Ben Johnson- My Life in Art

 Not only was Johnson a form student of Glyndwr university, he is also incredibly talented which made this lecture very inspirational towards my future. He is a vital piece of evidence that there isn't prejudice towards which school you gained your BA from but rather people employ solely on your skill & flare instead. This lecture meant a lot to me because of this message as I have very little confidence in myself as an artist.

Ben Johnson 2010 working on details of " Canaletto's The Stone Mason's Yard".

 To most, Johnson's paintings would be seen as photographs from a distance, however this effect was caused by his incredible attention to detail. Each section would carefully be measured out& painted with flat colour to create the illusion of realism in landscape pieces such as these. His "sketching" method in fact became so precise that he also began to create stencils for many sections of his painting to ensure a crisp finish. These images were also on incredibly large on scale meaning it would take years for him to complete. Many of use would question why would one use a technique that would increase the amount of time it took to complete, especially for those who work for comission & work to a deadline, However, Johnson does not do the artwork for the high salary but rather for the enjoyment of the process. He loves the craft & not the wage which is a trait I really admire. I also take a long time to produce my vector pieces. The shading could be done in half of the time in Photoshop. But like Johnson (on the other hand, I am not as talented) I prefer to create my pieces shape by shape & building it up to create my illustrations. I would love to be able to pull that work off but unfortunately, when working with illustration, deadlines are more important so therefore I wouldn't earn enough money to live if I took longer. Johnson's attitude to his craft really inspires me to achieve his reputation to the point where I could pull off creating pieces like this though.