Ben Heine is a Belgian visual artist and music producer. He has a diploma in journalism and has also studied history of art, painting and sculpture at college. He is an successful illustrator and photographer. He is also the creator of other original art series such as ‘Digital Circlism’ and ‘Flesh and Acrylic’ (En.wikipedia.org, 2019). He is well know for his ‘Pencil vs Camera’ art which initially attracted me to his work. I really liked this piece of art because it seemed different to anything I had already seen before. I liked that it was creative and involved both camera work as well as art which allows him to show his passion for both photography and art. Ben has been successful in many things during his life. His art work have featured in magazine, newspapers and publications worldwide and since 2010 his works have been populating museums and art galleries in Europe, Asia and Russia. He also started producing and composing music in 2012. By 2015 he released his first album called ‘Sound Spiral’ (En.wikipedia.org, 2019). Ben said he wanted to start an art career because he initially admired the life and achievement of artist such as Pollock, Dali, Magritte and many others. He then wanted to have a similar life. So he started doing small things, learned and progressed slowly (Issueno206.com, 2014).
‘Pencil vs Camera’ is Ben’s original idea which he has been doing since April 2010. It combines his hand-drawn sketches with his photographs to create imaginary scenes. He says that the way he works is that he finds a location, does a drawing, then takes a photo to combine with the drawing (Heine, 2020). Sometimes it may be the opposite way however both ways require a lot of work. When he runs out of ideas he starts something completely different and goes back to his art work once he is full of ideas again.
Everyone is inspired in different ways. Ben’s inspiration in his art work comes from his own experiences or experiences of others. He believes its important for artists to be a creative mirror of the society they live in. Ben finds traveling for the first time to a new destination very enriching because it always gives him inspiration later on. He also finds inspiration in music and dance. His mother is a dance teacher and he has inherited a lot from her. He describes music as his “fuel” and believes “music equals life” (Carey, 2014). As well as being inspired Ben has been an inspiration to many other artists like Sebastien Del Grosso. Sebastien Del Grosso does photography and combines his sketches with his photographs (Huffpost.com, 2017).
The first photograph is a photograph which Sebastien has done whereas the second is a photograph both Sebastien and Ben have done. The collaboration on the photograph is nice however I believe it shows more of Sebastien’s style. Majority of Ben’s ‘Pencil vs Camera‘ art work has a visible hand whereas this photograph doesn’t. Sebastien has some similar aspects in his art/photography which are like Ben’s. They both use drawing and photography and combine it together. Ben mainly uses landscapes and locations for his ‘Pencil vs Camera’ whereas Sebastien uses people and does portraits. They both show a story or some sort of emotion through their art work which I think is really nice. I like the photograph they have both made because it shows them drawing each other which I think is really nice as they both like to combine their drawings with photography and that’s what they have clearly done.
I really like the use of the ‘Pencil vs Camera’ art work because as I have said before its different and unique. I especially like Ben’s visible hand because I think it represent some sort of connection with the viewer, artist and the art work. I also like that behind his art work there is a story which conveys timeless messages using imagination, illusion, poetry and surrealism. In my opinion ‘Pencil vs Camera’ is one of the most creative art work of the 21st century because it is different compared to other art work. Everyones art work is nice in their own way but Ben Heine’s artwork stand out to me because of the creativity.
The century we live in is different to other century. Before photography/art was a profession whereas now its less of a profession compared to how it used to be. Everyone is now a photographer because of social media like Instagram. However I like that Ben Heine has tried to keep it professional with his art. Instagram is a modern platform for photographers to present their work. I believe that majority of people who use Instagram as a photography platform use it because they want to do photography because they enjoy it but not because their photography has a meaning. Instagrammers also use a more modern method of working compared to a traditional photographer. A traditional photographer won’t use much of Photoshop and other editing apps whereas modern photographers use a lot of editing apps. There are instagram photographers like Brandon Woelfel who is a freelance portrait photographer. His style is different to Ben’s because he does more Tumblr looking like pictures which involve fairy/neon lights edited with cooler tones of colour. Photographers like him would use a lot of editing which can also seen by the photographs below.
Majority of Instagram photographers don’t have a meaning behind their photos whereas professional and traditional photographers would usually have a meaning behind their photos.
The process of making a ‘Pencil vs Camera’ isn’t as simple as it seems. The first thing you need to do is have an idea of what you would like to do. Then you take a photo of your idea and create your drawing which you would like to fit in with your photo. For the photo editing, all Ben does is remove the little bugs, improves composition, light, colours, tones etc. He then added a piece of paper and made a handmade drawing on the paper with digital or traditional tools. I choose to do it the digital way you would need to draw the image onto the paper in the photograph using photoshop. However if you do it the traditional way then you would draw it onto paper using a pencil and scan it into photoshop. Either way it requires some sort of digital products. Ben explains his process in a YouTube video which is on his channel.
In the video he shows what he does step by step and how he does it. it also shows the effort he puts into it and how long it takes him to actually finish a product. in the video he took a photo of a couple with a pregnant woman and on the drawing there is a picture of a born baby lying on his mothers chest. I liked the photograph because it is meant to be used as a birth announcement by the couple and I think it is a creative and successful idea. I also like the way he explained himself in the video because he shows everything he does which will help the viewer understand clearly.
In conclusion the reason I would like to do something similar to Ben Heine’s work is because I find it quite interesting and different as I have said before. I will have to change the process of the work when I recreate it because I can’t draw so I will need to edit it onto the paper. It may be challenging because I’ve never done anything like it but I do like a challenge hence why I chose to do Ben Heine.
Bibliography:
Ben Heine Content Creation – Art, Music, Communication. (2020). Pencil Vs Camera – Drawing Vs Photography – Fiction Vs Reality. [online] Available at: https://benheine.com/art/pencil-vs-camera-images/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Carey, C. (2014). To the Point: An Interview with Ben Heine. [online] Design & Illustration Envato Tuts+. Available at: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/to-the-point-an-interview-with-ben-heine–cms-19476 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Ben Heine. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Heine [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Heine, P. (2020). Pencil vs Camera by Ben Heine. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9275101/Pencil-vs-Camera-by-Ben-Heine.html?frame=2223372 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Huffpost.com. (2017). HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media. [online] Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sebastien-del-grosso-sketches-photo-hybrid-portraits_n_3007065 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Issueno206.com. (2014). Pencil Vs Camera by Ben Heine › ISSUE NO. 206. [online] Available at: http://www.issueno206.com/ben-heine-pencil-vs-camera/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Sebastiendelgrosso.myportfolio.com. (n.d.). Seb DG – Symptoms of Mental Illness. [online] Available at: https://sebastiendelgrosso.myportfolio.com/symptoms-of-mental-illness [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
Elsida Cajka 