BODIES IN FOREST

I began this series as an exercise in introducing tactility into my digital artwork as I was finding the printed outcomes of my clean vector style somewhat sterile. As well as incorporating mark making and texture into the pieces I also wanted to have a clear physical outcome; a finalised A4 print. As I worked, I strived to keep this end goal in mind.

The strangest quality of the vector graphics that I had previously been producing was their infinite scalability. I can dive in and explore and create within the image, seeing new relationships within the overall composition. But when they are printed out that plastic quality becomes lost. Artworks I see as gigantic playgrounds, are reduced to a plan, much in the same way a map refers to a landscape, but cannot capture the experience of being in it. 

I also wanted to explore figurative imagery, curious to see what lexicon of characters, objects, environments and stories might emerge. To this end, I regard the resulting narratives as a form of psychotherapy. Muscular men clad in patterned bodysuits, stand and wander in deserted forests and overgrown ruins, seeking to build an arcadian existence on the edges of society.

I registered on a short online course in illustration run by Domestika. The methodology of this particular illustrator, Manuel Vargas, was simple: produce silhouettes and a series of mark-making experiments. Scan the results and combine them in Photoshop, using the textures to fill in the silhouetted shapes. 

This process resulted in a series of seven images, which you buy here. It reintroduced me to working with physical media, which I developed further in my next sequence of works.