made super tool for global marketing and manipulation of the masses, crafted and nurtured from a single idea in a creative mind.
Illustration is a unique skill set to possess as it comes with endless potential to inspire people and emotion.
Illustration is lots of things, with no one singular form it surrounds us crafted and adapted over millions of years without losing any of its importance.

A Catch Up With the World Outside Uni

As well working for Uni towards my degree, I still receive the occasional commission, one long on going one has been one for a Manchester United team in eleven individual portraits, not a bad commission for such an avid football fan. Unless that is you support Manchester City, Hmm.
Started in March as an individual painting,

                                                

                                                                  Robin Van Persie

                  Raphael da Silva, Nemanja Vidic, David de Gea, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra.

It was this painting that began a collection, I found myself painting in any spare time that I had, the next lots came in batches. the back line, then the forwards were painted after,.

                                                These two, Luis Nani & Antonio Valencia
                                                       (apologies for the poor cropping)

                                             Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs

Even though I was pleased with the outcome of each peice, I was more pleased with the evolution I could see happening, they were getting slightly better with each one that was completed with the Scholes and Giggs paintings backed onto red to highlight their personal 'legend' status within Manchester United folklore. 

As a sports fan it was a nice project to undertake, by the end I was happy to see the back of Manchester united in my work for a while as proud as seeing a full series of paintings together actually made me.

I also jumped on the 'Breaking Bad' band wagon, became an obsessive, gorged on 5 series as quickly as I possibly could then felt like it was only right to go on and paint something related, so taking on the Gaudi inspiration I felt a need for colour and just went for it. the result... 

Aaron Paul & Bryan Cranston as Jesse & Walter from Breaking Bad

Trying new things is fun and exciting when they pay off, and colour is still a fairly new aspect to my work, though striving to find meaning to put into my work is now an important factor, just doing something I like doing is still satisfying.

One last piece to show, is a reproduction of a painting I did during the summer before I became a student, a Clint Eastwood from the film Dirty Harry, the second time around I wanted to go bigger and use colours I felt represented the era the film was set in, the seventies, to me.

The browns and creams suited the era I was attempting capture perfectly I felt, and nicely in balance with such a bold back ground colour that does not take away from the actual image, works nicely sat on the purple 'work wall' in my kitchen too.

This was a commission with a difference, it was in trade for another kind of art that also set up the opportunity for a collaboration of a different kind. Tattooing.

The painting was an anniversary gift for the Husband of a friend of mine who happens to be tattooist.

Between the two of us we came up with a design I was happy with and then Jenny Bottomley (of The Tattooed Teapot in Manchester) did all the hard work I was left with this.

I love it, collaborative artistic design that I will have forever.

Meeting Chris Howker

Chris Howker and I had arranged a time best suited for him, for to visit Uni so we could have a sit down and talk over all things illustration.

On researching Chris, I found his website.. http://www.howks.co.uk/

It quickly became apparent that I had encountered Chris' work before and just not realised it.

Two and a half years ago, on applying to join the course, I was invited to attend the end of year graduates exhibition, 

After visiting I left with a feeling excitement, eagerness and of all the business cards and information made available to the exhibitions viewers, this.. 

                                     A postcard with Chris Howkers Boxing Lightbulb image

So I had seen Chris' Graduation exhibition and due to personal taste it was one of the exhibitions I was more drawn toward.

So, on arriving Chris sat down and we began chatting, I found him easy to talk to, and very down to earth, and as for willingness to help, he came with a sack full of books he thought I might find useful for my dissertation, in the rain, on a motorbike. 

We discussed lots of things from comic books, graffiti and street art as well as things like studio spaces.

Chris had seen a selection of my work before, an impromptu portfolio visit if you like.

My work is usually met with a certain amount of positivity, a level I had subconsciously began to take for granted it would seem.

As I read Chris' feedback, my initial reaction was to jump straight on the defensive, defend the integrity of my work.

After a second read through, the defense became acceptance. 

I couldn't really argue with the opinions of an established practitioner.

It was a new reaction to my work although complimentary, Chris questioned the integrity of my work, yes it is aesthetically pleasing he said but its a popular style, questioning my work, asking what does it mean?

The question that hit home the most was when Chris asked me whether the people who buy my art work are buying just that, my artwork or are they in fact just buying a pretty picture of their favourite icon?

An almost rude awakening came from this encounter, my work lacked meaning and was quite generic, it needs to stand out and to have a little meat on its proverbial bones, some fat for the viewer to chew over.

Meeting a professional and taking on board what he said has added another dimension to my working method, meaning.

How can I make my work mean something? aim it at a specific audience and let your work speak to them.

Further examples of Chris' work... 

Hand drawn Image for the 'May the  4th' exhibition in Leeds

Chris Howkers 'Fishtank' submission

So a thank you to the teaching staff for putting me in touch with my first professional contact, and coercing evolution into my work. 

Chris has left the door open for future contact, and I now understand the importance of opening as many doors as possible.

That importance there is knowledge behind everyone you manage to open.