Back in 2018 I had one of those "mid-career" moments where I could not see how to get motivated to continue making images. I had worked myself into a high-paced, completely digital, illustration practice. I got to hate the hours in front of a screen but the computer was always there as a safety net and a way of reassuring deadlines would be met.

It took a year to have the space and time to make a real and substancial change.

During one of those not-so-busy periods in the life of a freelancer, and using only graphite, I decided to create a series of illustrations for one of my favourite books: Joseph Conrad's The Duel.

The experience was so liberating, I didn't want to go back to the way I was illustrating before. The first thing I noticed was mistakes added to the illustration rather than the other way around. And there was a new sense of fun that filtered through the final image.

For my next project, an artist's residency in Facebook in late 2019, I proposed to work on the texts of Spanish philosopher María Zambrano and an essay by Wendell Berry linked by issues regading Climate Action. I ended up developing a series of conceptual images that tilled in many different ways, using just graphite for each one of the plates that conformed the final risographs.

So the decision was to change, my digital process to incorporate these new found joys. I already knew how to customise brushes in the applications I used, but now I knew exactly what I was looking for in them.

Once I started getting the mark making I wanted I had to put it to the test. My RAN posters were some of the first ones I did using my new approach.

And then, recently, I started applying this to my other passion: alternative movie posters for classic films.

I am back at the screen but with important changes in both process and tools. The result, I think, is a much more solid and rounded final product that still keeps the spark of the original idea.

All these posters, are available at my online shop. Head there even if it is just to have a browse.

Thanks

 

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