London- based illustrator and printmaker John C. Thurbin talks us through today's image of the day ...
Computer Arts: Tell us about this project ... John C. Thurbin: Troglodyte was a self-initiated projected created for the infamous fab.com, alongside a few other members of a collective I'm in, Puck Collective. The idea was born after reading a very interesting study in New Scientist magazine, which explained how similar modern-day human genes are to the ape.
CA: How did you put the piece together? JCT: To create my images, my process starts with an initial sketch which is then developed and transfered on to a piece of linoleum. Once the image is on the linoleum, I use cutting tools to carve away all of the areas that I want to be left white once printed. This can take varying amounts of time, depending on how detailed I want it to be. After I'm happy with the cuts I've made, I clean the lino with white spirit, removing any greese or dirt which may have been left on it from the cutting process. Next, I ink the lino up and bring it to my etching press, where it's printed onto my desired choice of paper. For this particular project I then scanned in my image and digitally added colour using Photoshop.
CA: How would describe your style? JCT: When creating a piece of work, I have always strive for it to feel important and unique. Linocut offers these values as every single image is printed by hand and no two prints are ever the same. Every print is an original, not just a digitally printed reproduction where the only involvement in its physical creation is pressing the print button – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Linocut allows me to create detailed images, while still obtaining a certain boldness that I like.
CA: Who or what influences your work? JCT: I'm a bit obsessed with ancient Greece and Rome, and also a massive nature enthusiast. I spend a lot of my free time watching episodes of Spartacus, Rome and David Attenborough’s documentaries. These interests are not really shared in works you see on my website, at present. But I'm currently working on a series of personal pieces where these interests should make themselves more noticeable.
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