If you pick up a copy of this month's Digital Artist magazine you can't help but notice Soupa's Carlos Garde-Martin's surreal illustration tutorial. The inventor of 'Pop-surreal' shares some of his working processes and shows you how to incorporate these elements in to your work.
We've been talking to, and admiring the work of Jonathan Chapman aka Mr Yen via Twitter over the past few months and as a recent graduate, Soupa wanted to ask him a few questions about his practice, how he disciplines himself and what inspires him.
How long have you been paper cutting? I started papercutting just over a year ago and have been doing it ever since. While at University I tried to incorporate it into as many briefs as possible or adapt it to fit what I was doing.
Papercuts seem to take a lead in your portfolio - what influenced you and keeps you going? My initial influence for papercuts were Rob Ryan and Peter Callensen. I loved the detailed and delicate designs of Ryan’s work and the 3D element of Callensen. The need to explore paper to its full potential keeps me going and as there are so many things you can do with paper I don’t think I will be stopping anytime soon! I have lots of ideas that I would like to try out. Once I create a design I like to see how many ways it can be reproduced in different contexts and how this affects the design. So far I have experimented with book covers, bookmarks, greeting cards, posters and notebooks and feel as though I have barely scratched the surface.
When designing a papercut, how do you consider the 'absent' space? Does light come into it or do you make a design and go with it? When initially designing an idea I don't think about the space as I feel this limits my creativity. I start to think about the negative space in the design and how things connect, once I have my idea down on paper and that is the interesting part. If something needs to stay as part of the design I will tweak the design slightly, but it is only ever slightly needed.
How long does it take you to cut something intricate such as a spirograph design or lettering? To actually cut an intricate spirograph design can take me about an hour depending on the size of the design. I find intricate pieces can be cut quicker if they are larger as no matter how detailed a design it is always easier to cut something on a larger scale. Lettering is the same, especially serif fonts as the added extra bits on a typeface are the bits that cause the most trouble as they are likely to get accidentally torn or ripped on a smaller scale.
What happens if something rips? I start again! I always start with the most detailed, intricate parts of a paper cut, as this is where accidents are likely to happen, that way if something does rip I haven’t almost finished a design but only just started it.
Where do you source your paper? Do you use a specific weight or type to avoid ripping or wear and tear? At the moment I source my paper at a local art shop and I use 150gsm Daler Rowney Canford paper at an A1 size. I buy the paper at this size so I can cut it down to the required measurements for each paper cut I create which are all usually either A4 or smaller, making sure I get my moneys worth out of the paper. At the moment I am looking for sources where I can buy paper in bulk as now I am doing this fulltime I need a more reliable, more economic source for paper.
Do you have any plans for future projects or anything you would like to share? In the future I plan to experiment with getting my designs onto as many different paper products as possible, such as notebooks and greeting cards. I also created a series of typographic lampshades at University that I would like to develop to a professional standard.
How did you come up the name 'Mr Yen'? I have always had an affinity with Japanese design and simplicity in the Japanese lifestyle which is where the ‘Yen’ part came from and the ‘Mr’ part was added as I felt it made it sound more friendly and approachable, while being professional.
When commissioned - what is your design method - do you draw your designs first and ok with the client, or do you go straight into cutting? When I receive a commission for a paper cut I create initial ideas to show my client, which then get developed and altered to work for a paper cut – making sure all the bits that need to be connected to make the design work are all connected and this is then sent to the client for approval. Once the illustration is approved I start cutting the design. The illustration and the developmental stages are the most important bit, as this is where flaws will appear and can be rectified. Once a design is cut there is no going back, so I need to be sure about the whole design before I get out my scalpel.
You have only just graduated? How did you discipline yourself whilst studying? As a lecturer myself I know a lot of students find it hard to discipline themselves. Having recently finished University I am now trying to keep myself in a routine to make sure everything that needs to be done gets done on time and as I am the only one to do it there is no one pushing or helping me to do everything, it is all about being self disciplined. I find that if you know the best times you feel creative you should take advantage of this, if that is in the early hours of the morning or late at night, go with it. To me this is one of the best parts of working as a freelance designer as I get to choose my hours and do certain types of work when I feel I will best get them done.
Christina is a portrait and social documentary photographer, currently based in Amsterdam. After seven years in London, she moved to Amsterdam for a short adventure looking for new experiences, clients, photographers and projects. Besides working on new personal photography projects, she is assisting other photographers and working for clients including Strawberry Earth, Noord-Zuidlijn, Time Out Amsterdam and London and BBC Worldwide's Lonely Planet Magazine.
Available for collaborations, commissions and other projects based in Amsterdam, London (and in between), Christina can be contacted on: ct@christinatheisen.com
Dan Conway is one of the founding members of Soupa and provides visuals for a range of clients including Deadmau5, Pendulum and Eric Prydz.
Soupa catches up with him to find out more about his exciting work.
Do you have a process when setting up the visuals? Firstly, we draw up with the client exactly what they want from the light show – this is then translated into schematics and a pixel perfect template.
Do you work out a storyboard? I find that for the majority of projects a storyboard would take too much time to come up with so usually the tempo or stage area/shape will give me inspiration. Although saying that I'm producing a video for the band Pendulum at the moment, and that has to be second-by-second storyboarded as we're midi-triggering every frame to the band's live instruments!
Where do you source your images? I used to be pretty naughty and grab anything from anywhere but these days as the clients are getting bigger, I have to produce everything from scratch but this doesn't mean I can't find inspiration in other artists' moving images
How do you create your visuals? Coming from a cell animation background, I found that the now defunct Adobe Image Ready and its frame by frame gif animation lent itself to the laborious work I was used to – then a mate gave me an After Effects tutorial and I've never looked back! It's like Photoshop with legs on – very fast, powerful legs! I still draw and always have a sketchbook at hand - as I think this is still the best way to extract those gems from your mind!
Is there a lot of editing involved? This depends entirely on how well you've thought the project through or if the project demands pin point accuracy or if the deadline is 9am and it's now 7am! I love to get in there and edit edit edit 'til I'm happy with how the visuals expand and marry with the sounds. Seeing something not work once kicks you in the gut hard enough that you learn the value of precision
The original discordance vids were all initially made in Image Ready – everything you see is a gif animation then I edited and overlayed and overlayed again and again etc etc in Final Cut – a nice easy editing program which I still use occasionally if I need a break from after effects
For those of us who don't know – what's midi triggering? Midi triggering... imagine, each 4 bars of a tune OR each chorus OR change in tempo and then imagine every time these happen a new part of the motion graphics gets triggered. So initially I produce a solid 6 minute video, from which I can edit/ separate off into 20+ loops that correspond to changes in the tune (mood/tempo/chorus etc
Our coding genius' then connect these to segments in the tune that when played by the band trigger said loops making for a totally sequenced sound and vision experience – even if the band wishes to play a little faster or slower that evening
I work a lot with Immersive on this; http://www.immersive.eu/
Can you tell us about any specific projects you've worked on?
For the Deadmau5 2009 world tour (http://www.immersive.eu/live/tours) I produced a series of white on black loops geared towards 128 beats per minute, to be shown on a bank of LED batons and a central LED screen. This entire area for coverage was only 615 x 115 pixels wide but when laid out onto a physical stage this could be spread massively.
I also worked with Eric Prydz @ Matter in the O2 – for this I had to produce another series of white on black loops but this time the template was 1920 x 1080 (the actual pixels of the projectors we use so instead of LED, this time we used projected light).
Also instead of a flat surface, we built a faceted wooden structure and bent the light to hit each surface.
What or who inspires you?
I feel that it is important to try and keep my work fresh and vary a little from one piece to the next. With that in mind I do try to avoid having a closed source of inspiration. I admire artists such as David Downton, Stina Persson, Rene Gruau and a host of other fashion artists. My inspiration comes from many other varieties of artists and media and from things I see from day to day or people around me. I think it is important to record mentally or literally, at least one fresh source of inspiration a day.
What materials do you use when working on your illustrations? My start point is always pencil. I have a set of 3 pencils that I use religiously for each new work. An H, 9B and a graphic retractable pencil. After that, Black Indian Ink and then anything I can lay my hands on that suit the specific piece I am working on, whether it be fabrics, threads, paint, tape or pieces of jewellery.
How do you decide when an illustration is 'finished'? I will always have a mental image of what I want a piece to look like, or to what point I want to continue pushing it. I am a big fan of minimal, subtle and unfinished, so I will always be tentative in my approach. I will always prefer to leave something unfinished and suggestive than overworked and heavy.
How do you go about promoting yourself? I am a little old fashioned and like to believe that the work speaks for itself. I do find that an online portfolio and blog work very well, as well as being part of artistic groups and communities online. Whenever I have a personal project finished and ready to be shown I will send mail outs to clients and contacts, and plan exhibition time in order to get less commercial work circulating.
See Jason's work here : www.soupa.co.uk/showcase-jason.html
