Ysgol Plasmawr!
Earlier this year I had a sale of my periodic table to a secondary school in Wales, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawrl in Cardiff. I thought no more of it until a few weeks ago when a teacher from the school got in touch with me saying that her year 9 students were doing a art/science project based on my periodic table, and would I answer a few questions about it? Of course I said yes, and here are my answers below (I haven’t seen their work yet, but I can’t wait). I always struggle to talk about myself, so thought I’d share them here too.
What advice do you have for improving my drawing skills?
Just keep practicing, and don’t worry if it’s not technically correct (my stuff certainly isn’t) I think every one of us can draw in some way, some in highly realistic ways, other in more expressive ways. It’s just about using your skills in a way that is unique to you, is interesting in its own way or composition wise, and maybe says something bigger about the greater world. But fundamentally make it fun, or you won’t do it.
Of the Periodic table of elements, which was your favourite and least favourite to draw? Which element was the hardest to draw?
My favourite one is still the first one I ever did which was Hydrogen. It was actually a friends idea for me to draw a periodic table in the first place, he’s an engineer and he could find a periodic table that he liked. He mentioned it to me one night it the pub, and the first image that came into my head was the Hindenberg disaster (as I knew that was because they used hydrogen in side it) - I don’t know what that says about me though… so that was the first one I drew and in doing that I worked out the style and template from all the others. And then I just planned out others as I went, sometime on their own sometimes as chunks. At that point I had no idea how I would finish it but I had a template.
My least favourite of the natural elements was Argon. It’s barely used for anything except in between double glazed windows, it was very hard to make that look interesting at all.
The man made elements were all the hardest, and I kind of had to break the original concept for the project to do those. I had no idea they would be as hard as they were, maybe if I had it would have put my off the project completely. Ellement 118 was the hardest as it has only ever been created and stable for 1020 hours - so I had to illustrate that instead! And a few of the others are just based on where they were created, it kind of works as a whole but as individual drawings they were the weakest.
What artist inspired you?
Most of my favourite artists don’t really directly inspire my work, but my favourite artists are mostly pop art or fauvist artists, or mid century graphic design. I just like bright colours! My favourite artist ever is Henri Matisse. But really all art and design is inspiring in some way, it can all be drawn upon at times. The important thing is to keep looking at things, and reading things and learning and taking note of stuff that might be useful later on.
Were you ever bored during the Periodic table project?
Sort of, not bored exactly but I did have times I wasn’t inspired to draw any new ones. The whole thing took 3 years but I wasn’t working on it constantly, there were times when weeks or months went by where I didn’t work on it at all. I was either too busy with my day job or just other things in life, or I was working on other drawings. The first two thirds were quite easy to do (but I did do the easier ones first), and then the last third was harder. Sometimes I had to do a lot of research before I could start drawing an element, which was frustrating when all I wanted to do was draw.
How long did it take for you to complete the Periodic Table?
It took 3 years but it wasn’t constant. In terms of hours, each one took about 2-3 hours to plan and draft, then another 1-2 hours to draw the final thing, then probably another hour to tidy up in Photoshop. Which works out as 600-700 hours of work… that sounds a lot, I’ve never thought of it like that before. By far the biggest thing I’ve ever done.
What inspires you to draw and when?
Well, I have a full time job and a 5 year old daughter so it is very hard to find the time to be honest. It’s mostly in the evening by depends on how hard the rest of the day has been. Usually if I haven’t done anything for a few weeks I become a bit agitated and have to squeeze it in some how.As for inspires me, it’s usually something I’ve seen or something I’ve read, or something that has happened in the world, or just some idea I’ve had whilst doing something else.
Who inspired you to be an artist?
I just always enjoyed drawing from a young age, was lucky enough to still enjoy it as I got older, and then it was GCSE Art that really confirmed it for me. I was in quite a small group which gave us all a lot of time with our teacher and I suppose it was that time that made me think about it more long term
What was your first professional project?
My first project really was an odd one. It was about a year after graduating I was contacted by a Hollywood film director to make a set of handmade tarot cards for him to give to his producer as a gift for helping him make his latest film at the time. I have no idea how he found my details and I have never done anything like it since. It was the first big multi drawing thing I did, there were 78 cards to design and make and I had about 3months to do it. It was quite intense as I had a day job and I had to set myself targets on how many to draw per week (I even had to draw over Christmas that year!). I think it was that multi drawing series that then led on to the periodic table actually.
Did you experiment with other styles of art before discovering yours?
Yes my current style was really developed a couple of years after graduating from my degree. Before that I used to use oil pastels for everything, the trouble was the size of each piece was much bigger and I didn’t have any space to work with them properly, it was hard to do details with that medium, so pens were the way forward, and sadly I still haven’t got space to use oil pastels.
Where are you from?
I’m originally from Sittingbourne in Kent. I moved to Norwich for my degree, and then London. I currently live in Crystal Palace, south east London.
What do you think about whilst drawing?
Erm I’m not sure really, the drawing I’m working on at the time, or the music/podcast I’m listening to whilst doing it.
Have you got another job?
Yes, I work in-house leading the graphic design team at the Royal Society of Medicine. My degree was joint between illustration and graphic design so I have luckily been able to pursue both careers (sadly I rely on graphic design to pay the bills though!). Ocassionally the two overlap and I am able to use my drawing skills in my day job.
What's it like being an artist?
It’s fun, there’s much worse things to be doing! But also frustrating in that I can’t do it full time.
How did you fall in love with Art? How old were you when you started art? Did you choose art for gcse? Did you do A-level art?
I’ve combined these ones as there’s a bit of a theme. I was always into drawing and painting and anything craft based when I was a child. My secondary school was pretty academic but I was able to do art at GCSE and A Level. After that it was close between art or geography, but the art route one. I then went on to an arts foundation course in Canterbury (back in those days you had to do one of those before any art and design course - you don’t need to now and I find that pretty tragic to be honest), there were had a term each of fine art, fashion, 3D (product design, architecture and sculpture) or visual communication (which was basically graphic design, illustration, photography and animation). It was good because you could try out each area and then work out what you were most interested in, Visual Communication was the one I specialised in. Illustration was my first love but graphic design is very close and even then, much easier to get full time work in, so I chose both and went on to do a degree course in Norwich that was split between the two. I graduated in 2006, and ever since I have worked as a graphic designer predominantly, with my own personal work and the odd side commission being in illustration.
What's the favourite piece you've ever done?
Well that’s easy, it’s the periodic table. It’s the biggest thing I’ve done, and the most thing I have sold prints and other products of. To be honest before I started this project, my interest in drawing was waning a little and this woke me up from a creative slump. And then once I’d finished i started selling prints and products based on it, both online and at arts and craft fairs and miraculously people started buying it which then raised interest in my other work, and sort of re-awoke my interest in it all.
