Hi Liam, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. For those who have not come across you before, can you tell us a little about yourself, what it is you do and your work?
Hi there!
Err… well my name is Liam Barry and I’m an illustrator/designer/producer. I studied illustration in Brighton, but I grew up in East London. I work mostly in black and white at the moment, I love how striking the contrast looks, although it has made me a bit obsessive about silhouettes! I tend to work mainly with calligraphy inks, a huge pile of pens, scanned brush marks and Photoshop.
What illustrators have inspired you? What made you become an illustrator and when did you decide illustration was a career path that you wanted to follow?
I’m a great fan of quite a few illustrators/artists! Sometimes it’s the images I am drawn to, other times it can be the work ethic or attitudes towards the creative process. I guess favourable mentions go to the films of Hayao Miyazaki (Laputa, Nausicaä, etc.) and other manga/anime because that’s pretty much all I watched as a child and teenager haha! I always loved the drama and dynamism found in Japanese comics, then when I looked into the history of Japanese image making and printing I got really into the style of the composition and layouts. A more ‘current’ illustrator I’m certainly a fan of is David Foldvari. Although his work looks quite clean and simple, it contains an uncompromising wit and humour that really resonates with me.
It’s funny because I don’t think I ever decided myself to be an illustrator
It’s funny because I don’t think I ever decided myself to be an illustrator, I just kept doing what I was doing and learning in school until one day my art tutor told me I had better study illustration for my degree so I could keep exploring the stuff I liked. It was a bit bewildering at university being surrounded by loads of people who knew exactly what they were aiming for professionally, but it was great in a sense because I got to learn and share things from a wide range of creative types.
I guess the short answer is that I have been creating images all my life and I can’t think of any other ‘job’ that lets me be myself enough!
Your work has a distinctive look – would you say you have a personal identifiable style?
Hmm, that’s a tricky one!
I remember being obsessed with trying to nail a ‘style’ during my studies, developing a working method that I could practice and get super-good at, but to be honest, pursuing that never really made me feel happy about the work I was making. I hated the idea of not trying new things so I decided to just concentrate on what I thought was cool at any time, however it worked out!
I am most happy making images about everyday things (usually of the darker nature!), mixed with elements of fantasy to create a compelling narrative. I think the three main themes of my work so far are ‘the unexpected’, ‘the primal’ and ‘the anti-hero’. All of these themes are of an un-compromising nature which I think is a really powerful idea in the world we find ourselves living in today where you have to ask for permission to do almost anything!
When creating a fairly abstract piece such as the piece below..where does the process start? What is your typical ‘start to finish’ workflow?
‘Self’ was made to be part of an exhibition of the same name by a group called ArtIsProof (http://www.artisproof.com). The group is run by a friend and studio mate of mine called Mark Pavey who I was living with at the time. The only criteria for each artist were the word ‘self’ and a limited palette of 3 colours.
I wanted to do a piece of work about myself and where I had come from, but I wasn’t really comfortable with being in the spotlight like that. The day after I received the brief from Mark an old friend of mine, whom I grew up with, called me to say he had been diagnosed with depression and he needed to talk to someone about it.
I went and stayed with him for a day or two and documented the visit with photos and notes on what we talked about. It turned out he blamed where he/we grew up for his depression and paranoia so that was that, it was decided… I was doing a piece of work about him and myself at the same time!
Once the idea was sorted I used pieces of string dipped in ink and dropped onto paper to make hundreds of ‘snake-like’ marks. After I had scanned all of them in to Photoshop I used some of the documentation photos as a basis to build up the ink marks into the face structure, shadows and hair. I like to leave the imperfections of certain marks in to avoid things looking too clean and artificial. This is the general method I use for most of my work, although depending on the job I may focus more on a specific ‘stage’ of the process.
What are your weapons of choice in creating your illustrations? What are you a hardware (Pc / Mac)/ software (Adobe suite?) / traditional tools (pencil / paint? ) for designing or a mixture?
Defiantly a mixture! I have drawers full of pens, brushes, different types of tape, tins of paint, bottles of ink… if it makes a mark, I want to be able to use it at some point! In fact that’s the first challenge I face when starting a new piece of work; which medium to use.
I usually go with my gut instinct as I could waste days obsessing over it! Then I move to my sketch book where I try to plan out as much as I can so that when I reach a stop or a block later on I can use it to get back on track.
After I have made all the composite elements of the image it gets chucked into the Pc (not a Mac person I’m afraid!) with Photoshop or occasionally FlashMX to be layered, composed, tweaked and processed.
I think it takes a certain type of person to even want to become an illustrator/designer
So far what would you describe as the pros and cons of becoming an illustrator?
For me one of the greatest pros of being an illustrator is the freedom it allows you to be honest with yourself and the world. It’s your job to be aware of the opinions of others, whilst developing opinions of your own that you feel others may benefit from. Other than that its often exciting and finishing a successful job feels brilliant!
I think the cons are a bit more obvious and general. If you freelance (which most illustrators and designers have to) then your paycheque is never guaranteed and on certain jobs the stress levels can go through the roof! I think personally it can make you hate yourself sometimes because it’s hard to not think “I could have done more, pushed harder or made more effort” about almost any image you make.
I think it takes a certain type of person to even want to become an illustrator/designer. Somebody with a certain type of dissatisfaction with the way things are at the moment that leads you to finding solutions to problems nobody else may even care about!
Do you have any websites / blogs you visit on a regular basis?
I personally visit the Wooster Collective website (http://www.woostercollective.com/), the Design Observer (http://www.designobserver.com/) and the Eclectic Cow (http://vacascom.blogspot.com/) the most, but I’m always finding stuff and then forgetting to bookmark it! Other than that I watch a lot of documentaries on BBC iplayer and Google video.
Once again, thank you very much for the interview. Where can those interested in you and your work find you online?
I have my own website for my illustrations and other things I find interesting at www.liambarry.com, my contact info is there too if you want to get in touch about anything.
If you’re interested in buying a print then check out the store at www.artisproof.com.
OR, if you want to hear a cheeky bit of music check out www.myspace.com/barryvalentine for some recently made music.
A Massive thanks to Mel at Acuity Designs for having me on and the best wishes to everyone else!
- Liam Barry.
All content © 2010 by Acuity Designs
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