"Digital Artist" Magazine (*)
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Please introduce yourself to the readers of "Digital Artist".
Hello, I’m a 27 y/o Belgian visual creator. I live in Brussels and spend a lot of time taking pictures and making digital and traditional paintings and portraits.
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Your artwork married illustration and photography; please share with us the process and how you made it.
I think you refer to my recent series called "Pencil Vs Camera", it has had important and unexpected repercussions in the online and printed press. I receive questions everyday from people asking me how I’m doing this. So for the first time in the interviews I already gave on this topic, I’ll share with you some tips to help you understand how I achieve this effect. There are actually 4 different methods to create "Pencil Vs Camera" creations (I’ve tried all of them):
A) (Traditional way ++) Make a crazy drawing on paper, take a picture of your hand holding it with a nice landscape behind. When it’s possible, try to draw things that are more or less connected with the environment behind the paper or it won’t work very well but don’t forget that there needs to be a contrast between your imagination and the reality of the photo (this is the technique I have used most of the time).
B) (Traditional way+) Take a photo of a great place, print it, make a surreal drawing still connected with the atmosphere of the photo, place the drawing over the picture with your hand holding it, take a new picture of this composition, reframe and retouch the arrangement afterwards if necessary.
C) (Digital way+) Take a photo of your hand holding the paper with a drawing on it, take another photo of any landscape, match them and assemble them aftertwards in any digital photo editing software.
D) (Digital way++) Make a full digital work : create a digital drawing over a digital painting (landscape + paper), you don’t even need a camera if you choose this method, but you’ve got to have some serious skills in painting to make everything look natural…
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How do you develop your unique style and way of work?
I never ask myself this question. I just choose themes I like and I’m not afraid to take different artistic directions. Hopefully, the "style" follows. But a unique and recognizable style is really not my priority. I guess the very subjects I choose and my personal sources of inspiration are the elements that make a continuity and a connecting thread between all my creations, may they be photos, paintings or drawings…
.
What inspires you? What stimulates your creativity?
Every single thing around me is an inspiration. I never lack of ideas and stimulation. I really like challenges and always strive to find new ways to visually express feelings.
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How do you communicate with your clients to persuade them to be interested in your concepts?
The internet is a fantastic tool to communicate with people and with clients more particularly. My work received some attention worldwide thanks to the web. Printed publications in the conventional written press followed. Most of the time, I’m really not hunting for new clients, I’m just following my path as a visual creator and people find me on their way one day or another. I’m also associated to a recent project called "The Artistery", I co-founded it with a good friend of mine, Rami. He is the one helping me manage the commercial aspect of my artistic production.
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Please talk about your art exhibitions in Europe, we would like to know more about the theme and the details about each pieces, do you have a favorite one?
There was an exhibition that just ended at the Coach (trendy restaurant in Brussels), many more events are planned in the coming weeks/months: I’ll be exhibiting several Pencil Vs Camera creations and digital circlist portraits this coming weekend at the Law Courts of Hosdent in Braives near Liege (Belgium). 2 other exhibitions are planned in popular places in Brussels. We also sent a few weeks ago 2 of my creations that will be shown in an art gallery in Miami, Florida, but this is not Europe… For these shows, my original creations are printed in limited editions in various sizes depending on the images I choose to exhibit (we always use the patented Diasec process because it produces a higher image definition, with rich colors and a detailed texture made more evident to the viewer).
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How do you present your artworks in these exhibitions? What’s the difference between your online fans and fans who see them on a wall during an exhibition?
I’m trying to make innovative art, so I present my works as inventive pieces of art. People who appreciate my art are the same behind the computer or in the real life, so there is no difference for me, I consider them like friends and persons I’d like to get in touch with as soon as there is an opportunity. When I meet them during an exhibition, I really love to observe them discreetly and then ask what they really think about my work... In general, I think we’d be nothing but lonely creatures trying to survive in the emptiness without the caring people surrounding us.
.
What cameras and digital tools do you use? How do you use them?
I started to take photos with a Nikon D70, a nice camera, but I’m now sponsored by Samsung Imaging, which sent me several new and powerful devices, cameras and lenses. Everywhere I go, I always have a camera with me. I take picture all the time, day and night, I’m still experimenting new techniques.
I’m also a painter and drawer, I used to make traditional works on canvas and paper, I have different scanners for my drawings, A3 and A4 sizes. I also have a Wacom Intuos4 graphic tablet that allows me now to create full digital paintings. I mainly work with Photoshop CS4 and CS5. (I sometimes use Illustrator, Alchemy and ZBrush for specific projects). To make movies, I mainly use Camtasia, Imovie and Final Cut.
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Do you have some photo-shooting technique to share with us?
I'd simply say "don’t go too fast before pushing on the magic button of your camera", think what would be the best angle, the best contrast, the best settings. Be as close as possible to your subjects. Try to make them stand out of their environment. These little details will diminish the quantity of work you’ll do in post processing. I’m perfectionist but not really a fanatic purist who doesn’t want to retouch his photos. So I still use loads of post processing techniques, such as selective focus, selective colors, contrasts, sometimes repainting whole parts of the pictures I’m working on, sometimes manipulating and enhancing them for art and aesthetics sake, to make them look unique and different. For instance, my recent 360 degrees Panorama of Cologne is made of more than 30 photos I took from a skyscraper, it shows almost the entire city with great details, especially if you zoom in the original file that is huge...
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Please share a memorable creating experience you had.
There are so many, really. I love to portray people. When I take pictures of someone, there is always a strong intimate liaison between this person and me, a sort of brief relationship that includes confidence and defiance. This is the same feeling when I make a painting/drawing of someone famous. I especially enjoyed working on the different portraits of Michael Jackson and Barack Obama.
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Are there any mediums that you like to use in your works recently?
Mixing drawing and photography, imagination and reality is something I’m focusing on now with my "Pencil Vs Camera" series (still growing every week). I’m also working on an original and new series of portraits made with "digital circles", this is another time consuming technique.
.
What new projects are you working on currently and what’s the next big thing?
As said above, I’m still developing "Digital Circlism" and "Pencil Vs Camera". When I’ll be bored doing this, I might come back to fully traditional arts and make a huge series of abstract paintings on large canvas. But nothing is sure, I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing in a few hours, even less in a few days and certainly not in the far future. This is why every new day is exciting.
.Hello, I’m a 27 y/o Belgian visual creator. I live in Brussels and spend a lot of time taking pictures and making digital and traditional paintings and portraits.
.
Your artwork married illustration and photography; please share with us the process and how you made it.
I think you refer to my recent series called "Pencil Vs Camera", it has had important and unexpected repercussions in the online and printed press. I receive questions everyday from people asking me how I’m doing this. So for the first time in the interviews I already gave on this topic, I’ll share with you some tips to help you understand how I achieve this effect. There are actually 4 different methods to create "Pencil Vs Camera" creations (I’ve tried all of them):
A) (Traditional way ++) Make a crazy drawing on paper, take a picture of your hand holding it with a nice landscape behind. When it’s possible, try to draw things that are more or less connected with the environment behind the paper or it won’t work very well but don’t forget that there needs to be a contrast between your imagination and the reality of the photo (this is the technique I have used most of the time).
B) (Traditional way+) Take a photo of a great place, print it, make a surreal drawing still connected with the atmosphere of the photo, place the drawing over the picture with your hand holding it, take a new picture of this composition, reframe and retouch the arrangement afterwards if necessary.
C) (Digital way+) Take a photo of your hand holding the paper with a drawing on it, take another photo of any landscape, match them and assemble them aftertwards in any digital photo editing software.
D) (Digital way++) Make a full digital work : create a digital drawing over a digital painting (landscape + paper), you don’t even need a camera if you choose this method, but you’ve got to have some serious skills in painting to make everything look natural…
.
How do you develop your unique style and way of work?
I never ask myself this question. I just choose themes I like and I’m not afraid to take different artistic directions. Hopefully, the "style" follows. But a unique and recognizable style is really not my priority. I guess the very subjects I choose and my personal sources of inspiration are the elements that make a continuity and a connecting thread between all my creations, may they be photos, paintings or drawings…
.
What inspires you? What stimulates your creativity?
Every single thing around me is an inspiration. I never lack of ideas and stimulation. I really like challenges and always strive to find new ways to visually express feelings.
.
How do you communicate with your clients to persuade them to be interested in your concepts?
The internet is a fantastic tool to communicate with people and with clients more particularly. My work received some attention worldwide thanks to the web. Printed publications in the conventional written press followed. Most of the time, I’m really not hunting for new clients, I’m just following my path as a visual creator and people find me on their way one day or another. I’m also associated to a recent project called "The Artistery", I co-founded it with a good friend of mine, Rami. He is the one helping me manage the commercial aspect of my artistic production.
.
Please talk about your art exhibitions in Europe, we would like to know more about the theme and the details about each pieces, do you have a favorite one?
There was an exhibition that just ended at the Coach (trendy restaurant in Brussels), many more events are planned in the coming weeks/months: I’ll be exhibiting several Pencil Vs Camera creations and digital circlist portraits this coming weekend at the Law Courts of Hosdent in Braives near Liege (Belgium). 2 other exhibitions are planned in popular places in Brussels. We also sent a few weeks ago 2 of my creations that will be shown in an art gallery in Miami, Florida, but this is not Europe… For these shows, my original creations are printed in limited editions in various sizes depending on the images I choose to exhibit (we always use the patented Diasec process because it produces a higher image definition, with rich colors and a detailed texture made more evident to the viewer).
.
How do you present your artworks in these exhibitions? What’s the difference between your online fans and fans who see them on a wall during an exhibition?
I’m trying to make innovative art, so I present my works as inventive pieces of art. People who appreciate my art are the same behind the computer or in the real life, so there is no difference for me, I consider them like friends and persons I’d like to get in touch with as soon as there is an opportunity. When I meet them during an exhibition, I really love to observe them discreetly and then ask what they really think about my work... In general, I think we’d be nothing but lonely creatures trying to survive in the emptiness without the caring people surrounding us.
.
What cameras and digital tools do you use? How do you use them?
I started to take photos with a Nikon D70, a nice camera, but I’m now sponsored by Samsung Imaging, which sent me several new and powerful devices, cameras and lenses. Everywhere I go, I always have a camera with me. I take picture all the time, day and night, I’m still experimenting new techniques.
I’m also a painter and drawer, I used to make traditional works on canvas and paper, I have different scanners for my drawings, A3 and A4 sizes. I also have a Wacom Intuos4 graphic tablet that allows me now to create full digital paintings. I mainly work with Photoshop CS4 and CS5. (I sometimes use Illustrator, Alchemy and ZBrush for specific projects). To make movies, I mainly use Camtasia, Imovie and Final Cut.
.
Do you have some photo-shooting technique to share with us?
I'd simply say "don’t go too fast before pushing on the magic button of your camera", think what would be the best angle, the best contrast, the best settings. Be as close as possible to your subjects. Try to make them stand out of their environment. These little details will diminish the quantity of work you’ll do in post processing. I’m perfectionist but not really a fanatic purist who doesn’t want to retouch his photos. So I still use loads of post processing techniques, such as selective focus, selective colors, contrasts, sometimes repainting whole parts of the pictures I’m working on, sometimes manipulating and enhancing them for art and aesthetics sake, to make them look unique and different. For instance, my recent 360 degrees Panorama of Cologne is made of more than 30 photos I took from a skyscraper, it shows almost the entire city with great details, especially if you zoom in the original file that is huge...
.
Please share a memorable creating experience you had.
There are so many, really. I love to portray people. When I take pictures of someone, there is always a strong intimate liaison between this person and me, a sort of brief relationship that includes confidence and defiance. This is the same feeling when I make a painting/drawing of someone famous. I especially enjoyed working on the different portraits of Michael Jackson and Barack Obama.
.
Are there any mediums that you like to use in your works recently?
Mixing drawing and photography, imagination and reality is something I’m focusing on now with my "Pencil Vs Camera" series (still growing every week). I’m also working on an original and new series of portraits made with "digital circles", this is another time consuming technique.
.
What new projects are you working on currently and what’s the next big thing?
As said above, I’m still developing "Digital Circlism" and "Pencil Vs Camera". When I’ll be bored doing this, I might come back to fully traditional arts and make a huge series of abstract paintings on large canvas. But nothing is sure, I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing in a few hours, even less in a few days and certainly not in the far future. This is why every new day is exciting.
(*) "Digital Artist" is a Chinese Art and Design magazine published both in Taiwan and in the UK. Ben Heine was interviewed by Yuan-Chun. The interview has also been translated in Chinese (see below).
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