Cheapness in digital art and life

This is a post that has been a long time considered, however it would be a mistake to assume that the longevity of it's consideration will lend it well crafted form or structure. Instead it is likely that in an effort to convey everything I wish to I shall end up writing constantly until a large block of text sounds "about right", at which point I will check for typos and let it fly wherever it pleases.

Hello.

I hope you have had an excellent saturday or if you are reading this on a day other than saturday, an excellent one of those.

This is a post about the importance of genuine effort, specifically relating to and using evidence from the field of digital art (mainly covering photo manipulation work), that I hope can also be applied to life itself.

(I just wrote a sentence that was utter shit and deleted it. Wahey!)

Digital art and what is wrong with it.

I love digital art. Now saying that is a bit funny because what qualifies a piece of work as "digital"? Does it require the presence of elements brought into existence solely in the digital realm? Does a scanned pencil sketch count? What about a painting that has been "adjusted" in photoshop and then booted out the door?

Really "digital art", like so many definitions in our world, will be understood differently by everybody considering it.

So to help I can say that digital art, to me, is a vision incorporating of a wide range of artistic media that is realised using a computer.

As an aside (skip this if you want a coherent-ish experience and don't if you are interested in me talking shit)

You will notice my definition contains definitions and you will note that it couldn't not. How do you define a "wide range of artistic media"? What is a "computer" to you?

We are expressing ourselves using sentences formed from words formed from letters formed from thoughts. A word is a collection of letters and this is the smallest unit of expression in that form of communication. Therefore the moment in which a thought is brought into the world in the spoken or written form is one in which it has already been blurred. In another form, such as an oil painting, feelings or ideas have been brought into the world as colours blended together. Colours that like words can be interpreted differently even if they are seen the same. And there is no guarantee of even that.

When we communicate it is like throwing photographs into the air hoping for them to be seen and thought about before they hit the ground. Some people can't take photos and some people can't throw, some people can't see very well or at all and some people like looking at photos they just don't like them being thrown at their faces.

Aside over (thank eff hey?)

Right.

So I have become disillusioned with digital art and those creating work within the field. However I have realised that I do not need to be disillusioned, because all can be well in the end.

The disillusionment came from seeing so many great pieces of work, fantastic images, brought into life in a way I was not expecting. A way of working which has become so widespread and accepted that it almost defines the entire field.

That is, the over reliance on stock imagery and downloaded photoshop brushes.

Stock imagery is that found online, typically that contained on databases which can be used free or for a fee within certain parameters.  Downloaded photoshop brushes are those customised by a third party usually beyond the scope of a simple shape from which to craft images.

Let me be clear that I do not think everybody using these techniques is being cheap. That would be hugely short sighted of me. You might download an average kind of image, or fairly simple brush, and work wonders with it.

However;

If a piece of work you have created is successful largely because one of it's key elements is a high resolution, superbly lit, brilliantly composed photograph by a photographer you have never met of a truly beautiful model you have never met, who has spent a long time having their clothing and makeup dialled just so then;

You are being cheap.

If you have added wings to a photograph of somebody, lets say a photo you have taken, and the wings are downloaded brushes so the majority of your interaction with them has been to click and perhaps edit a little, then guess what?

You are being cheap.

Now I'm saying "cheap" rather than "cheating" because I think saying cheap allows varying degrees of "cheapness" to be established.

You may say "well could you build the computer you work with from scratch"?

I couldn't.

But I think it is important when you are working to have integrity.

The above examples are done with such regularity and the final work uploaded as a creation rather than a remix.

If you want to progress you must ensure that you work to produce an image because the person who spends the time learning to create a wing, or learning how to take that perfect shot of somebody will have learned much more than the person who simply downloads and edits either.

At the end of the day you can do whatever the hell you want to do, but if you have fun creating images using all stuff you've grabbed online, tell people when you put the work out there. The magic will be explained to people and they will maybe be less awe struck and more understanding of how the thing was created, and they can have a more informed opinion of it and see how they could create something themselves, rather than just stare in wonder at "magic" that isn't really all that magical.

I hope this applies to life. Shortcuts may get you places but learning and trying will always get you further, even if you reach your destination later.

Have a nice whatever day it is for you now!

Will

uni and thinking

This is one of those posts that's written just to try and process some thoughts. If you object, fuck off.

So I left my course. My course was graphic design but the combination of course and place meant I didn't find it challenging or very inspiring and to continue to pay a lot of money for it wasn't the right thing. 

Hence I did do the right thing and left, leaving me here spending a lot of time creating work and spending even more time in an empty room. 

This is what I am struggling to process and I don't know how long it is going to take. I've always tried to work hard in the things that I do and I always try to be nice to everybody. You think that if you just try with things and try to make yourself into a good person, that you'll get somewhere. 

I find it difficult sometimes to get up when just sleeping all day would be the same for the world. Theres such a nothingness now outside of creating art or skateboarding. In moments of productivity or entertainment, you don't feel like there is nothing else because you're not looking at the empty space. It's when you might be too tired, you even might have just finished a piece of work and look up.

Still, I'm creating a lot of stuff. I'd be completely fucked if I didn't.

I just a lot of the time think-come on. It's rubbish but it's human just to be like-really, something good has to happen. I'm doing everything I can and maybe I just have to wait.

If you were flipping a coin and every time calling it wrong you'd start to think you'd never get it right.  That is barely possible but you're still going to think it, as a person.

What I'm doing now is trying again with the things I need to get right. I've applied to five universities. With that and some other things I think what I'm going to do is just what I've always been doing, be nice and just try.

I find the things that a lot of people find easy really difficult. I think that we always find ourselves wishing for the things that we don't have even though we know wishing won't get us them. 

I've applied to Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Winchester School of Art, Brighton and the University for the Arts London. My application had to be sorted after most of the open days had passed, although I managed to look into each of my choices. I've been to visit Portsmouth so far and I really liked the place and the course sounded good. I could see myself living quite happy down there.

Next up for me is checking out all of the other ones, getting a portfolio together, keep creating, keep learning, keep skating and keep trying even when sometimes I feel like it won't make a difference, because maybe it might some time.

I have just checked the clock thing here and it's christmas in two days. 

I think I'm going to be able to sleep alright now.

Here is my art page: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistPhotographerWillClare

If you're reading this and want to go and like it, it would be really awesome for me. You can also tweet at me if you're feeling like it any time, my thing is @downhillwill. It might make a small or big part of my day.

Have a good christmas.

Will.

3 years of skating down hills

Hello.

It is not long until Christmas! It is around this time that I write a bit about my year of skateboarding down hills, which I have now been doing for three years! Bloody hell!

I haven't really planned what I'm going to write, so this might read like the confused talkings of a massive, lifewasting fool. I haven't got any music on so I will sort that and be back in a moment. Of course for you, the reader, I am back NOW and you can continue reading. But for me I will be back in a moment.

I am back (irrelevant).

So, this year, what has happened in the world of downhill skateboarding?

• Saying "RAD TRAIN WOOT WOOT" at the end of every sentence became a thing.
• Caliber made some lazy/shit adverts. Meanwhile some truck companies sold trucks by making good trucks. 
• Adam Persson won the IDF tour after the massive prolonged debate about the IDF, the IGSA, transparency and cake. Many silly acronyms were made up and much offence was caused. 
• Vandem made all of their stickers transparent. This proved useful for fixing holes in windows caused by flying keyboards after helmet debates.
• Everyone forgot how they had ever skated down hills without a footstop and many different shaped ones came into existence.
• Lots of products emerged that many of us assumed were injokes but actually turned out to be quite popular with VERY UNIQUE PEOPLE (mostly from london)
• On the topic of london, the london longboards facebook page had a vintage year of providing us all with great entertainment.

It's been a good year for the scene I think ;)

Yeah I don't actually skate I just make dubious quality artwork and talk to people on the internet.

Skating down hills is fun. Skating down hills with a good bunch of people is very fun. When you are on the hill with a decent crew who you have been skating with for a while, you can be so much more relaxed than in other situations. If there is a corner, it will be spotted, and everyone will take an even share of it. Nobody is going to risk anything silly. Everyone is aware of where people are and what they are doing. Little needs saying, there is an understanding that to skate down hills, you've got to do it right.

Open road stuff is so much more enjoyable if you can relax and enjoy it. There has been a smallish group of us having some epic skates. You rock.

Setup.

The factor that has made a lot of difference to my experience of skating down hills this year has been getting a setup more dialled in to how I like it. Everybody likes a different kind of feeling in a setup depending on what they are doing. It's one of the main reasons I enjoy skateboarding. There's no one approach and there is all the room in the world to do what you want.

The setup I am enjoying for going fast at the moment is a Lush Sequel deck, with sabre 45's (green and purple barrels) and cult hurtlers or classics. I think adding some lower angle plates will be the next thing to progress it. 

I like that kind of a setup, for one because it suits my dimensions. I'm not overly tall but I usually feel really cramped going fast on a tiny topmount. Secondly the kind of feeling I get from a sequel with classics or hurtlers is very consistent, progressive and responsive, and these are the things you should look at when getting your setup dialled in.

That sounds like I'm talking shit doesn't it! I'm not! Here's an explanation.

Consistency can take a few forms.

Consistency of slide is important. Why is skating in patchy conditions worse than in the wet or in the dry? Consistency and expectation. The best skaters in the world are not psychic. If you go into a corner in fully wet or dry conditions, on any board, and you have got used to the hill, you have in your mind a fair idea for just what you can do, and push the boundaries of what is possible for you from there. 

On a setup you feel at home on, in wet or dry conditions, you're usually going to have a much better idea for what kind of cornering experience awaits you.

Also, if your board gives you a consistent feeling when you are in a tuck, you know it is less likely to twitch out and allow you to sample some poor u.k road surfacing through your face.

"So progressive bro! Check that responsiveness man woaahhh"

When I talk about a progressive and responsive feeling I'm mostly talking about grip. A really nice setup that is suited to your style of skating will allow you to feel more degrees of grip and to understand where you are. By where you are I mean knowing things like "if I put more weight on my hand and turn harder, will I better make the apex or will I lose traction, panic, cry, write letters of apology to myself in midair and generally die like eff?". 

A good setup, a setup you feel confident on, will provide feedback during a turn which will allow you to respond without thinking that much. 

DISCLAIMER:

Anyone that has seen me skate knows there is no WAY what I am doing is all that er...precise. So what I say here sounds all scientific as If I'm analysing stuff in forensic detail when I'm skating. I'm not, if I was I would generally not skate like a shaken up box of budget after-eight clones. 

What I'm saying is- skate a setup you feel happy on and you will be able to push the boundaries of your skating whilst being very smiley indeed.

HAVE FUN.

rawr

Anyway;

The two main bits of epic downhill action for me this year have come on closed roads.

I am talking about Crash and Burn the Third (and final...?) and Vandem II!

I'm reaaaaaaaly sad that Crash and Burn isn't likely to return. For those unaware, the event hill is one where the very fastest can achieve 50mph. There is one corner you have to slow down for. The challenge is simple. So is jumping over a car.

Also, it's only been skated officially closed on three occasions. We barely ever get to skate it without having many "tractor up!" occasions, often with said tractor depositing mud and water all over the hill. 

So, I rock up the evening before the first day, with a MASSIVE bag of things I might need (don't need) and many things I have forgotten but are there in spirit (who needs a pillow when you have a bumpy field to cradle your skull as you fail to sleep whilst Will Stephenson and Jack Penman make the noisiest return from the pub since The Iron Giant had that drunken fight with The Giant Mutant Magnet as it rained metal shrapnel from the sky?)

My tent is shit. More than shit. Some speculate it's a play tent. I speculate privately that I might just run into the road and have done with my life. It is that shit. I don't fit. I sleep little.

I spend most of my time whilst not skating hunched awkwardly in the doorway of it, before graduating to the chair and sci fi book combination.

Anyway in the morning I awaken soaking wet (IT HADN'T EVEN RAINED BUT WATER CAME THROUGH THE EFFING TOP) and stumble out. I'm up early and loiter in a sinister manner. When a few of us are up, I go over the road to the shop to enquire about the availability of baked goods. The lady in there seems unsure if I am human but gives a rough ETA. I return with fellow skateboarders and we dine like the genius-king-people we are (not).

We return to the campsite and begin to gather stuff for the hill. Most are rocking full leathers which is a good shout to save skin. I'm rocking a padded leather jacket with armour underneath, thick jeans and massive kneepads, which is probably marginally better for hitting stuff. It is also easier and more fun to skate in than non-custom leathers, but worse for going down the road. Compromise.

Last checks of gear done, the van turns up and we pile in the back.

Even typing now I can feel that sense of excitement. 

I can see there isn't that many people. I sign up with Norman and Liz at the desk and get a shirt. I love event shirts.

Anyway, I'm feeling kind of nervous, excited, a little scared and just want to get on the hill.

Photo by the most Oliver of Slaughter, Oliver Slaughter! This is the main corner at peep and it is damn fun.

We board the van. I can't remember if I'm sitting or standing or what.

We get to the top and there is the familiar "oh shit we're all at the top and it's the first run of the day and it's this hill" lurking that anyone who has attended one of the Crash and Burn events will smile knowingly about. I try and go late.

I push off. This is the first run, so I slide often. I'm shaking throughout, and this is our home hill!

Well, I make it to the bottom. A few more careful runs down and I'm ready to do what I only managed towards the end of my time at the freeride last time which is go all the way to the corner without braking. I manage it. Next up is railing the corner that comes after that. As I've mentioned before, it doesn't need braking for, but I didn't feel confident before to go into it. This time I do. 

After getting these two things, I'm fully into the amazing emotion I get when I'm on a hill and I'm happy. I feel energised, like talking more, just generally very, very happy.

There are many more runs. Every time the van gets to the top I've got my gear ready, and I want to skate.

Theres one time, when I'm ready to go, and I'm just waiting for the really fast dudes to go first, because that's what you do. And I'm waiting and Will on the startline suggests I go first. Pete and Zac.M wave me through and it feels so weird but before I know it I've hopped on my board and am tucking into the first corner. I can tuck the main straight at this event too. 

I'm thinking of my introduction to skating down hills, there, three years ago, when I was arriving and thought we were on the hill because the lane leading to it was steep enough for me! Or at the first crash and burn when I hear a Pete Connolly is tucking it ("from the top??") and it's just not a thing that I can comprehend doing. And I'm doing it, being given the first go down my favourite hill with a load of people I love skating with. Awesome doesn't nearly cover it.

Anyway the day is amazing. A smallish crew means many runs. I'm in every one apart from when the van went off whilst I wasn't paying attention...  Everyone has a good time and there are many smiles.

I decide that the day was so good I don't need to camp out for the forecast epic deluge of rain that is coming tomorrow. There was no skating on that second day, and some patchy riding on the third, so I got the call right this time ;)

This is a photo by Alex at http://www.newtons-shred.co.uk skate shop. He was always just able to get a shot without getting taken out. Much respect! This is the last corner, and it's another fun one.

I am going to get something to eat and return to talk about THE VANDEM FREERIDE.

I am now back from my food finding trip with a hot crossed bun and it is excellent.

VANDEM

Oh the Vandem freeride. I wasn't there for the first year's event. I was most certainly there for the second.

The Vandem freeride is held down in Exeter, by the people at Vandem (surprisingly.)

The freeride works because those who organise the event have very good relations with the people that live around the hill. It was a possibility that the location of the hill being online would mean it would be mobbed and blown, but skaters knew that firstly it was not in their interests to do this, since the event wouldn't happen, and secondly that Vandem probably have their address and postcode, along with a van that many of us assume is armed with nuclear weaponry (although having experienced it in Belgium, I didn't find any launch buttons but there was a drawer with useful kitchen utensils.)

I'm staying nearby which suits me (family holidays arranged around skate events-all manner of yes!). I get chucked out at the campsite on the morning of the first day. Harry and Mark and there who I haven't seen for ages, and we have a talk whilst other people extract themselves from their tents. Later on I see Oli and Aaron who I last saw at Crash and Burn.

The campsite is in a paintballing site within some woodland. The giant guard towers and pretend soldiers looking out from them add a surreal feeling.

Fast forward to The Talk.

"Take it easy on the first run!" says Rich. Don't be a knob is the overall message to everyone. (After some consideration everybody decides that being a knob isn't a good idea when theres lots of woodland to be buried in.)

They have posh coaches at this freeride! There's loads of people, some who I haven't skated with since Houyet however long ago, and some who I've never seen before in my life and nobody really knows.

I'm looking at one of the turns as we go to board the coaches and I'm thinking "That looks a bit tighter than in the videos". I think taking it easy is a good idea.

Anyway we get to the top and all get out. There's some standing around. I find Rob who's also rocking a Sequel. Anyway, there is a lot of hesitation with regards to the first run. Theres a lot of people,nobody really knows how fast anyone is, and many, like myself have never even seen the hill before in person.

I'm lurking fairly hard when I realise that the same Matt Elver and Robert Borek who just dropped the hill have made it all the way to the top again and are marching through the hordes of lurkers for another run. 

Right, time to go.

I get into a run and take it really chilled. It's how I like to skate, building up, not just diving in to the unknown and crashing or getting messed up. The top section is bumpy. As it get's into the bit under cover of trees the surface becomes nicer. The left hand corner near the campsite looms. I give a substantial footbrake and ease around it. Some dude who I recognise as a lush team rider blasts through the apex and it is most gnarly. I take the rest of the hill in a slow manner and shut down comfortably at the bottom.

I can tuck all of this.

So I do, more and more each run, until I'm pushing as hard as I can and just get into a tuck and just go. The lower section of the hill is something I've never really experienced before, railing a sequence of corners. It is most fun.

Anyway I'm having such a good time, and then in one run BLAM, Oli and Joe Baldwin come blasting through, and theres much smiling at the bottom of the hill about it. I've got faster, but you get reminded every now and then that the fast people haven't exactly been sitting around either! 

One run I'm greeted by Pete as he tucks by, another I get the jump on Rob as he's doing something with his gear at the top only to be passed before I get into the decent corners (I'm going to try and claim it's because he's got custom leathers and I don't). I see Mark Short, Will Edgecombe and George Vincent skating in a manner which is so weird because the control that you see when they are sliding stand up is so good you don't quite understand what you are seeing.

The day was amazing and there is another one right after. Yes.

Another shot from Newtons, this time at vandem. Notice the inability to skate not like an idiot. 

I rock up early. It was so funny wandering into the campsite. I'm there, fully geared up and ready to go, and it's like walking onto the set of a horror film. I go and sit on a tree stump and the Rich that emerges from the facilities seems a little shocked by the sudden appearance to say the least.

I'm ready to skate! 

Aaron looks like utter shit that morning but many other people also look like utter shit who don't just normally look like that.

It's as if they've all been heavily drinking but I know that can't be the case because there's skateboarding down hills to be done! ;)

Anyway, the second day is just as good as the first. So much fun is had. I remember saying to the right honourable Adam at some point about the feeling of just being so damn happy even sitting there between runs. Towards the end of the day serious determination is required to not allow ones legs to simply melt and send oneself crashing to his or her doom. 

The uplift coaches are awesome places to be. Just hearing people talk about that last run or some moment they had is great. And then you all bundle out of the van for another go. And another. 

Skate, smile, repeat.

After doubling up on epicness, that's the day and event done. Time to go home.

So;

Cheers to everybody I've shared this year of skating with. It has been the best yet and theres still so many more good times to have. The many occasions where skateboarding down hills takes place are only as good as they are because of the epic people that attend.

See you on the hill (or in a heap on the road.)

Will